Hepatoprotective activity of Eucalyptus camaldulensis extract in murine malaria mediated by suppression of oxidative and inflammatory processes

Abstract

Herbal extracts are promising agents against various parasitic diseases, such as malaria. This study aimed to evaluate the ameliorative action of Eucalyptus camaldulensis extract (ECE) against hepatic damage caused by Plasmodium chabaudi infection. Mice were allocated into five groups as follows: two groups served as the control non-infected groups that received distilled water and ECE, respectively; subsequent three groups were infected with 106 P. chabaudi parasitized erythrocytes; the last two groups were infected with the parasite and then treated with ECE and chloroquine. On day 8 post-infection, the parasite count increased inside erythrocytes (59.4% parasitemia in the infected group). Parasitemia was successfully reduced to 9.4% upon ECE treatment. Phytochemical screening using GC mass spectrometry revealed that ECE contained 23 phytochemical components. Total phenolics and flavonoids in ECE were 104 ± 2 and 7.1± 3 µg/mL, respectively, with 57.2% antioxidant activity. ECE ameliorated changes in liver histopathology and enzymatic activity of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase. In addition, ECE prevented oxidative damage induced by the parasite in the liver, as evidenced by the change in the liver concentrations of glutathione, nitric oxide, malondialdehyde, and catalase. Moreover, ECE was able to regulate the expression of liver cytokines, interleukins-1β and 6, as well as IFN-γ mRNA. ECE possesses antiplasmodial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activity against liver injury induced by the parasite P. chabaudi.

The effect of Eucalyptus camaldulensis leaf extracts from different environmental harvesting locations on Plasmodium chabaudi-induced malaria outcome

“…This is due to the higher phenolic and flavonoid content (Table 3) as well as the higher antioxidant activity of ECEM (Figure 2). Several reports owed the reduced parasitemia to treatment with medicinal plants (Wunderlich et al, 2014;Dkhil et al, 2021;Aljawdah et al, 2022). Anigboro et al (2020) also indicated that E. camaldulensis aqueous leaf extracts could protect against P. berghei by significantly reducing malarial-induced organ dysfunction due to the presence of active ingredients in the extract.…”

“…ECEM and ECES improved the weight loss in mice due to infection with P. chabaudi (Figure 3). The decreased weight occurred due to increased parasitemia where animals' loss appetite and suffer from anemia (Dkhil et al, 2021;Aljawdah et al, 2022).…”

“…According to our previous experiments to determine the suitable dose (see Table 1) and to our recently published study (Aljawdah et al, 2022), we divided mice into the following groups: Group1 (control non-infected group without treatment), Group 2 (non-infected treated group with 100 mg/kg ECEM), Group 3 (non-infected treated group with 100 mg/kg ECES), Group 4 (infected group without treatment), Group 5 (infectedtreated group with 100 mg/kg ECEM),Group 6 (infected treated group with 100 mg/kg ECES), and Group 7 (infected treated group with Chloroquine). The last group was administered 10 mg/kg chloroquine phosphate (CQ) (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, USA) daily for 4 days (Abay et al, 2015).…”

“…The majority of the available drugs are of naturally derived (Newman & Cragg 2016). Since ancient times, medicinal plants have been used to treat malaria, and they are promising sources for identifying candidates for novel anti-malarial agents (Dkhil et al, 2021;Aljawdah et al, 2022). According to the World Health Organization, malaria is still a dangerous disease that affects 229 million people each year and causes a high rate of mortality (World Health Organization, 2020).…”

“…Recently, Anigboro et al (2020) reported that E. camaldulensis could protect against malarial-induced aberrations in liver and renal function in mice infected with Plasmodium berghei. In addition, our group reported the antioxidant and immune modulator role of E. camaldulensis in mice infected with P. chabaudi (Aljawdah et al, 2022) Although the plant kingdom is a promising source of new active substances, the variability of chemical composition among different species of the same species can affect its quality and bioactivity (Tian et al, 2016). Few studies have addressed this problem or reported differences in composition and/or activity between the same species from different areas.…”