Isolation and characterization of betulinic acid from the stem bark of Feretia canthioides Hiern and its antimalarial potential

Abstract

In vitro antimalarial tests carried out on the plant extracts and isolated compound in this research revealed that the methanol extract displayed promising antimalarial activities with an inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 7.76 μg/ml, the n-hexane extract showed low activity with an IC50 value of 63.10 μg/ml, while the ethyl acetate and dichloromethane extracts were found to be inactive with IC50 values above 100 μg/ml. The isolated compound (betulinic acid) showed good antimalarial activity with an IC50 value of 12.60 μg/ml when compared with chloroquine phosphate which served as the positive control.