ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants have been reported to contain wide variety of secondary metabolites or bioactive compounds (flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, phenolics terpenoids, etc.). These compounds dictate the potency of these plants. Caesalpina pulcherrima commonly known as Bride of Barbados belongs to the family Fabaceae (pea family), is used traditionally as an abortifacient and in the treatment of various ailments including, ulcer, hepatitis, diarrhoea, dysentery, malaria injuries and infections. Different parts of C. pulcherrima have been reported to exhibit medicinal properties such as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, and antimalarial activities. This present study aimed to investigate the sub-acute toxicity, in-vivo antimalarial and in-vitro antimicrobial activities of Pulcherrimin A, a compound isolated from C. pulcherrima stem bark. The results obtained from the investigation revealed no significant change on the body and organ weight variations across all groups for the 28-day sub-acute toxicity done on both female and male Wister rats. Haematological indices revealed significant difference in White blood cell at 2 mg/kg for female. Red blood cells and haemoglobin for both sexes appeared normal relative to control. The changes observed for platelets in all treated groups for both sexes were insignificant in comparison to control. The liver enzymes for the female appeared normal in all treated groups, however, the glutamyltranspeptidase in male significantly increased at 2 mg/kg. Lipid profile test for triglyceride and very low density lipoproteins (bad cholesterol) significantly decrease for the female at 4 mg/kg, which was reflected as fatty changes in the histological data obtained for the liver. The histological study of all organs (liver, kidney, lungs and heart) for both sexes revealed no toxicological damage across all groups. The highest chemosuppresive antimalarial activity was observed at 200 mg/kg. Highest zone of inhibition was observed at highest dose (100 mg/kg) for all tested microorganisms (B. subtilis, S. aureus, K. pneumonia, A. aeruginosa, C. albican T. rubrum). The overall results of this study revealed Pulchrrimin A could be recommended for use in formulations at moderate dose and could be a potential candidate in view of developing antimalarial and antimicrobial agents.
