Proceedings

Validation of Antimalarial Activity from the Herbal Plant Gynura Divaricata through the Action of β-sitosterol

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Malaria is one of the world’s most prominent and life-threatening parasitic diseases which spreads
through bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Moreover, due to the increase of resistance
to the current antimalarial drug as well as the high mutation rate of this parasite, there is a tendency
and preference of herbal plants usage as treatment medicine which open further possible
alternatives for more efficacious antimalarial drugs. One of Indonesia’s native medicinal plants
Gynura divaricata is known to contain the active compound β-sitosterol which had been
demonstrated to work as an antimalarial agent against P. falciparum. Moreover, previously
conducted in-silico study by molecular docking also reported a strong interaction between PfCDPK1
protein with β-sitosterol in Gynura divaricata showing a correlation which require further evidence
through in-vitro study validating β-sitosterol is responsible for exerting antimalarial properties. This
study aims to do isolation of β-sitosterol from the herbal plant Gynura divaricata and in-vitro study
to evaluate β-sitosterol’s antimalarial property against P. falciparum 3D7 strain and its mechanism of
action. This research encompasses the extraction of Gynura divaricata leaves and isolation of β
-sitosterol. As well as in vitro investigations of its antimalarial activities which include testing the
extract against cultured P. falciparum 3D7 strain to determine the 50% inhibitory concentration
(IC50) and further in-vitro testing by reactive oxygen species oxidative assay (TBARS) and DNA
fragmentation assay using P. falciparum culture were performed to characterize and understand the
mechanism of β-sitosterol’s antimalarial action. The isolation from Gynura divaricata crude extract
resulted in 31 mg of concentrated β-sitosterol powder. Further potency determination of the
compound resulted in β-sitosterol IC50 of 6.734 µg/mL and the standard treatment artemisinin IC50
of 3.357 µg/mL. Determination of oxidative damage activity using TBARS assay showed that
concentrated β-sitosterol IC50 resulted in the highest ability in inducing oxidative damage after 24
hour incubation. However, further investigation of β-sitosterol’s ability in inducing parasite death
through apoptosis could not be determined based on the DNA fragmentation assay result which
showed faint smear of DNA fragments. Although it has been proven that β-sitosterol is able to induce
oxidative damage, further optimization of DNA isolation and fragmentation methods should be done
to investigate whether the oxidative damage resulted in apoptosis

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Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

PHA 23-006

Publisher

i3L, Jakarta : i3L, Jakarta., 2023

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

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Classification

NONE

Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

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Subject(s)

Malaria
Plasmodium falciparum
Gynura divaricata
Sitosterol
antimalarial agent.

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