Publications

Drug resistance, inaccessibility, unaffordability and side effects of conventional medicinesused for malaria treatment require that new drugs be developed. Plants like Maesalanceolata are a potential source of new drugs. Maesa lanceolata which is one of the mostcommonly used in the traditional management of malaria in Uganda was evaluated forcurative antimalarial activity using Reley and Peters method and levels of copper and zincions by using the atomic spectroscopy method. Maesa lanceolata aqueous leaf extractshowed no antimalarial activity on Plasmodium berghei infected mice with all the threetested doses exhibiting less than 50% parasitemia suppression. Copper ions in the driedleaf of Maesa lanceolata were 9.33 parts per million. Level of zinc were 8.53 parts permillion. The amount of copper consumed by patients surpasses the recommended dailyallowance which warrants further research on posology of this plant using a greater samplesize as well as further investigations on possible effects of excess copper consumption.The lack of antimalarial activity in mice calls for more research on other factors such aspossible fever and pain reducing effect and appetite increase that could be contributing tothe relief experienced by malaria patients being managed using this herb