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Malaria is the world’s most important parasitic disease and endemic in about 100 developing counties. Resistance to
the most severe form of the etiologic agent in human, Plasmidium falciparum, to commonly used antimalarial drugs
is one of the factors contributing to high prevalence rate of malaria in Nigeria as well as other sub-Sahara region.
Hence, new and effective antimalarialdrug candidates are of essence. The antiplasmodial efficacy of Azadirachta
indica was investigated in this study using the ethanol and methanol leaf extracts on Plasmodium berghei infected
swiss albino mice at 100 and 200mg/kg/day dosage. The 5 day curative test assay revealed that the administered
dosages (100 and 200mg/kg/day ) of Azadirachta indica ethanol extract caused chemo suppression of 75 % and 90
% respectively on day three and chemo suppression of 98.4% and 99.03% on day five. Similar dosages of methanol
leaf extract caused chemosupression of 70 % and 93.54 % respectively on day three and chemo suppression of 82%
and 92.77 % on day five. These values were statistically significant (P?0.05) when compared with the positive
control. Haematological parameters of swiss albino mice such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate, packed cell
volume, red blood cell and white blood cell investigated before, during and after infection showed significant
variation in values. The study showed that Azadirachta indica leaf contained active antiplasmodial compounds and
therefore might be a potential antimalarial drug.
Keywords: Antimalarial drug, resistance, chemo suppression and antiplasmodial efficacy