Herbs are already used to treat diseases in many cultures. In Nigeria, as in other African countries and most parts of Asia, medicinal herbs are widely used to treat and prevent various ailments – including malaria.

A large number of medicinal plants are used for treating malaria in Nigeria. This is common in the southern region of the country, where rainforests and a humid tropical climate create ideal conditions for malaria transmission all year round.

One of the many groups of herbal remedies used in Nigeria is the antimalarial decoction popularly called Agbo iba. Simply put, Agbo-iba means medicine against fever. The composition, method of preparation and dosage of these antimalarial decoctions vary from herbalist to herbalist.

These decoctions are often polyherbal (containing more than one herb) and prepared in water and sometimes alcohol, which serves as a preservative.

As noted for traditional medicines used in other countries, it is not known which Agbo-iba formula or preparation is the most effective in Nigeria.

But in a study to examined whether a variety of plants commonly used for treating malaria in Benin City were able to counter the effects of a malaria-causing parasite in mice, researchers at the University of Lagos found that all the herbal mixtures, individually and in combination, showed significant ability to kill malaria germs. It was in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

The antimalarial polyherbal mixture consists of the stem barks of Mangifera indica (mango), Azadirachta indica (neem), and Nauclea latifolia (African peach), as well as roots of Morinda lucida (brimstone). These plants have been reported to be used for the treatment of different diseases, including malaria.

The medicinal plants were air dried at room temperature and ground to coarse powder. The decoction of each component was prepared by boiling 100 grammes of pulverized material in a litre of distilled water for a day.

For African peach, 50 grammes each of both stem barks and roots were used. The antimalarial polyherbal mixture was made by boiling in four litres of water equal amounts of these three herbs and was given to mice infected with the Plasmodium berghei parasite.

The animals were grouped and dosed to examine for three possible responses: preventing, suppressing and curing effects of the polyherbal mixture. It was compared with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine and pyronaridine-artesunate, the standard antimalarial drugs. Both prevention and suppression involve destroying the malaria parasite. Cure means the herbal mixtures eliminate the parasites.

The study reported that all the mixture preparations gave promising antimalarial results in the three investigations.

In the prophylactic (prevention) test, the herbal decoctions demonstrated significant ability to suppress the malaria germs. In the animals, all the herbal decoctions showed chemo suppressive activities. They significantly reduced the parasite load 24 hours after administration to the end of the treatment – four to seven days.

However, the suppressive activity of African peach was the highest. Neem’s ability to suppress the malaria germs was comparable to those of the standard antimalarial drugs.

All the herbal decoctions were also active in the curative test. They considerably reduced the parasite load from day two of treatment.

At the end of treatment, none of the decoctions had completely cleared the parasites, but they all produced substantial clearance. This shows their potential usefulness against established malaria infection.

At the termination of the treatment, dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine gave a total clearance (100%) of the malaria germ. Pyronaridine-artesunate, neem, mango, brimstone, antimalarial polyherbal mixture and African peach gave 99.5%, 93.6%, 93.3 %, 91,9%, 85.1 %, 82.5%, and 72 % malaria germ clearance, respectively.

Significant reduction in the amount of malaria parasite in the blood was observed from day two of treatment and daily for the five days of treatment for each of the decoctions.

According to the researchers, the suppressive and curative activities demonstrated might be through indirect boosting of the immune system, as evidenced by the daily decrease in level of malaria parasite in animals that were given the decoction.

In addition, their prophylactic activity they reason to be due to inhibition of proliferation of malaria parasites and modulation of membranes of the red blood cell to prevent parasite invasion.

They declared that the decoction of either the individual plants or the combination could be useful in suppressing malaria in its early stages and therefore all the decoctions could be considered as active antimalarial candidates to help with eradication of malaria parasites.

“Antimalarial polyherbal mixture produced greater activities than its individual constituent plants in both suppressive and prophylactic models, suggesting that the combination produced synergistic or additive effects. This could serve as a scientific basis for the traditional usage of these plants as combined therapy for malaria.

“This study provides evidence supporting the notion that the use of standardized herbal medicines could be a valid complementary approach for malaria control, provided that the safety and efficacy of such formulations are clinically validated,” it said. (Nigerian Tribune)

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