In vitro screening of medicinal plant extracts for macrofilaricidal activity

Abstract

Methanolic extracts of 20 medicinal plants were screened at 1-10 mg/ml for in vitro macrofilaricidal activity by worm motility assay against adult Setaria digitata, the cattle filarial worm. Four plant extracts showed macrofilaricidal activity by worm motility at concentrations below 4 mg/ml and an incubation period of 100 min. Complete inhibition of worm motility and subsequent mortality was observed at 3, 2, 1 and 1 mg/ml, respectively, for Centratherum anthelminticum, Cedrus deodara, Sphaeranthus indicus and Ricinus communis. 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) reduction assay was carried out at 1 mg ml(-1) and 4-h incubation period, and the results showed that C. deodara, R. communis, S. indicus and C. anthelminticum exhibited 86.56, 72.39, 61.20 and 43.15% inhibition respectively in formazan formation compared to the control.

Mosquito larvicidal activity of oleic and linoleic acids isolated from Citrullus colocynthis (Linn.) Schrad

“…The leaf extract of Datura metal was reported to be toxic to Spotoptera litura (Murugan et al 1999); the aqueous extract of leaves inhibited the larval hatching of Meloidogyne incognita (Goswami and Vijayalakshmi 1987). The methanol extract of Sphaeranthus indicus showed macrofilaricidal activity by worm motility and subsequent mortality was observed (Nisha et al 2007); the petroleum ether extract showed ovicidal and growth disrupting activities against C. quinquefasciatus (Sharma and Saxena 1996). Essential oil extracted from the leaves of Toddalia asiatica showed microbial and insecticidal activity (Bandara et al 1990); nitidine compound was isolated from the root and tested for antimalarial activity (Gokunju et al 1996); the aqueous extract showed antifeedant activity against the sixth instar larvae of Helicoverpa armigera (Sundararajan and Kumuthakalavalli 2001).…”

Diospyros perigrenabark extract induced apoptosis in filarial parasiteSetaria cervithrough generation of reactive oxygen species

“…Most of the drugs which are active against infectious agents are mainly derived from natural products or the formula of the drugs suggested by natural products (Nisha et al, 2007). So we are interested in screening medicinal plants for antifilarial activities.…”

A new antifungal eudesmanolide glycoside isolated from Sphaeranthus indicus Linn. (Family Compositae)

“…It is used as folk medicine to treat wide range of diseases like wound healing, anthelmintic, insanity, tuberculosis, bronchitis, spleen diseases, elephantiasis, etc. (Farzana et al 2006;Nisha et al 2007;Mathew et al 2012.…”