Ethnobotanical Leaflets 13: 564-67 , 2009 Anthelmintic Activity
of Root Bark of Balanites aegyptiaca
(L.) Dwivedi
A.1, Joshi V. 2*, Barpete
P.K. 3, Akhtar A.K. 4, Kaur A. 4 and Kumar S. 5 1, 2, 3, 4, Faculty of Pharmacy, 5, Dabur Pharma, * Corresponding Author ����������� ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Issued� �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
������������������ Abstract The crude extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Delile (Balanitaceae) was evaluated for anthelmintic activity using adult earthworms; the bark extract exhibited a dose-dependent inhibition of spontaneous motility (paralysis). The result shows that the aqueous extract possesses wormicidal activity and thus, may be useful as an anthelmintic. Keywords- Anthelmintic, Balanites aegyptiaca, Pheretima posthuma Introduction ����� Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Delile belongs to family Balanitaceae is a small tree reaching a height of around 10m with compound leaves and greenish yellow flowers, and brown or pale brown fruits.� It is widely used as good firewood and charcoal; edible fruit and seed has 30-40% of edible oil; young foliage and fruits are eaten by goats, sheep and camels; plant parts are used as soap substitutes because of high saponin contents; thorny branches used for fencing (Fernandes, 2003).� Helminth infections are among the most common infections in man, affecting a large proportion of the world's population. In developing countries they pose a large threat to public health and contribute to the prevalence of malnutrition, anaemia, eosinophilia, and pneumonia. Although the majority of infections due to worms are generally limited to tropical regions, they can occur to travellers who have visited those areas and some of them can develop in temperate climates (Bundy, 1994). The objective of the present work to investigate the anthelmintic activity of root bark of Balanites aegyptiaca. Material and Methods ����� The plants were
collected from the local villagers of Result and Conclusion
������ The result of anthelmintic activity of aqueous extract on earthworms phertima prosthuma were given in Table 1.� The aqueous extract of root bark of Balanites aegyptiaca
(L.) Table 1.� Anthelmintic activity
of root bark extract of Balanites aegyptiaca (L.)
Result
expressed as Mean + It was concluded from the study that the aqueous extract showed marked and potent anthelmintic activity than the standard drug albendazole. Acknowledgement
Authors are thankful to Dr. S. N. Dwivedi for the identification of plants and also thankful to the Mr. Sumeet Dwivedi, Chordia Institute of Pharmacy, Indore M.P. for their keen support during the course of present investigation. References Blakemore, R. 1999. Diversity of Exotic Earthworms in
Australia- A Status Report. Transactions of the Royal Zoological Society
of Bundy, D.� A. 1994. Immunoepidemiology of intestinal helminthic infection I: The global burden of intestinal nematode disease. Trans Royal Soc Trop Med Hyg 8 : 259-61. Dwivedi, S., Dwivedi, A., Kapadia, R. and Kaul, S. 2008. Anthelmintic activity of alcoholic and aqueous extract of fruits of Terminalia chebula Retz., Ethnobotanical �Leaflets, 12:741-743. Fernandes,� C. M. E. 2003.� Tree and Shrubs Archive, http://www.css. cornell.edu ecf3/web/new/af/treeBaegypt.htm/ Gunasekhararan,
R., Divyakant, A. and� Senthilkumar,
K. L., 2006.� Anthelmintic
activity of bark of Neolamarckia cadamba |