Malaria is one of the most prevalent vector borne infectious disease and a serious global health problem in the world. Treatment for malaria is commonly inadequate due to the lack of quality assured limited number of effective drugs, underline how important it is to discover new antimalarial plants from number of natural sources. In the present study, the efficacy of antimalarial activity was studied by taking six various (n-hexane, chloroform, petroleum ether, ethanol, methanol and aqueous) organic leaf extracts of Artemisia nilagirica (Clarke) Pamp. against malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Promising antiplasmodial activity was found in all tested extracts; however, maximum 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were noticed after 32 h of incubation, which is 5.76 ± 0.82, 7.09 ± 1.09, 9.88 ± 1.13, 10.24 ± 1.52, 11.37 ± 1.77 and 50.15 ± 6.16 µg/ml in methanol, chloroform, n-hexane, petroleum ether, ethanol and aqueous extracts, respectively. In conclusion, A. nilagirica leaf extract possesses antiplasmodial activity which may be used as a potent plant-based antimalarial drug in the future by investigating the hidden phytochemical/(s).
Keywords: Antimalarial activity; Artemisia nilagirica; Inhibitory concentration (IC50); Plasmodium falciparum.