The morbidity caused by parasite worms on susceptible hosts is of great concern and studies were carried out to explain the mechanism of infection, prevalence, host-parasite interaction and resistance of the parasite to treatment. This review elucidates the prevalence of parasitic worm infections; which is on the increases with the increase in the world population, global warming, poor standard of living particularly in troubled regions and developing nations. The neglect of the disease coupled with the resistance of these parasites to the few available drugs becomes a huge challenge that influences global disease burden. Helminths infections pose a life threat and increase the disability-adjusted life year (DALYs) of the poor and vulnerable people. On the other hand, exploration of medicinal plants as an alternative source of treatment against drugs resistance helminths, attract insufficient attention. This review focused on providing a general overview of the prevalence of helminths, host-parasite interactions, the resistance of helminths and the medicinal plants used to treat helminthic infections.

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Medicinal plants are a pertinent and effective remedy, employed in indigenous healthcare systems by traditional healers. This study focused on proximate parameters, minerals, vitamins, anti-nutrients and essential oil of the root and leaf of the medicinal plant; R. crispus, using the standard food analysis techniques. The result reveals that the moisture content of the leaf (7.57 ± 0.40%) and root (7.59 ± 0.08%) was not significantly different. The leaf has a higher ash, crude fat, fibre and mineral content than the root, except the carbohydrate (57.74 ± 3.06%) and Ca (1190.0 ± 0 mg/100g) values which are quite higher in the root. Traces of phytate was found in the leaf (1.15 ± 0.74%) and root (1.38 ± 0.27%) of R. crispus. The highest value of retinol, ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol was found in dried leaf (1.29 ± 0.014 mg retinol/100g), fresh leaf (159.73 ± 26.77 mg ascorbic acid/100g) and fresh root (54.90 ± 0.39 mg α-tocopherol/100g) respectively. The principal compound in the essential oil of the leaf are; 5-Eicosene, (E)-, docos-1-ene, trans-5-Octadecene, tetradecane while those found in the root are; 1-Heptacosanol, 4-Methyloctane, ethylcyclohexane, eucalyptol, m-Xylene, octadecane, phytol, and tetradecane. The research reveals that R. crispus may not only be used for medicinal purposes but could also be suitable for a complementary diet.

The fast-growing world population places food production under enormous pressure to ensure food security. One of the most common methods to increase food production is the use of pesticides, but the continuous use thereof has numerous detrimental effects on the environment. The interest in biopesticides for a possible substitute has grown over the past two decades. To determine the research evolution of biopesticides (green pesticides), a bibliometric analysis from 1994 to 2019 was carried out. A total of 580 documents were found eligible in the Scopus database for this analysis. Parameters such as the number of articles, article citations, keywords, source impact, and countries of publication were used to analyse the documents and rank countries based on authors, productivity, article citations, and co-authorship. The analysis reveals production increased significantly from 2009 and has the most published documents in 2019 with a total of 74 articles. Asia’s most populous countries, India and China, were ranked first and second, respectively, and the USA third in terms of the most productive countries in the field of plant biopesticides. Countries in Europe and Africa however have fewer publications than expected in this field, given the fact that they are high consumers of pesticides. India, China, and the USA have 4.08%, 2.94%, and 12.5% multiple country publications (MCPs), respectively, with the USA having a stronger collaboration. Finally, there is a clear indication in this study that India and China are taking the lead in substituting synthetic pesticides with the alternative natural plant biopesticide.

This study aimed at assessing the biological activities of Mucuna pruriens seeds using cytotoxicity, phytochemical, antiparasitic screening, and antioxidant assays. Mature fruits of M. pruriens were harvested from Fort Hare University’s Research Farm located in Alice, South Africa. The collected seeds were pulverized in a standard process and taken to the laboratory for crude extraction and further treatments. Cytotoxic, antimalarial, and trypanocidal effects of crude extracts obtained from ethanol and water were tested, while the total phenolic, proanthocyanidin, and flavonoid contents of the aqueous extracts as well as their pharmacological activities were determined in vitro using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl ethanol (DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) assays. Although the extracts showed mild antiparasitic (antiplasmodial and trypanocidal) effects, results from the cytotoxic experiment revealed that M. pruriens is not toxic to human cervix adenocarcinoma (HeLa) cells when tested using 50 µg/mL of extracts. It was observed that the seeds were remarkably rich in phenol (3730.1 ± 15.52 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g) compared to flavonoids (63.03 ± 1.95 mg quercetin equivalent (QE)/g) and proanthocyanidin (18.92 ± 1.09 mg catechin equivalent (CE)/g). Also, the antioxidant activities of the extracts were comparable to those of the standard antioxidant drugs (rutin and gallic acid) used, in a concentration-dependent manner. There was a direct relationship between phenolic acid content and antioxidant effects. It is therefore suggested that M. pruriens seeds be incorporated into human diets as a supplement to promote healthy living. Pharmaceutical industries with a particular interest in natural phenolic acids should consider using seeds of M. pruriens as pharmaceutical precursors.