Comparative in vitro anthelmintic activity of three plants from the Amaranthaceae family

Abstract

The three plants presented in this study are Amaranthus spinosus, Amaranthus caudatus and Amaranthus viridis L. They belong to the Amaranthaceae family and are traditionally used as vermicides. Our aim was to investigate the anthelmintic activity of the three plants using earthworms (Pheretima posthuma). Methanol extracts of the three plants at different concentrations (10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 mg/ml) showed dose-dependent vermicidal activities. At concentrations of 80 and 100 mg/ml all three plant extracts caused paralysis (8.18, 5, 12.16, 5.75, 10.2, 7.8 min) and death (14.65, 9.12, 18.6, 8.5, 18.6, 12.7 min), respectively. Piperazine was used as a reference standard at a concentration of 10 mg/ml. Our study found that the three plants possess potent anthelmintic activity when compared to Piperazine.