ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A study on the biochemical indices of albino mice infected with Plasmodium berghei and treated with Alstonia boonei aqueous and ethanolic extracts was undertaken. METHODS: 216 males mice were randomly assigned to six treatment groups each containing six mice for both aqueous and ethanolic extracts experiments. P. berghei NK-65 was inoculated into the mice intraperitoneally and establishment of infection confirmed. Administration of extracts of was done after phytochemical and acute toxicity tests at varying concentrations, for both suppressive and curative tests. Blood samples collected by ocular puncturing were examined for the biochemical indices; ALT, AST, ALP, creatinine and total protein using the standard procedures. RESULTS: A. boonei extracts suppression of P. berghei in mice was comparable to the standard drug. Significantly higher (p<0.05) recovery of mice treated with A. boonei extracts was observed. The biochemical indices examined all had significantly (p<0.05) increased concentration after 7 days post-infection, except for total protein concentration which had no significant increase or decrease due to A. boonei extracts administration. CONCLUSION: The antiplasmodial potentials of A. boonei leaf and root extracts were dosage and duration-dependent, and have demonstrated satisfactory normalization of altered biochemical indices due to malaria.
