SEM studies on blood cells of Plasmodium berghei infected Balb/c mice treated with artesunate and homeopathic medicine China

The therapeutic efficacy of antimalarial drugs and their effect on various organs in the form of surface morphological deformations can be analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Present study has been undertaken on Plasmodium berghei (NK-65), a lethal rodent malaria parasite, to monitor the morphological changes in blood cells induced by the treatment with combination of artesunate and homeopathic medicine. Combination therapy of artesunate (100 mg/kg) and China φ was found to be highly effective in clearing the blood stage infection of Plasmodium berghei and it also enhanced the mean survival time (28 ± 0 days) of mice. Not much morphological changes were induced on WBCs and RBCs of mice treated with combination therapy but in treated groups the number of live PMN cells was more as observed in AO/EB staining. In normal mice the mononuclear cells were both smooth surfaced and layered surfaced, whereas, polymorphonuclear cells were having finger like projections. The combination of artesunate and China was found to be very effective and did not cause any alteration on the surface of blood cells as observed in SEM. © 2011 Indian Society for Parasitology.