In Vivo Antimalarial Effects of Iranian Flora Artemisia khorassanica against Plasmodium berghei and Pharmacochemistry of its Natural Components

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimalarial effects of iranian flora artemisiakhorassanica against plasmodium berghei in vivo and pharmacochemistry of its natural components.methods: the aerial parts of iranian flora a. khorasanica were collected at flowering stage fromkhorassan province, northeastern iran in 2008. they were air-dried at room temperature; powder wasmacerated in methanol and the extract defatted in refrigerator, filtered, diluted with water, then elutedwith n-hexane and finally non-polar components were identified through gas chromatography andmass spectroscopy (gc-ms). toxicity of herbal extracts was assessed on naïve nmri mice, and itsanti-malarial efficacy was investigated on infected plasmodium berghei animals. this is the first applicationon a. khorssanica extract for treatment of murine malaria. the significance of differenceswas determined by analysis of variances (anova) and student’s t-test using graph pad prismsoftware.results: the herbal extract was successfully tested in vivo for its anti-plasmodial activity through artemisincomposition, which is widely used as a standard malaria treatment.conclusion: although, this study confirmed less anti-malarial effects of a. khorssanica against murinemalaria in vivo, however there are some evidences on reducing pathophysiology by this medication.in complementary assay, major components were detected by gc-ms analysis in herbal extractincluding chrysanthenone (7.8%), palmitic acid (7.4%) and cis-thujone (5.8%). the most retentionindices of the component are given as n-eicosane, palmitic acid and n-octadecane.