Abstract

The research was conducted to determine the antimalarial activity of methanol extract of Euphorbia hirta in Plasmodium-infected mice. The plant is the first line herbal recipe for the treatment and management of malaria and fever among herbal practitioners in Ovia North East local government area of Edo State, Nigeria. Euphorbia hirta (Cat’s hair) L, Family-Euphorbiaceae, whole plant were collected, dried, pulverised and extracted with methanol solvent in a soxhlet extractor. The extract was concentrated with rotary evaporator and dried over Na2SO4. A portion of the extract was used for phytochemical screening according to standard methods. The antimalarial activity analysis of the methanol extract of E. hirta was conducted along with quinine to determine the antimalarial potency of the plant extract in Plasmodium –infected balb/c albino mice. The results of the phytochemical screening indicated the presence of phenolics, flavonoids, alkaloids, glycosides and terpenoids while steroid was absent. The antimalarial activities revealed that the methanol extract of E. hirta exhibit significant suppression