br Findings br Discussion br

Findings
Discussion
Conclusions Midwives were more likely to provide effective antimalaria services (including two doses of IPT during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy) to pregnant women if
Conflict of interest
Authors’ contributions
Funding
Acknowledgements
Researchers, supported by funding from the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), have developed a synthetic antimalaria drug that works on the same principle as artemisinin( 2004; 900–04). The new drug, OZ277, has entered phase I safety trials in the UK and, according to MMV chief executive officer Chris Hentschel, “if OZ277 fulfils its early promise, it could be registered for use as early as 2008”. Chloroquine, which costs US$0·10 per course, has been the mainstay of malaria treatment for more than 50 years. But chloroquine is increasingly impotent against , and the price tag of newer drugs such as artemisinin, a natural product isolated from sweet wormwood, and its semisynthetic derivatives is beyond the pockets of developing countries.
Introduction Tetrapleura tetraptera (Taub) (family fabaceae) is a perennial tree that is naturally distributed over a large part of tropical Africa, especially in the rain forest belt of West, Central and East Africa. The four winged Volasertib with a fragrant, characteristically pungent aromatic odour is use in folkloric medicine for the treatment of various diseases and as spice in the preparation of varieties of white soups by Efiks and Ibibios of Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The fruits which possess insect repellent property have been reported to be nutritional, molluscicidal, anticonvulsant, analgesic, antiinflammatory and antidiabetic (Adewunmi and Sofowora, 1980, Adewunmi and Marquis, 1981, Adewunmi and Marquis, 1987, Adewunmi, 1984, Adesina and Reisch, 1985, Nwaiwu and Akah, 1986, Ojewole and Adewunmi, 2004, Ojewole, 2005). The present study was designed to evaluate the claims by some traditional health practitioners from Ibibio tribe in Niger Delta region of Nigeria that teas and decoctions of the Tetrapleura tetraptera fruits are useful remedies for malarial fever.
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion The results show that the ethanolic fruit extract of Tetrapleura tetraptera is slightly toxic as shown in its LD50 value of 3240.37mg/kg (Homburger, 1989) and also possesses a significant (P<0.05) antiplasmodial activity as evident from the chemosuppression obtained during the 4-day early infection test .The fruits extract also exhibited a significant curative effect during established infection comparable to that of the standard drug, chloroquine (5mg/kgday) as demonstrated in the mean survival time of the mice in the extract and chloroquine treated groups. Tetrapleura tetraptera fruits have been reported to contain many chemical compounds such as triterpenoid glycoside (aridanin), coumarin (scopoletin), flavonoids and other phenolic compounds (Adewunmi and Sofowora, 1980, Adewunmi and Marquis, 1981, Adewunmi and Marquis, 1987, Adewunmi, 1984, Adesina and Reisch, 1985, Maillard et al., 1992). Antiplasmodial screening of plants have implicated terpenes and flavonoids in this activity (Philipson and Wright, 1991, Christensen and Kharazmi, 2001). Since the fruits extract of Tetrapleura tetraptera contains triterpenoid and flavonoids, it is very likely that these compounds might have contributed largely to the observed antiplasmodial activity of the ethanolic fruit extract of Tetrapleura tetraptera. Moreso, the observed antiplasmodial activity of the fruits extract might have contributed to the low parasitaemia rate reported for adults in parts of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria (Calabar area) (Ezedinachi et al., 1992, Okokon and Ezedinachi, 2002) as most of their foods are spiced with the fruits of Tetrapleura tetraptera. Diets are known to be medicinally important as plants consumed as food are ingested in relatively large amounts and more regularly than those of same plants used in rituals or for cosmetics (Etkin and Ross, 1991, Etkin, 1994).