IN- VIVO EVALUATION FOR ANTHELMINTIC EFFECT OF ALKALOIDS EXTRACTED FROM THE STEM BARK OF AFZELIA AFRICANA IN RATS

Abstract

The anthelmintic activity of alkaloid extracted from the stem bark of Afzelia africana was evaluated in-vivo in rats experimentally infected with Nippostrongylus braziliensis. The alkaloids was obtained after partitioning the crude methanolic extract of the plant powdered material in petroleum ether, chloroform and N-butanol as solvent and subsequently subjecting them to phytochemical screening to identify the portions with the highest concentration of alkaloids which was then used in the study. The phytochemical screening shows that the amount of alkaloids was higher in chloroform and N-butanol portions. The anthelmintic activity was assessed by comparing the number of worms recovered from rats treated with the fractions to those from non-treated infected controls. This study considered deparasitization rate of 70% or greater as significant. The chloroform and N-butanol portions produced mean total worm count of 2.5 and 3.5 with a significant (p less than 0.05) deparasitization rates of 79.20% and 72.72% respectively when the maximum tolerated dose of 1000 mg/kg was administered. The deparasitization produced by the chloroform and N-butanol portions were significant (p less than 0.05) when compared to that produced by the placebo-treated negative control treated rats, while the deparasitization produced by the albendazole treated rats as a positive control was highly-significant (p less than 0.001). Thus this result needs further investigations to validate their efficacy in natural or experimental infection in ruminant.