Therapeutic Potentials of Combined Leaf Extract of Morinda lucida and Ficus exasperata on Plasmodium berghei Infected Mice

Background Control and eradication of malaria depend on effective anti-malarial medications. There is increasing concern over the development of drug resistance by the Plasmodium species which has led to an unending search for potent therapeutic agents for malaria case management. Methods This study investigated the therapeutic potentials of combined leaf extracts of Morinda lucida and Ficus exasperata on mice infected with Plasmodium berghei and the effect on the histology of the liver. This was aimed at assessing the possible synergistic efficacy of these two already-proven antimalarial plants. One hundred and eighty (180) mice were divided into 12 groups of 15 mice each. The extracts were orally administered at single dose per day for 3 days. Blood samples were collected from the mice at Days 0 and 4 of treatment for parasitological examination. Liver sections were collected and used for histopathology. Data obtained were analysed in R Version 4.4.1. Results Parasitological examination of blood samples for suppressive potentials of the extracts showed that 1500 mg/kg of F. exasperata extract and the standard drug had significant suppressive effect (p < 0.05) on parasitaemia. The curative test indicated that parasitaemia was significantly (p < 0.05) lower in all the combined extracts treated groups and 1500 mg/kg single extracts of the two plants. Contrary to the expectation, 1500 mg/kg of single extracts of these plants had better antiplasmodial potency than the mixture. There were diffuse degeneration of the hepatocytes following infection with P. berghei and was not reversed by the combined extracts of M. lucida and F. exasperata rather by 1500 mg/kg of the single plant extracts. Conclusion This study showed that M. lucida and F. exasperata possess therapeutic potentials for malarial case management. It also revealed that single extracts of these plants had better antimalarial activities than their combinations. It is thus inferred that these plants contain antagonistic compounds that are affecting the potency of their combination. However, M. lucida and F. exasperata have proven to be potent antimalarials which further justify their use in traditional medicine, hence recommended for continuous use for malaria treatment especially as single extracts.