Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2013, Article ID 316185, 5 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/316185 Research Article In Vitro and In Vivo Antimalarial Evaluations of Myrtle Extract, a Plant Traditionally Used for Treatment of Parasitic Disorders Farzaneh Naghibi, 1,2 Somayeh Esmaeili, 1,3 Noor Rain Abdullah, 4 Mehdi Nateghpour, 5 Mahdieh Taghvai, 1 Siamak Kamkar, 1 and Mahmoud Mosaddegh 1,2,3 1 Traditional Medicine and Materia Medica Research Center (TMRC), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 14155-6354, Tehran 1516745811, Iran 2 School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3 School of Traditional Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 4 Herbal Medicine Research Center, Institute for Medical Research, 50588 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 5 School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Correspondence should be addressed to Somayeh Esmaeili; soesmaeili@yahoo.com Received 29 April 2013; Revised 30 September 2013; Accepted 2 October 2013 Academic Editor: Christophe Duranton Copyright © 2013 Farzaneh Naghibi et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Based on the collected ethnobotanical data from the Traditional Medicine and Materia Medica Research Center (TMRC), Iran, Myrtus communis L. (myrtle) was selected for the assessment of in vitro and in vivo antimalarial and cytotoxic activities. Methanolic extract of myrtle was prepared from the aerial parts and assessed for antiplasmodial activity, using the parasite lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) assay against chloroquine-resistant (K1) and chloroquine-sensitive (3D7) strains of Plasmodium falciparum. Te 4-day suppressive test was employed to determine the parasitemia suppression of the myrtle extract against P. berghei in vivo. Te IC 50 values of myrtle extract were 35.44 g/ml against K1 and 0.87 g/ml against 3D7. Myrtle extract showed a signifcant suppression of parasitaemia (84.8 ± 1.1% at 10 mg/kg/day) in mice infected with P. berghei afer 4 days of treatment. Cytotoxic activity was carried out against mammalian cell lines using methyl thiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assay. No cytotoxic efect on mammalian cell lines up to 100 g/mL was shown. Te results support the traditional use of myrtle in malaria. Phytochemical investigation and understanding the mechanism of action would be in our upcoming project. 1. Introduction Malaria is a classic example of a disease that afects the productivity of individuals, families, and the whole society [1]. Te number of deaths due to malaria was estimated to be 655000 in 2010 [2]. Malaria was highly endemic in the Caspian areas in the north and Persian Gulf littoral and plain areas in the south parts of Iran. It had been widely prevalent for a long time in the country [3]. At present the southern area of Iran (Figure 1), accommodating numerous emigrants including Afghanis and Pakistanis, is considered a high risk region in the area. According to the Ministry of Health of Iran the total number of malaria cases in Iran had been estimated to be 2900 cases in 2010 [4]. A dramatic recrudescence of malaria is ongoing due to the increasing resistance of mosquito vectors to insecticides and resistance of parasites, mainly Plasmodium falciparum, to available modern drugs [5]. Since malaria chemotherapy is complicated by drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium, new antimalarial agents are needed [6]. Traditional treatments may well prove to be the source of new antimalarial agents in view of the success with the two important chemotherapeutic agents, quinine and artemisinin, both of which are derived from plants [1]. Iran has an honorable past in traditional medicine. One of the most signifcant ancient heritages is sophisticated experience of people who have tried over mil- lennia to fnd useful plants for health improvement, with each generation adding its own experience to this tradition [7].