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Medicinal plants play a key role in malaria control in Africa, especially in remote areas where health facilities are limited. This study was carried out with the aim to investigate the anti plasmodial activity of Albizia chevalieri against Plasmodium falciparum. The three aerial parts of Albizia chevalieri were extracted using methanol via maceration process. Anti plasmodial assay was carried out in duplicate in the 96-well microtitre plate. The anti Plasmodial activity of A. chevalieri methanolic extracts observed in this study may be attributed to the presence of some bioactive compounds. The effect of A. chevalieri methanolic extracts and reference drugs showed a decrease in percentage parasitaemia with increasing concentration. With regard to concentrations administered, a dose-dependent antimalarial activity was clearly shown for crude extract, isolates and the reference drugs. Artemether, the root isolate and leaf isolate exhibited a remarkable antiplasmodial activity. Root, leaf extracts and the pure isolates when compared with the standard drug that has the highest percentage inhibition shows no significance difference at (P>0.05). However, when compared with the other drugs such as Chloroquine, Quinine shows a significance percentage inhibition difference at (P>0.05). Considering the inhibitory effect of A. chevalierimethanol extracts on the growth of P. falciparum as reported in this study, it is concluded that the anti plasmodial activity of the plant on P. falciparum suggests its potency in the treatment of malaria infection. Further study on this plant is on-going to isolate, identify and characterize the bioactive compounds from this plant responsible for this bioactivity, and also to carry- out the drug synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Natural products play a key role in drug discovery programs, both serving as drugs and as templates for the synthesis of drugs, even though the quantities and availabilities of samples for screening are often limitted. Experimental approach: A current collection of physical samples of > 500 compound derived from African medicinal plants aimed at screening for drug discovery has been made by donations from several researchers from across the continent to be directly available for drug discovery programs. A virtual library of 3D structures of compounds has been generated and Lipinski’s “Rule of Five” has been used to evaluate likely oral availability of the samples. Results: A majority of the compound samples are made of flavonoids and about two thirds (2/3) are compliant to the “Rule of Five”. The pharmacological profiles of thirty six (36) selected compounds in the collection have been discussed. Conclusions and implications: The p-ANAPL library is the largest physical collection of natural products derived from African medicinal plants directly available for screening purposes. The virtual library is also available and could be employed in virtual screening campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]