Antitrypanosoma effect of methanol fruit pod extract of Acacia nilotica (Linn) in acute Trypanosoma brucei infection in wistar rats

Chemotherapy of trypanosomosis has been adversely affected by widespread drug resistance and toxicity. Attention has now been shifted towards the search for ethnobothanical means of controlling the disease. The aimof this study was to determine the effect of methanol extract of the fruit pod of Acacia nilotica on experimental Trypanosoma brucei infection inWistar rats. TwentyWistar rats were randomly alloted into four groups of 5 rats each. Rats in groups I to III were experimentally infected with an isolate of T. brucei while group V served as uninfected control. At day 2 post infection (PI), rats in groups I were orally treated with extract of fruit pod of A nilotica at a dose of 500 mg/kg for 5 days while rats in group II were treated with diminazene aceturate at 3.5mg/kg subcutaneously once. Rats in group III served as infected untreated control. Parasitaemia, PCV and survival rates were monitored during the course of the study. Parasitaemia begins 3 days PI and progressively increased in groups I and III but was not observed in group II. There was decrease in PCV of rats in groups I and III compared to that of groups II and IV. The differences observed in parasitaemia and PCV between the groups compared were not statistically significant (P>0.05).Mortalitywas observed in group I from day 8PIwith 2 rats (40%) surviving up to day 10 PI. All rats in group III died within 7 days post infection while mortalities were not recorded in groups II and IV. It was concluded that the methanol extract of the fruit pod of A. nilotica had no In vivo trypanocidal effect at the dose of 500mg/kg, but demonstrated some ameliorative effect on the severity of the infection in Wistar rats.