Abstract:
BACKGROUND: African swine fever (ASF), a highly contagious fatal acute haemorrhagic viral disease of pigs currently
has no treatment or vaccination protocol and it threatens the pig industry worldwide. Recent outbreaks were
managed by farmers with ethnoveterinary preparations with various claims of effectiveness.
RESULTS: We identified 35 compounds using GC-MS protocol and ASF virus (NIG 99) was significantly reduced by
some extracts and fractions of the plant. However, the plant was poorly extracted by water and cytotoxicity was
found to be a major problem with the use of the plant since its extracts also reduced the primary cells used in the
assay.
CONCLUSION: It is confirmed that the plant has antiviral potentials against ASF virus and farmers’ claims seem to
have certain degree of veracity, but finding the best means of exploring the potential of the plant while reducing
its cytotoxic effect in-vitro and in-vivo will be necessary.
