Antimalarial activity test and GC-MS analysis of ethanol and ethyl acetate extract of snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata Prain)

Snake plant or Mother-in-law's tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata Prain) is a plant possessing of  many ethnobotanical uses one of which is for medicinal.  Previous pharmacological studies showed that this plant has several properties such as healing lesions, anthelmenthic, antimicrobial and cytotoxic. This research was conducted to investigate phytocompounds constituents of ethanol and ethyl acetate of S. trifasciata and their antimalarial activity potential. The phytochemical constituents were analyzed using Gas Cromatography and Mass Spectroscopy (GCMS). The antiplasmodial properties of the extract against malaria parasites were determined by calculating the percentage of parasitaemia suppression which was then used as a variable in probit analysis to determine the IC50 value of the extract. There were 4 and 24 constituents of compounds detected using GC-MS in the ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts of the plant leaves respectively. Antiplasmodial assay of the extracts showed that ethyl acetate solvent gave stronger suppression against Plasmodium falciparum with an IC50 value of 21,29 µg/mL compared to ethanol solvent with an IC50 value of 21,29 µg/mL In conclusion plant leaf extract of Sansevieria trifasciata is potential to be developed as antimalarial ingredient.