Sickle cell disease is among the widespread blood disorder affecting mainly Sub-Saharan African population. Some plants are used in traditional medicine to manage this chronic and hereditary disease. Dissotis brazzae Cogn, a medicinal herb used in Congolese traditional medicine against sickle cell disease, was tested in vitro for its antisickling and antioxidant activities using the Emmel and DPPH radical tests. The results show high antisickling activity of leaves aqueous extract of this plant

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... with a minimal normalization concentration of 11µg/mL and a maximal normalization rate of about 86%. Anthocyanins could be among active chemical groups. Indeed, anthocyanins extract from Dissotis brazzae leaves displayed a significant antisickling activity. Furthermore, the presence of anthocyanins decreases the Fe3+/Fe2+ ratio in sickle red blood cells and shows an interesting radical scavenging activities with an IC50 of 43µg/mL. The antisickling activity combined to the antioxidant activity of Dissotis brazzae can justify the use of this plant in the management of sickle cell disease in Congolese traditional medicine.