ANTITRYPANOSOMAL ACTIVITY OF ETHANOL EXTRACT OF TRIDAX PROCUMBENT LEAF AND WHOLE FLOWER ON T. BRUCEI INFECTED RATS (INVITRO AND INVIVO)

Abstract     The current study focused on the determination of antitrypanosomal effect of ethanolic leaf extract and hole flower extract of T. procumben invitro and invivo. The study was carried out on a total of 25 albino rats with average weight of 200g randomized into 5 groups. The antitrypanosomal activity invitro was carried out by determining the rate of reduction in motility of the parasite while the invivo studies was done by microscopic parasite count by using cross matching method. The pack cell volume (PCV) was determined by using a hemocrit while hemoglobin (Hb) concentration was determined using export test hand helped instrument. The alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were assayed by spectrophotometric method. The result obtained from invitro studies showed cleared significant reduction in motility of the parasites at P 0.05 when compared with the control. The invivo antitrypanosomal activity also showed significant suppression of the parasite and prolonged survival of the host animals. The  PCV and Hb concentration showed significant  (P 0 .05)  reduction on all the treated groups and induced untreated control when compared with uninduced group. The AST, ALT and ALP on the extracted treated groups especially at 300mg/kg/body weight showed significant (P 0.05) increase when compared with uninduced untreated control. It could be concluded that ethanolic leaf andwhole flower extract of Tridax procumben is antitrypanosomal and is suspected to have some hepatotoxic effects.