Abstract:
Plasmodium, a protozoan parasite is the causative agent of malaria. In 1880, Charles
Louis Alphonse Laveran, a French army surgeon was the first to observe Plasmodium
parasites in the blood of patients who suffered from malaria. In 1897, a British officer in
India, Ronald Ross, found that parasites were transferred to Culicine mosquitoes from
birds infected with Plasmodium relictum. Giovanni Battista Grassi, Angello Celli, Ettore
Marchiafava, Camillo Golgi and Raimondo Filetti, in 1898, first introduced the names
Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium malariae for two of the malaria parasites that affect
humans. They also found that human malarial parasite was transmitted by Anopheles
mosquito. Henry Shortt and Cyril Garnham, in 1948 discovered that Plasmodium
develops in liver before entering the bloodstream. In 1982, Wojciech Krotoski discovered
the presence of dormant parasites in liver cells (Cox, 2010).
Plasmodium causes malaria in most vertebrates namely, reptiles birds and mammals
(Hayakawa et al., 2008). Each Plasmodium species restricts infection to a particular host.
Studies have revealed parasite-host co-evolution with diversification of malarial parasites
coinciding with radiation of mammalian genera (Sherman, 1979). Malaria in humans, is
caused by four different species of Plasmodium: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium
malariae, Plasmodium ovalae, Plasmodium vivax. A recent report also indicates that the
primate malarial parasite Plasmodium knowlesi is the fifth human malarial parasite
(White, 2008). The symptoms of malarial infection include, fever, chill, severe anemia
and metabolic acidosis.
