Ethyl acetate Fraction of Garcinia Mangostana L Rind Study as Antimalaria and Antioxidant in Plasmodium berghei Inoculated Mice

Background: Drug resistance to malaria is still a problem in various regions, and there have even been developments in resistance to the ACTs (artemisinin-based combination therapies) as standard antimalarial drugs included to artemisinin's partner drugs. Ethyl acetate fraction of G. mangostana L rind, containing xanthones as an antioxidant, has antimalarial activity in vitro which has a synergistic effect with artemisinin. That's why the activities of this fraction are needed to be studied in vivo.

Aim: To explore the antimalarial and antioxidant activity of ethyl acetate fraction of Garcinia mangostana L rind in mice.

Methods: This was a complete randomised design true experimental study. Six groups of mice: a healthy mice group and 5 groups of Plasmodium berghei inoculated mice treated with various doses of the sample for 3 days compared to artemisinin. Parasitemia and total antioxidant status were examined and analysed using ANOVA, and probit analysis were done.

Results: The parasitemia level in all of the treatment groups were lower than the positive control group without treatment (p < 0.01) and the parasitemia level was the lowest in artemisinin group which was not significantly different from the 100 mg/kg body weight dose group (p > 0.05). The parasitemia level in 20 and 4 mg/kg body weight dose groups were higher than the artemisinin group (p < 0.01). Parasite growth inhibition rate from the highest to the lowest consecutively was: artemisinin, 100 mg/kg body weight, 20 mg/kg body weight, 4 mg/kg body weight, and positive control group (p < 0.05) and ED50 was 3.396 mg/kg body weight. Total antioxidant status was the highest in 20 mg/ kg body weight dose and higher than the negative control group (p < 0.05) while the lowest total antioxidant status was in the positive control group.

Conclusion: Ethyl acetate fraction of G. mangostana L rind potentially showed antimalarial and antioxidant activity in vivo. Further study is needed to explore the detail of its mechanism of action and its quantitative phytochemical analysis to find the leading compound in it.