Comparative study on the effects of prophylactic use of chloroform extract of ganoderma lucidum, chloroquine and fansidar on tissue creatinine and urea concentrations in plasmodium berghei – infected mice

Abstract

This research attempts to examine the comparative effects of the prophylactic administration of the chloroform extract of Ganoderma lucidum and the conventional antimalaria drugs – chloroquine & fansidar, on the levels of urea and creatinine in tissues of mice infected with Plasmodium berghei. The study involved two control groups (nonparasitized-non treated and parasitized non-treated), and five test groups, namely : mice that received 100 mg, 250 mg and 500 mg of the extract; mice that received 0.1 mg/kg body weight of chloroquine solution and mice that received 0.1 mg/kg body weight of Fansidar suspension. The extract and the drugs were administered for two weeks after which the animals were exposed to malaria infection. Results from this study showed that treatment of the mice with the extract, while showing no significant (p>0.05) difference in creatinine levels in the tissues when compared with both controls, there was a significant (p>0.05) increase in urea levels in liver when compared with the negative control group. From these observations therefore, an inference is drawn that the chloroform extract of Ganoderma lucidum contains phytochemicals that inhibit plasmodial activity in vivo, which in turn accounts for close-to-normal production of urea in liver of treated mice. Furthermore, the effect of the chloroform extract of Ganoderma lucidum and fansidar, appear to be similar in terms of the site of action as demonstrated by the results.