ABSTRACT Malaria is one of the most killing diseases in the world particularly in tropical countries and is worst in Africa. The study was conducted to determine the effect of ethanolic leaf extract of Alstonia boonie (Ewe ahun) on hematological parameters and its anti-plasmodial activities in Swiss albino mice infected with Plasmodium berghei NK65. Swiss mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with Plasmodium berghei NK65. The mice were grouped into six groups, five per group. Only Group I were not infected with P.berghei, Group II and III served as both positive and negative controls respectively, while Group IV, V, and VI were treated with 200, 400, and 800 mg/kg body weight of Alstonia boonie leaf extract, respectively. The phytochemical constituents of the extract showed the presence of secondary metabolites like tannin, flavonoids, steroids and saponin. It is clear that A. boonie showed marked anti-malarial effects in dose seeming fashion from the percentage parasitaemia computed after carrying out suppressive and curative tests. The curative test showed that only Chloroquine, the standard drug, cleared the parasites by 91.7% at 5mg/kg body weight while the different concentrations of the extract exerted a growth inhibition of 39.31%, 49.19% and 38.54% at 200, 400, 800mg/kg body weight of the extract respectively. The Hematological parameters showed that A. boonie had a significant increase (P<0.05) in RBC, HGB, HCT and PLT values when compared to negative control. This study showed that A. boonie extract slightly suppressed the growth of P. berghei NK65 and the extract does possess hematopoietic activity and is not hematotoxic.

Keyword:Alstonia boonie (Ewe ahun) , Anti-plasmodial activities, Swiss albino mice, Plasmodium berghei NK 65 and Hematological parameters.

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