Publication

Abstract : Helminth infections are among the widest spread infections in humans, distressing a huge population of the world. Although the majority of infections due to helminthes are generally restricted to tropical regions and cause enormous hazard to health1. The gastrointestinal helminthes becomes resistant to currently available anthelmintic drugs. Hence there is an increasing demand towards natural anthelmintics. Hundreds of millions if not billions of human infections by helminthes exist worldwide and increased world travel and immigration from the developing countries. Mirabilis jalapa Linn is a perennial herb of family Nyctaginaceae as a long history of traditional use as an anthelmintic. All parts of the plant are a rich source of medicinally useful components. The total phenolic content varied from 1.36 ± 0.02 mg/gm of dried extract equivalent to Gallic acid. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the anthelmintic activity of aerial parts using in vitro models using Pheretimaposthuma as test worms. Various concentrations (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%) of M.jalapa extracts were tested in the assay, which involved determination of time of paralysis (P) and time of death (D) of the worms. Albendazole is the first drug of choice for the treatment of worm infections. It is also first reported anthelmintic which promises to have useful activity against all the types of helminth. The methanolic extracts of M.jalapa Linn were more potent as anthelmintic probably because of flavonoids, glycosides and tannins in dose-dependent manner giving shortest time of paralysis and death with 80% w/v concentration. The methanolic extract of M.jalapa Linn caused paralysis in 12.6 min and death in 13.5 min. The reference drug albendazole showed the same at 2.3 min and 3.24 min. The results shows that methanolic extract possess vermicidal activity and found to be effective as an anthelmintic.