Phytochemical, anti-inflammatory and anti-trypanosomal properties of Anthocleista vogelii Planch (Loganiaceae) stem bark.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Anthocleista vogelii Planch (Loganiaceae) is used in African Traditional Medicine for the treatment of pain and inflammatory disorders as well as sleeping sickness.

AIM OF THE STUDY: To determine the in vivo anti-inflammatory and in vitro anti-trypanosomal activities of the extracts of A. vogelii stem bark and identify the phytochemical classes of the fractions responsible for the activities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The in vivo anti-inflammatory activity of the extracts was evaluated using the egg albumin-induced rat paw oedema model while the in vitro anti-trypanosomal activity was assessed on Trypanosoma brucei brucei. The in vitro cytotoxicity was assessed on HeLa (human cervix adenocarcinoma) cell line.

RESULTS: The methanolic extract of A. vogelii stem bark, with 11.2% yield, gave LD50  > 5000 mg/kg. The n-hexane fraction of the extract contains steroids, terpenes and fatty acids and yielded non-cytotoxic terpenoidal column fraction with anti-trypanosomal IC50 of 3.0 μg/mL. The ethylacetate fraction at 100 mg/kg dose significantly (p < 0.05) provoked 37.8, 62.5 and 69.7% inhibition of oedema induced by egg-albumin at the second, fourth and sixth hours respectively.

CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated that the anti-inflammatory and anti-trypanosomal activities of A. vogelii are probably due to non-cytotoxic terpenoids and validated the traditional use of A. vogelii in the treatment of inflammation and sleeping sickness.