Background: This study utilized 4:1 combination ratio of
Carica papaya
fruit mesocarp and
Sorghum bicolor
leaf
fermented extract freeze-dried and named
Siculine extractive (SE) as the active principle to develop
Siculine syrup as
an herbal formulation with potent antisickling properties.
Materials and Methods: I
n-vitro antisickling (inhibitory or reversal) activities of test (SE) and control samples were
determined on sodium metabisulphite-induced sickled red blood cells collected from confirmed non-crisis sickle cell
patients. Particulate, pH and microbiological qualities of SE were determined toward its use in formulation.
The activities of SE aqueous dispersion (1-6 mg/ml) and of the formulated
Siculine syrup® were evaluated using
buffered normal saline (negative control), vanillic acid, parahydroxy benzoic acid (PHBA) and Ciklavit® (an herbal
antisickling commercial product), as positive controls.
Results: The processed plant materials yielded 17.7±1.4 %w/w of water-insoluble, amber coloured particles (27.4 –
274.0 μm size range) of SE powder with microbiological quality suitable for oral liquid formulation. SE aqueous
dispersion, neutral in pH, demonstrated concentration-related sickling inhibitory and reversal activities. The 5.0 mg/ml
aqueous dispersion exhibited optimum antisickling potential namely, 80 % inhibitory and 66 % reversal effects, which
were statistically equivalent to activities of the
Siculine syrup® formulation, reference Ciklavit®, and 4.0-6.0 mg/ml
PHBA’s reversal activity, but higher than the inhibitory activity of 4.0-6.0 mg/ml vanillic acid.
Conclusion: Siculine syrup® formulation containing 10, 2, 0.5, and 0.25 %w/v of sucrose, tragacanth, SE, and
parabens, respectively, demonstrated optimal physicochemical and microbiological stability properties with strong
antisickling activities comparable to those of Ciklavit®.