Soil-transmitted helminthes are intestinal parasites that contribute to major disease burden in people within tropical and impoverished areas. It has been estimated this blood sucking parasite has been responsible for the loss of over one million liters of blood per day. Recently, resistance to current control programs has rendered it necessary to develop new treatments. Earlier projects within the lab have assessed the anthelmintic effects of plant extracts and their enriched fractions on Ancylostoma ceylanicum ex vivo. The plants Dalea ornata and Oemlaria cerasiformis have shown efficacy with adult worms showing either significant decreases in motility or mortality. The additional fractions tested, however, did not display anthelminthic activity. Another important step was to develop an assay testing the toxicity of the extracts to mammalian cells. Three were attempted: a Trypan Blue assay, a Flow Cytometer assay, and a Cell Counting Kit assay. All of them used hamster splenocytes with the extracts at various concentrations. Death and mitosis were monitored over a three to five day period and compared with the control
