Please note that UPSpace will be offline from 20:00 on 9 May to 06:00 on 10 May (SAST) due to maintenance. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this.
 

Efficacy and toxicity of thirteen plant leaf acetone extracts used in ethnoveterinary medicine in South Africa on egg hatching and larval development of Haemonchus contortus

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Authors

Adamu, Mathew
Naidoo, Vinny
Eloff, Jacobus Nicolaas

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

BioMed Central

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Helminthiasis is a major limitation to the livestock industry in Africa. Haemonchus contortus is the singular most important helminth responsible for major economic losses in small ruminants. The high cost of anthelmintics to small farmers, resistance to available anthelmintics and residue problems in meat and milk consumed by humans further complicates matters. The use of plants and plant extracts as a possible source of new anthelmintics has received more interest in the last decade. Our aim was not to confirm the traditional use, but rather to determine activity of extracts. Based on our past experience acetone was used as extractant. Because it is cheaper and more reproducible to evaluate the activity of plant extracts, than doing animal studies, the activity of acetone leaf extracts of thirteen plant species used traditionally in ethnoveterinary medicine in South Africa were determined using the egg hatch assay and the larval development test. Cytotoxicity of these extracts was also evaluated using the MTT cellular assay. RESULTS: Extracts of three plant species i.e. Heteromorpha trifoliata, Maesa lanceolata and Leucosidea sericea had EC50 values of 0.62 mg/ml, 0.72 mg/ml and 1.08 mg/ml respectively for the egg hatch assay. Clausena anisata; (1.08 mg/ml) and Clerodendrum glabrum; (1.48 mg/ml) extracts were also active. In the larval development assay the H. trifoliata extract was the most effective with an EC50 of 0.64 mg/ml followed by L. sericea (1.27 mg/ml). The activities in the larval development test were generally lower in most plant species than the egg hatch assay. Based on the cytotoxicity results C. anisata was the least toxic with an LC50 of 0.17 mg/ml, while Cyathea dregei was the most toxic plant with an LC50 of 0.003 mg/ml. The C. anisata extract had the best selectivity index with a value of 0.10 and 0.08 for the two assays, followed by H. trifoliata and L. sericea with values of 0.07, 0.07 and 0.05, 0.04. The C. dregei extract had the worst selectivity index with a value of 0.00019 for both assays. CONCLUSION: The result of this study indicates which species should be further investigated in depth for isolation of compounds.

Description

MA participated in the design of the study, carried out field work, prepared the extracts, participated in all assay, analysed the data and wrote first draft and subsequent drafts of the manuscript. VN participated in the design and coordination of the study, supervised the study, analysed the data and revised the draft manuscript. JNE participated in the design and coordination of the study, supervised the study and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Keywords

Anthelmintic, Ethnoveterinary medicine, Plant species, Haemonchus contortus, In vitro, Toxicity

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Adamu et al.: Efficacy and toxicity of thirteen plant leaf acetone extracts used in ethnoveterinary medicine in South Africa on egg hatching and larval development of Haemonchus contortus. BMC Veterinary Research 2013 9:38.