Abstract

Stigmaphyllonovatum, family- Malpighiaceae is a medicinal plant used in the traditional treatment of fever and malaria in rural areas in Benin City, Edo State. The research was conducted to determine the phytochemical screening and antimalarial activity of methanol extract of the plant leaf using Balb/c mice infected with Plasmodium falciparum. The plant leaves were collected, dried, pulverised and extracted with methanol solvent in a soxhlet extractor for eight hours. The extract was concentrated with rotary evaporator and a portion was used for phytochemical screening. The acute toxicity test was determined to estimate the lethal dose (LD50) value of the extract inbalb/c albino mice while malaria chemo suppressive activities were conducted along with quinine to determine the antimalarial potency of the plant extract in Plasmodium –infected balb/c albino mice. Alkaloids, glycosides, phenolics, flavonoids and terpenoids were present while tannin was absent. The antimalarial activities revealed that the methanol extract exhibit significant suppression (P<0.05) of Plasmodium falciparum which was evident by the 32.44% mean chemo suppression of malaria parasite at day 4 of treatment of P. falciparum –infected mice with 84 mg/kg/day. This work supports the local use of the plant for the treatment of malaria.