SCREENING OF 25 EUPHORBIACEAE FOR THEIR IN VITRO ANTIPLASMODIAL PROPERTIES

Twenty five plant species belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family were obtained from growing plants from Tropical Plant Factory project - ULiege/InBioS, from Meise Botanic Garden collections, from “Observatoire du Monde des Plantes” - ULiege and from our pharmacognosy lab collection.
A total of 40 samples were collected and dichloromethane as well as methanol crude extracts were prepared from each of them. Their antiplasmodial activity against Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 chloroquine-sensitive strain was assessed in vitro using the p-LDH colorimetric method. The activities were classified into three levels according to the IC50 (promising : < 10µg/ml ; moderate: 10-50µg/ml ; weakly or not active : > 50µg/ml).
Seventeen species were found to be active against P. falciparum, including 5 species with promising activity (E. ingens, E. helioscopia, E. millii, E. stenoclada, E. paganorum), and 12 species with moderate activity, with both of the extracts active for 4 of them (E. griffithii, E. grandicornis, E. tirucalli, E. geroldii).
Except for E. tirucalli, this study is the first report of the antiplasmodial activity for these Euphorbiaceae. Some of the active species are currently under studies in our laboratory to isolate the compounds responsible for their promising antiplasmodial activity.