LAUSR

Malaria is a major disease of developing countries and the main issue in its control of resistance against all available antimalarial drugs. Our aim is to find affordable therapy for this worldwide problem. The present study was conducted to evaluate the antiplasmodial and cytotoxic activities of Euphorbia hirta and Euphorbia thymifolia. The antiplasmodial activity was evaluated against chloroquine-sensitive (MRC-2) and chloroquine-resistant (RKL-9) strain of Plasmodium falciparum by schizont maturation inhibition and Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (PfLDH) activity assays. The cytotoxicity was performed by MTT assay on Huh7 liver carcinoma cell line. IC50 for PfLDH activity of E. hirta and E. thymifolia methanol extract against P. faciparum MRC-2 strain was 9.6 and 12.6 µg/mL, respectively and against P. faciparum RKL-9 strain was 10.2 and 11.56 µg/mL, respectively. Methanol extract of E. thymifolia showed lower IC50 (19.3 µg/mL) than methanol extract of E. hirta (24.7 µg/mL) in MTT assay against Huh7 cell line. Both the plant methanol extracts showed a two-fold lower cytotoxic activity against hepatocyte derived carcinoma cell line (Huh7) compared to in vitro inhibitory activity against P. falciparum strains (MRC-2 and RKL-9).