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Investigation of Indian Euphorbia Latexes for Antiplasmodial Properties

Kantamreddi VSS and Raju GK

This article reports the antiplasmodial activities of n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of latexes belonging to three Indian Euphorbia species, namely Euphorbia antiquorum, E. nerifolia and E. tirucalli against chloroquine-resistant (K1) strain of Plasmodium falciparum. Chloroquine diphosphate was used as positive control. Out of screened extracts, only the n-hexane extract of E. tirucalli was found to have significant activity with IC50=8 ± 2.7 μg/mL. These results support the traditional usage of E. tirucalli in the treatment of severe fevers (or) malaria and therefore, is worthy of further investigation.