a review on use of medicinal plants against intestinal worms

Due to drug resistance and ineffectiveness of vaccine in some parasites, alternative sources of anti-parasitic drugs are required. chenopodium ambrosioides (amaranthaceae) and ascaridole which has been isolated from this plant are useful for parasitic intestinal helminth. ascaridole is efficient against hookworm infection, however, poisonous and mutagenic (1). another anthelmintic plant is the fern dryopteris filix-mas (dryopteridaceae) which is active against intestinal cestodes and its performance is the worm muscle paralysis (2). also, this drug has significant side effects for humans and filixic acid is utilized as an anthelmintic in veterinary praxis. other paralyzing agents are anthelmintic alkaloids arecoline from areca catechu (arecaceae) and the pelletierine from punica granatum (lythraceae) which target acetylcholine receptors (1). other traditional herbs include artemisia maritima (with santonin), teloxys graveolens (amaranthaceae), artemisia abrotanum (asteraceae) zanthoxylum liebmannianum (rutaceae), embelia schimperi (myrsinaceae), thymus vulgaris (lamiaceae), albizzia anthelmintica, millettia thonningii, butea frondosa (fabaceae) and several others (3). the identified plants and compounds offer a chance to develop new drugs against parasitic infections. most of them need to be tested in more detail particularly in animal models and if successful, in clinical trials. most of the antiparasitic properties of extracts have been tested in vitro only. therefore, interpretation of the in vitro research results into in vivo trials is crucially needed. moreover, more studies are needed to use new compounds alone or in combination with anthelmintic drugs to demonstrate their safety and efficacy.