In vitro antisickling effect of crude stem extract of Ficus sycomorus on human sickled red blood cells

Abstract

Sickle cell anemia is one of a group of inherited disorders known as sickle cell disease. The ficus sycomorus is used in Burkina Faso folk medicine for the management of sickle disease. This study was aimed at investigating the antisickling property of Methanolic and aqueous extract of ficus sycomorus. Phytochemistry was conducted using a standard method. For the antisickling test, 2% sodium metabisulphite was used to induced sickling in HbSS blood. Plant extract was added after 60minutes of incubation. Every 30minutes for a period of 60minutes (0min, 30min, and 60min), a drop of the prepared solution was observed at (40x)mg and percentage of reversion was calculated. The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloid, tannins, polyphenols and flavonoids in the extract. In Methanolic extract, at 0.1mg/ml, the percentage of sickled red blood cells (RBCs) is 80.00±0.414 at 0min, 79.00±0.414 at 30min and 50.000±0.414 at 60min. At 0.3mg/ml, the percentage of sickled RBCs is 75.000±0.000 at 0min, 49.000±0.414 at 30min and 19.500±0.707. At 0.5mg/ml the percentage of sickled RBCs is 60.000±0.243 at 0min, 58.500±0.121 at 30min and 40.000±0.707 at 60min. while in aqueous extract, at 0.1mg/ml, the percentage of sickled RBCs is 89.00±0.414 at 0min, 70.00±0.414 at 30min and 64.000±0.414 at 60min. At 0.3mg/ml, the percentage of sickled RBCs is 66.000±0.536 at 0min, 51.000±0.828at 30min and 18.000±0.414. At 0.5mg/ml the percentage of sickled RBCs is 44.000±0.414 at 0min, 30.000±0.000 at 30min and 10.000±0.121 at 60min. extract of ficus sycomorus have shown to be therapeutically effective in the management of sickle cell anemia.

Keywords

• sickle cell disease
• phytochemicals
• ficus sycomorus
• anemia

References

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