Trypanocidal Activity of Comparative Extractions of Embilical Officinalis (Syn: Phyllantus Fruits With Solvent of Different Polarities

Previously, preliminary studies of trypanocidal activity of Embilica officinalis fruits were reported. In continuation of the search for trypanocidal compounds, E. officinalis fruits were comparatively extracted with solvents of different polarities (hexane, chloroform, methanol and aqueous) and screened against Trypanosoma evansi. A high parasitemic blood of a mouse was diluted with Alsever solution to obtain a final parasite concentration of 1x106 parasites/ml. The medium consist of Alsever solution and inactivated bovine serum at 58 for 1 h. The suspension (100 ml of medium with parasites) was added at rate of 1: 1 to test extracts and the plates were incubated at 37?C under 5% CO2. Infectivity assessment of incubated aqueous and hexane extracts of E. officinalis fruits and medium with trypanosomes was done in mice. The order of trypanocidal activity was aqueous, methanol, chloroform and hexane extracts. Extracts of E. officinalis exhibited trypanocidal activity, which ranged from immobilization to the killing of trypanosomes At 250 µg/ml, trypanosomes were not detected in aqueous and methanol extracts at 4 h and 5 h of incubation. At 500 µg/ml, no trypanosome was detected in chloroform and hexane extracts. Trypanosomes counts decreased in concentration and time –dependent manner with significant difference (P < 0.05). In infectivity assessment, group of mice inoculated with contents of wells with apparently killed trypanosomes (aqueous extract) survived for more than 60 days. There was marked trypanocidal activity.