Anti-Trypanosomal Activity Of Acetone Crude Kolaviron (Garcinia Kola Fruit Extract) In Trapanosoma Brucei Brucei Infected Wistar Rats

Abstract

trypanosomiasis is one of the major obstacles to livestock production in africa and chemotheraphy with available drugs is less efficient. preliminary phytochemical screening was carried out, followed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (gc-ms) analysis, which revealed 9,12-octadecanoic acid (z, z)- to be the most abundant compound. a total of twenty eight (28) rats were used for the study., ld50 was determined using lorke’s method. fifteen (15) rats were divided into five (5) groups of three (3) rats. groups 1-4 were inoculated with 1x103 t. b. brucei, and group 5 was a negative control. group 1 was treated with 100mg/kg, group 2 with 500 mg/kg, group 3 with 0.2ml of acetone solvent only, group 4 was a positive control. there was a 100% mortality rate in groups 3 and 4 due to parasitemia (p<0.05).groups 1, 2 and 5 all reached the time the experiment was terminated. parasitemia in groups treated with
100mg/kg and 500mg/kg showed continuous decreased parasite level (p< 0.05) and extended the life span of wistar rats from 11 days in the positive control group to 55 days in the treated groups. blood parameters of treated groups showed a significant increase (p<0.05) compared to positive control group (p>0.05). organ histopathology showed no damages but regeneration, where damages occur in groups 1 and 2, whereas group 4 showed degeneration of organ’s tissues. it was concluded that acetone extract of G. kola extract was trypanostatic. the anti-trypanosomal activity might be attributed to the chemical detected by gcms.