Anthelmintic efficacy ofAchillea millifoliumagainst gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep:in vitroandin vivostudies

Abstract

AbstractAchillea millifoliumLinn., commonly called ‘Pehl-ghasa’, is used by farmers in traditional animal health care as a vermifuge. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anthelmintic efficacy of crude aqueous extracts and crude ethanolic extracts of entireA. millifoliumagainst the gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep. The worm motility inhibition assay was used forin vitrostudies and faecal egg count reduction assay was used forin vivostudies.In vitrostudies revealed significant anthelmintic effects of aqueous extracts and ethanolic extracts on liveHaemonchus contortusworms (P < 0.05) as evident from their paralysis and/or death at 8 h post exposure. Aqueous extracts ofA. millifoliumresulted in a mean worm motility inhibition of 94.44%, while ethanolic extracts resulted in mean worm motility inhibition of 88.88%. The mean mortality index of aqueous extracts was 0.95 while for ethanolic extracts it was 0.9. The lethal concentration 50 was 0.05 mg ml− 1for aqueous extracts and 0.11 mg ml− 1for ethanolic extracts. Thein vivoanthelmintic activity of aqueous and ethanolic extracts ofA. millifoliumdemonstrated a maximum (88.40%) nematode egg count reduction in sheep treated with aqueous extracts at 2 g kg− 1body weight on day 15 after treatment. Ethanolic extracts resulted in a maximum of 76.53% reduction in faecal egg counts on day 15 after treatment with 2 g kg− 1body weight. Thus, the aqueous extracts exhibited greater anthelmintic activity under bothin vitroandin vivoconditions, and could be due to the presence of water-soluble active principle/s inA. millifolium. It is concluded that the entire plant ofA. millifoliumpossesses significant anthelmintic activity and could be a potential alternative for treating cases of helminth infections in ruminants.