Air-dried and ground plant leaves and stem barks were extracted with water, ethanol and methanol and assessed for their activities on Plasmodium falciparum asexual and sexual erythrocytic stages. Thus, a screening against late gametocyte stages at the dose of 100 µg/ml was initially performed to select the most active extracts for IC50 determination. A luciferase assay was used for measuring gametocytes stage IV-V viability while the plasmodium lactate deshydrogenase (pLDH) assay was performed for the asexual stages. The ethanolic extract of Lophira lanceolata stem barks showed the best inhibition with IC50 = 8.08 ± 5.14 µg/ml against stage IV-V gametocytes of P. falciparum. Leaves of Terminalia macroptera, Combretum collinum, Argenome mexicana and barks of Zanthoxylum zanthoxoides exhibited a light inhibitor activity against late stage gametocytes with an IC50 < 50 µg/ml. Tested on the asexual stages, leaves of Terminalia macroptera, Terminalia avicennioides and barks of Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides appeared to be very effective (IC50 ≤ 5 µg/ml) while the leaves of Anogeissus leiocarpus and Argemone mexicana were moderately active (5 ˂ CI50 ≤ 10 µg/ml). This study provides scientific evidence for usage of plants in the traditional medicine to treat malaria. More interesting, the evidence of transmission blocking property of some of them sustaining further investigation for the bioactive compounds isolation with multistage activity.
