Anticestodal Efficacy of Folklore Medicinal Plants of Naga Tribes in North-east India

The anticestodal efficacy of nine plants that are used in the indigenous system of medicine by Naga tribes in north-east India to cure intestinal-helminth parasitic infections was tested employing Raillietina echinobothrida, a tapeworm of poultry, as a model test parasite. The study revealed that the leaves of Psidium guajava, Houttuynia cordata and stalk of Lasia spinosa possess a profound anticestodal efficacy as evident by the mean mortality time of R. echinobothrida which ranged from 1 to 3.66 hrs, following exposure to 5 - 40 mg/ml concentration of these plant extracts. Moderate activity was recorded for the leaves of Clerodendrum colebrookianum, Lasia spinosa and Centella asiatica, while Curcuma longa, Cinnamomum cassia, Gynura angulosa, Lasia spinosa (stem) and Aloe vera revealed a negligible degree of anticestodal activity. Key Words: Anticestodal Efficacy, Naga Tribes, India, Raillietina echinobothrida. Afr. J. Trad. CAM (2005) 2 (2): 129-13

Anticestodal efficacy of folklore medicinal plants of naga tribes in north-east India

The anticestodal efficacy of nine plants that are used in the indigenous system of medicine by Naga tribes in north-east India to cure intestinal-helminth parasitic infections was tested employing Raillietina echinobothrida   , a tapeworm of poultry, as a model test parasite. The study revealed that the leaves of Psidium guajava   , Houttuynia cordata   and stalk of Lasia spinosa   possess a profound anticestodal efficacy as evident by the mean mortality time of R. echinobothrida which ranged from 1 to 3.66 hrs, following exposure to 5 - 40 mg/ml concentration of these plant extracts. Moderate activity was recorded for the leaves of Clerodendrum colebrookianum   , Lasia spinosa and Centella asiatica   , while Curcuma longa   , Cinnamomum cassia   , Gynura angulosa   , Lasia spinosa (stem) and Aloe vera   revealed a negligible degree of anticestodal activity

Potentilla fulgens (Family Rosaceae), a medicinal plant of north-east India: a natural anthelmintic?

The cestode parasite, Raillietina echinobothrida and the trematode, Gastrothylax crumenifer were exposed to the ethanolic root peel extract of Potentilla fulgens, an antiparasitic local medicinal plant of Meghalaya, India, to evaluate the anthelmintic efficacy of the plant. The parasites were incubated in 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 mg crude alcoholic extract per ml of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at a temperature of 37 ± 1°C. Paralysis and death were observed at 2.00 ± 0.05 and 2.80 ± 0.06 h for the cestode and 1.21 ± 0.06 and 2.18 ± 0.04 h for the trematode parasites at the highest test concentration of the plant extract. The commercial anthelmintic, Praziquantel (PZQ) showed higher activity at the tested concentration (0.02 mg/ml). To further investigate the efficacy of the plant extract, vital tegumental enzymes of the parasite viz. Acid phosphatase (AcPase), Alkaline phosphatase (AlkPase) and Adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) were studied. Quantitatively, the total enzyme activity of AcPase, AlkPase and ATPase was found to be reduced significantly by 69.20, 66.43 and 29.63% for R. echinobothrida and 47.96, 51.79 and 42.63% for G. crumenifer, respectively compared to the respective controls; histochemical study also showed reduction in the visible staining of the enzymes. The reference drug, PZQ also showed more or less similar effect like that of the plant extract. The result suggests that phytochemicals of P. fulgens have anthelmintic potential