Figure 4From: Parasitostatic effect of maslinic acid. I. Growth arrest of Plasmodium falciparum intraerythrocytic stagesEffect of transient treatment with MA at different plasmodial stages. A. Development of parasitaemia after maslinic acid treatment at different growth stages of P. falciparum 3D7. Twelve-hours ring-stage synchronized cultures at 10% parasitaemia were incubated in the presence of MA 100 μM for 12 hours at times corresponding to ring (R+MA), trophozoite (T+MA) and schizont (S+MA) stages. After treatment, MA was removed and parasitaemia was monitored up to 86 h after culture synchronization: untreated (white triangles), R+MA (white circles), T+MA (black circles), S+MA (black triangles), not-removed MA (black squares). Cycle time indicates the elapsed hours of the culture started with synchronized 12 hour-old rings. Results are presented as arithmetic mean of three independent experiments ± SD. B. Morphological changes observed in the transiently-treated cultures. Representative light-microscopy fields of cultures subjected to the treatment are shown after Wright's-staining at the times indicated.Back to article page