Antagonistic effects of some commonly used herbs on the efficacy of Artemisinin derivatives in the treatment of malaria in experimental mice

Background The use of herbs in combination with drugs in treatment of malaria is increasing, and this necessitated research on the possible antagonistic, additive, potentiation or synergistic properties of commonly used plants with standard drugs in treatment of malaria. In this study, extracts of Morindamorindiodes (Mm) root, Morindalucida (ML) leaf and Vernonia amygdalina (Va) leaf were combined with artesunate (Ar) and assessed for anti-malarial activities against established Plasmodium berghei NK65 infection in 45 experimental mice randomly distributed into 9 groups and treated at a graded dose of 100 mg/kg for the herbs and herbs–drugs combination, while chloroquine and artesunate was administered at 10 mg/kg Results At the end the sixth day, Mm root extract, ML and Va leaf extract reduced parasitaemia by 86.83%, 84.20% and 48.10%, respectively ( p