ABSTRACT
Malaria is responsible for about a million deaths yearly. The fight against malaria is faced with the occurrence of widespread resistance of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium spp. The search for plant derived anti-malaria drugs has become greatly imperative. The study was aimed at the anti-malaria study, proximate analysis and total phenolic content of morinda citrofolia. The proximate composition were determine using already established method. In this study the total phenolic content in morinda citrofolia (Noni) leaves mdarethanolic extract was determined using Folic-ciocalteu (F-C) method, with garlic acid serving as the standard. The Anti – malaria potential of Moni plant extract was evaluated by assessing parasitaemia, which represent the percentage of malaria parasites in the blood. Morinda citrofolia leaves, commonly known as noni leaves are used in traditional medicine for a variety of health conditions. However, there is limited scientific evidence to support these claims. The proximate analysis of Morinda Citrifolia leaves shows Crude Protein as 2.18±0.65, Ash Content 0.63±0.15, Carbohydrate 40.04±0.67, Moisture Content 45.9±0.035, Crude Fibre 4.60±1.82 and Crude Fat 3.65±0.9. The TPC of the noni leaves extract was then calculated using the regression equation of the calibration curve (Absorbance = 0.0216x – 0.6186). The TPC was expressed as milligrams of gallic acid equivalents (GAE) per gram of the sample in dry weight (mg/g). The calculated TPC value for the noni leaves methanolic extract was 29.13±0.23mgGAE/g. Malaria is one of the most is one of the most important tropical diseases and the greatest cause of morbidity and mortality especially in developing countries. Plants are important source of biologically active compounds and have potential for the development of novel antimalarial drugs, since a number of alkaloid have been successfully used for the treatment of malaria since ancient times . In this study the n-hexane/methy acetate /methanol extract VLC fraction of the leave extract of Morinda citrofolia were evaluated for ％ chemosuppression against plasmoduim berghei in infected mice. The leaves extract of Morinda citrofolia show stronger anti plasmodial activity with increase in dosage thus;200mg/kg ;36.19％,28.31％,21.8％,13.68％ 400mg/kg;39.73％,30.62％,25.77％ ,19.19％ 800mg/kg ;45.51％,35.75％,28.39％,21.06％ compared to the standard drug; 95.22 ％,91.73％,88.97％,86.22％.
