Abstract
The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from fresh leaves of Cymbopogon citratus and Ocimum gratissimum growing in Cameroon were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The main constituents of the oil of Ocimum gratissimum were γ-terpinene (21.9 %), β-phellandrene (21.1 %), limonene (11.4 %) and thymol (11.2 %), while the oil of Cymbopogon citratus contained geranial (32.8 %), neral (29.0 %), myrcene (16.2 %) and β-pinene (10.5 %). The effects of these oils on the growth of Plasmodium berghei were investigated. Both oils showed significant antimalarial activities in the four-day suppressive in vivo test in mice. At concentrations of 200, 300 and 500 mg/kg of mouse per day, the essential oil of C. citratus produced the highest activity with the respective percentages of suppression of parasitaemia: 62.1 %, 81.7 % and 86.6 %. The corresponding values for the oil of O. gratissimum at the same concentrations were 55.0 %, 75.2 % and 77.8 %, respectively. Chloroquine (10 mg/kg of mouse, positive control) had a suppressive activity of 100 %.
Key words
Cymbopogon citratus
- Gramineae -
Ocimum gratissimum
- Lamiaceae - essential oils - β-phellandrene - geranial - malaria -
Plasmodium berghei
- parasitaemia - antimalarial activity
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Dr. Yalemtsehay Mekonnen
Department of Biology
Faculty of Science
Addis Ababa University
P.O. Box 1176
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
eMail: yalemt@bio.aau.edu.et
eMail: yalemtsehay@yahoo.com