Senna occidentalis and Cyanthillium patulum: Indonesian Herbs as Source for Antimalarial Agents

Abstract

As stated in history, antimalarial agents are closely related to natural product research. Senna occidentalis and Cyanthillium patulum are among many potential medicinal plants based on ethno-traditional knowledge. This study was conducted to profile the activity for antimalarial from the crude methanol extract of the plant, which were collected from Malang,-East Java and Klaten-Central Java, Indonesia. Antimalarial assay against Plasmodium falciparum was done in vitro. Chemical identification using Dragendorff's reagent and spectral analysis from 1H-NMR spectroscopy was conducted. The results demonstrate that the extract of leaves of S. occidentalis constitutes typical phenolic backbones whereas C. patulum constitutes sugar derivatives and terpenoids. Crude methanol extracts of the two species possessed significant antimalarial activity. The further experiment is required to define the responsible antimalarial compounds.