Experimental model in the study of posible antimalarial active principles

Objective: Contribute to the development of an experimental model, which is more economic and of lesser risk, avoiding the use of human sera for continuous culture of Plasmodium falciparum in human erythrocytes for initial studies of medicinal plants with alleged antimalarial possibilities. Materials and methods: The Trager and Jensen technique was followed with minor modifications, such as not using heparinized blood or human sera. The globular package was resuspended in RPMI 1640 in cell culture flasks, supplemented with hepes medium and inactivated bovine fetal serum. The P. falciparum samples in a cryotube was finally harvested. The continuous culture was challenged with watery extract of Bixa orellana (achiote in Spanish). Results: The erythrocyte cultures were achieved without contamination and the spread of P. falciparum was delayed for about 60 days. B. orellana extract caused lysis in the parasited erythrocytes, thus achieving a similar results with the standard Quinine Sulphate. Conclusions: A simple, experimental model was developed for continuous culture of Plasmodium falciparum, low risk in the fact that it does not use human sera, which shows some promise in the study of traditional antimalarial use.