Luvunga scandens (Roxb) as the promising source of antimalarial drugs against Plasmodium falciparum 3D7.

Luvunga scandens is traditionally used for malaria, antibacterial, antifungal, antidote to snake bites, and against scorpion stings. Based on the ethnomedicine approach, we focus to explored the antimalarial effect of L. scandens. The stem and leaves of L. scandens were gradually extracted with n-hexane, dichloromethane, and methanol. All samples were examined antimalarial against Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 and cytotoxicities against HepG2 cell lines. The active extract was fractionated by Vacuum Liquid Chromatography (VLC) and the fractions obtained were further tested for antimalarial and cytotoxicity. The most potent extracts against P. falciparum were the dichloromethane extracts of L. scandens leaves (LS-L-D) and stem (LS-S-D), with IC50 values of (6.61±0.04 µg/mL) and (5.38±0.01 µg/mL), respectively. Both extracts were found to be safe and effective because their selectivity indices (SI) values were greater than 2. Based on the antimalarial activity, toxicity, and percentage of yield, we fractionated LS-L-D using VLC, and obtained 26 fractions (F1-F26). Fraction 23 (F23) was identified as the most active fraction with an IC50 value of 2.44±0.09 µg/mL and CC50 value of 46.35±0.03. The HPLC profile of F23 shows several peaks. The major peak has a UV spectrum with maximum absorption at wavelengths of 247, 257, and 322 nm, respectively, indicating the characteristics of the flavonoid compound group, especially isoflavones. This data suggested that isoflavones possibly take a role in the antimalarial activity of fraction 23. Further study needs to be conducted to isolate and identify the active compounds from this fraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]