Diarrhea is a major health problem throughout the world and it has become more problematic in developing countries like Ethiopia. People, in several parts of the world, use different traditional medicines for treating diarrhea and it has been reported that the roots, leaves, and flowers of various species are used for the same purpose. In Ethiopia, for instance, Discopodium Penninervum is used for the treatment of diarrhea and also to control infection. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to evaluate the in vivo antidiarrheal and in vitro antimicrobial effect of Discopodium Penninervum in mice. For the antimicrobial activity test, four standard bacteria and disc diffusion method were used, while for antidiarrheal experiment, animals had been used, which were divided into 5 groups. The first group served as negative control and was administered with vehicle (0.2-0.3ml of distilled water). Groups two (D100), three (D200), and four (D400) were administered 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg of the extract, respectively. Group five served as positive control group and was administered with either loperamide (3mg/kg) for castor oil induced diarrhea and castor oil induced enteropooling diarrhea models or atropine (1mg/kg) for charcoal meal test. Safety study was performed using a standard acute toxicity study procedure. The effect of the extract on castor oil induced diarrheal drops, onset of diarrhea, weight of faeces, small intestinal fluid accumulation, and intestinal motility was measured and analyzed using one-way ANOVA. Preliminary phytochemical screening of the leaves powder of the plant indicated the presence of various components. Inhibition of castor oil induced diarrhea was observed at all tested doses. It can be concluded that crude extracts of Discopodium Penninervum showed strong activities against diarrhea indicating that it contains some chemical constituents that possibly lead to antidiarrheal drug development.

Malaria is one of the most serious widespread diseases encountered by human and it is the second leading cause of death from infectious diseases next to HIV/AIDS in Africa. People, in several parts of the world, use different traditional medicines for treating malaria and it has been reported that the roots, leaves, and flowers of various species of Buddleja are used for the same purpose. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to evaluate in vivo and phytochemical screening of secondary metabolites, safety and antimalarial activity of the crude extractof Buddleja polystachy in mice. The animals were divided into 5 groups. The first group served as negative control and was administered with vehicle (0.2ml of distilled water). Group two (B100), three (B200) and four (B300) were administered 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg Buddleja polystachy extract, respectively. Group five served as positive control group and was administered with chloroquine (10mg/kg/day). Antimalarial activity was evaluated using 4-day suppressive assays against P. Berghei by orally administering the mice with either vehicle, various doses of the Buddleja polystachya extract or chloroquine, while safety study was performed using acute toxicity studies by administering 2000mg/kg of the Buddleja polystachya extract to non-infected mice.The effect of crude extract was was measured and analyzed using One-way ANOVA and paired t-test. The result showed that the extracts did not caused symptoms of toxicity at the given doses. Preliminary phytochemical screening of the leaves powder of the plant indicated the presence of major antimalarial secondary metabolites. The extract of Buddleja polystachya leaves exerted dose dependent parasitemia suppression, although the active responsible principles are yet to be identified, which need further studies to elucidate the antimalarial mechanism of their action. It can be concluded that crude extracts of Buddleja polystachya showed strong activities against P. berghei indicating that it contains some chemical constituents that possibly lead to antimalarial drug development

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