in vitro scolicidal activity of the syzygium aromaticum hydroalcoholic extract on echinococcus granulosus protoscoleces

Hydatid cyst is a parasitic disease caused by echinococcus granulosus and rarely echinococcus multilocularis. liver and then lungs are the most common site of infection (1). currently, the therapeutic procedures for cystic echinococcosis are quite limited. surgery is still the only effective treatment for this disease (2). so far, many chemical protoscoleces killers have been used to prevent protoscoleces leakage during surgery, but it is necessary to consider the adverse effects of chemicals and use of medicinal herbs. considering the anti-parasitic properties of cloves, this study was conducted to evaluate and compare the effect of cloves and albendazole drug on protoscolices of hydatid cyst under in vitro conditions (3). the flowering stage of syzygium aromaticum plant was collected from firouzkouh city, mazandaran province, iran. protoscoleces were aseptically aspirated from infected sheep’s livers. to assess the scolicidal effects of these compounds, protoscoleces were exposed to 10, 25, 50, µg/ml concentrations for 10, 30, 60, and 120 min. the standard drug used in this study was albendazole. the viability of protoscoleces was evaluated using 0.10% eosin. hydroalcoholic extract of s. aromaticum at all tested concentrations led to significant mortality in protoscolices which showed a direct relation with increase in concentration. after 60 and 120 min, at a dose of 100 ug/ml, the highest mortality occurred in the cloves group (100%), while at a concentration of 100 μg/ml, the difference between the time of 60 and 120 min was not significant. the results of this study showed that s. aromaticum hydroalcoholic extract has an acceptable scolicidal effect compared to albendazole and can be suggested as a natural protoscolicidal agent.