Anti-Anaemic Activity and Potential Toxicity of Extracts of Four Tinctorial Plants Used in the Treatment of Anemia in Benin: Gossypium barbadense, Sorghum bicolor, Hibiscus sabdariffa and Justicia secunda

Abstract

Justicia secunda, Sorghum bicolor, Gossypiun barbadense and Hibiscus sabdariffa are dye plants traditionally used in Benin for the treatment of anemia. This work is part of the therapeutic valorization of dyes from these plants. Its objective is to characterize their composition in chemical groups and evaluate their harmlessness and their anti-anaemic property in laboratory rats. Anemia was induced in Wistar rats by phenylhydrazine hydrochloride followed by treatment by gavage with hydroethanolic extracts of the plants studied. Phytochemical screening of these extracts made it possible to characterize the major chemical groups, in particular alkaloids, polyphenols including tannins, flavonoids and leucoanthocyanins, as well as reducing compounds and saponosides in the plants studied. Cytotoxic analysis of these extracts on Artemia salina shrimp larvae revealed globally high LC50 values of between 3.14 and 4.64 mg/mL, which testify a priori to the harmlessness of these extracts. The administration of the hydroethanolic extract of each plant to anaemic rats at doses of 2000 mg/kg/d promoted, after 15 days, an increase in hemoglobin levels, the number of red blood cells and hematocrit, going to more than 90% recovery of the hematological parameters involved. The highest rate, 99.06% being that of the species Justicia secunda followed closely by Sorghum bicolor (96.80%) compared to 93.93% obtained by treatment with the Ranferon-12 positive control used. Indeed, these results confirm the therapeutic indication of these plants in the resorption of anemia in traditional medicine.