Abstract

Malaria stands as a pervasive infectious disease, posing a  substantial global public health challenge with 3.3 billion individuals residing in endemic regions across 100 countries. This study investigated and compared the anti-malarial and antioxidant properties of ethanol and aqueous extracts with those of nano-particles derived from Spermacoce verticillata, a plant, commonly employed in our local community for treating bacterial skin infections and fever. The phytochemical analysis, conducted using established methods, involved both quantitative and qualitative assessments. Antimalarial potency was evaluated through an in-vitro assay measuring β-hematin formation inhibition, while antioxidant activity was gauged using the DPPH radical scavenging model. The results highlighted the presence of key phytochemicals such as saponins, tannins, alkaloids, phenols, and flavonoids in both ethanol and aqueous extracts in substantial amounts. Notably, the antimalarial assay demonstrated that silver nanoparticles exhibited the highest percentage inhibition at 77.96 ± 6.52, a statistically significant difference from ethanol (47.20 ± 3.01) and aqueous (48.64 ± 2.48) extracts, as well as the standard drug chloroquine (63.88 ± 4.56) at (p < 0.05). While all extracts demonstrated antioxidant activity, the nanoparticles with IC50 16.5 μg/mL; surpassed those of the Aqueous (51.0 μg/mL), Ethanol (36.0 μg/mL) extracts and were comparable to that of the standard vitamin C (19.5 μg/mL) (P < 0.05) using one-way ANOVA. This study underscores the potential of nanotechnology in enhancing the therapeutic properties of herbal remedies against malaria, opening avenues for further exploration and application in global health initiatives.

Keywords: Antimalarial, Antioxidant, Hermatin, Nanoparticle, Plasmodium, Spermacoce verticillata