Bashir A Lone, Chishti MZ, Bhat FA, Tak H, Bandh SA and Khan A
The increasing anthelmintic resistance, drug residues in animal products and high cost of conventional anthelmintics has created an interest in studying medicinal plants as an alternative source of anthelmintics. The aqueous and methanolic extracts of Prunella vulgaris was evaluated for anthelmintic efficacy against gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep under both in vitro and in vivo conditions using worm motility inhibition assay, egg hatch assay and faecal egg count reduction percent (FECR%) assay respectively. Crude methanol extract and crude aqueous extract of P. vulgaris resulted in mean percentage mortality of 94.44%, as observed after the worms were put in lukewarm PBS for 30 min after exposure to different treatments(p<0.01). Crude methanol extract (LC50=2.48 mg/mL) had higher inhibitory effects compared to that of crude aqueous extract (LC50=3.36 mg/mL) on egg hatching, exhibiting higher ovicidal activity. in vivo, maximum reduction (92.86%) in faecal egg counts was recorded for crude methanol extract, followed by crude aqueous extract (80.34%) with dose 2 g/kg of body weight at day 15 post-treatment. The results of the present study suggest that P. vulgaris extracts are promising alternatives to the commercially available anthelmintics for the treatment of sheep nematodes.