Helmintholytic Activity of the Methanolic and Aqueous Extracts of Leaves of Michelia champaca

Dama G*., Bidkar J., Deore S., Jori M. and Joshi P.

Sharadchandra Pawar College of Pharmacy, Otur, Pune, Maharashtra, India.

ABSTRACT:

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that many people harbour parasitic worm infections. The present study was carried out to evaluate the Helminthic activity of leaves of Michelia champaca using Pheretima posthuma as test worms. The various concentrations (30 mg/ml and 70 mg/ml) of both methanolic and aqueous extracts of leaves were used in study. The Albendazole (30 mg/ml and 70 mg/ml) and Ayurvedic preparation Vidangarishta (10%V/V) were used as standards. The distilled water was used as control. The study involved determination of Paralysis time (P) and Death time (D) of the earth worms. There was dose dependent anthelmintic activity shown by the extracts. The methanolic extract of both concentrations showed the less P and D time as compare to aqueous extract. The both extracts showed the greater P and D time than the standard. Also the Ayurvedic standard showed the greater P and D time than the Albendazole.

KEYWORDS: WHO, parasite, Michelia champaca, Pheretima posthuma

INTRODUCTION:

Helminthiasis infections are prevalent in people all over the world, but most common in tropical and subtropical areas. The world health assembly, in number of resolution has emphasized the need to the use of plant, with therapeutically proven efficacy particularly in patients residing in tribal areas who are very much prone to attack of several infection due to lack of knowledge of sanitation. Thus search for anthelmintic plants remain potential area for investigation¹.

Michelia champaca belonging to family Magnoliaceae it is evergreen tree growing wild in Nepal, Bengal, Assam and mostly cultivated in other areas for its yellow sweetly-scented flowers. According to Ayurveda the bark, root, leaves, flowers are mostly used for medicinal purposes. Root and bark are purgative, emmenagogue and are useful in the treatment of inflammation, constipation and dysmennorhea. The stem bark is astringent, febrifuge used in gastritis, fever and cough. Flower and flower buds, fruits are useful in ulcers, skin disease, wounds². It has been reported to possess antipyretic, anti-inflammatory³,insecticidal⁴, antidiabetic⁵. The active constituents reported in this plant are alkaloids, saponins, tannins, steroids, flavonoids, and triterpenoids⁶. The leaf juice is useful as vermifuge². A scientific literature survey revealed that the anthelmintic activity of Michelia champaca has not been reported. The present study was, therefore undertaken to evaluate the in-vitro anthelmintic activity of crude methanolic and aqueous leaf extract of Michelia champaca against Pheretima posthuma.

MATERIALS AND METHOD:

Plant collection and authentication:

The leaves of Michelia champaca was collected from Mancher and was confirmed in Department of Pharmacognosy Sharadchandra Pawar College of Pharmacy, Otur, Pune.

Plant extraction:

The plant material (leaves) was dried in shed and powdered with the help of an electric grinder. The methanolic extraction was carried out by soxhlation for 24 hours and aqueous extraction was carried out by maceration method for 7 days. The solvents were removed under reduced pressure to yield 8% w/w and 7.5% w/w for methanolic and aqueous extracts respectively.

Worm collection and authentication:

The adult Indian earth worms Pheretima posthuma (annelida) were collected from the Shriman Mahadev Vithoba or Tatyasaheb Bhujbal Krushi Shikshan Sankul, Narayangaon, Pune and identified in Pharmacology department of Shardchandra Pawar College of Pharmacy, Otur, Pune.

Preparation of test samples:

Samples were prepared by dissolving 1 gm of each methanolic and aqueous extracts in 10 ml of distilled water to obtain stock solution of 100mg/ml. from this stock solution different working dilutions were prepared to get 30 mg/ml and 70 mg/ml.

Preparation of standard solutions:

The marketed Albendazole (Mankind Ltd.) and Vidang tablet (Baidyanath) were obtained from local market. Various different dilutions 30 mg/ml and 70 mg/ml were prepared and used as standards.

Anthelmintic activity:

The activity was performed on Indian earth worms due to its anatomical and physiological resemblance with the intestinal round worm parasite of human intestine. Indian adult earthworms (Pheretima posthuma) of 5-8 cm in length and 0.2-0.3cm in width were used. Eight groups of approximately equal sized earth worms each containing six earth worms were selected. All the earthworms were washed in normal saline solution before they were used. The control group was treated with distilled water. The earth worms were placed in a standards and extracts and time of paralysis and time of death were calculated. The time of paralysis was noted when no movement of any sort could be observed except when the worms were shaken vigorously. The time of death were recorded after ascertaining that the worms neither moved when shaken vigorously nor when dipped in warm water (50 °C) ^{1, 7, 8}.

RESULT:

According to table 1, the methanolic extract in both the concentrations showed the shorter Paralysis time (P) and Death time (D) than aqueous extracts. The standard showed less P and D times than extracts. Both the standards showed less P and D times than extracts. The Vidang, famous Ayurvedic anthelmintic preparation showed both times greater P and D time than synthetic one.

Table 1: Anthelmintic activity of methanolic and aqueous extract of Michelia champaca

Test substance	Concentrations in mg/ml	Time taken for Paralysis (P) and Death (D) of worms in minutes
Test substance	Concentrations in mg/ml	P	D
Methanolic extract	30	21.23±0.20	50.12 ±0.042
Methanolic extract	70	13.03 ±0.10	31.90 ±0.12
Aqueous extract	30	44.90±0.12	90.30±0.15
Aqueous extract	70	28.51±0.10	65.03±0.11
Albendazole	30	2.005±0.03	4.10±0.03
Albendazole	70	1.078±0.01	3.21±0.12
Vidang	30	5.32±0.144	8.595±0.051
Vidang	70	3.573±0.12	5.467±0.071
Control	-	-	-

All values represent Mean±SEM; n=6 in each group. P: Paralysis time, D: Death time. Control worms were alive up to 24 hours of the experiment; n = number of animals (earthworms)

DISCUSSION:

The traditional medicines hold a great promise for effective anthelmintic agents to the people particularly in developing countries. In this experiment all the extract shows dose dependent activity and Albendazole shows less P and D time as compare to others. The mechanism of action of Albendazole involves inhibition of the glucose uptake system leading to decrease in energy reserves in the helminthes⁹. Methanolic extract shows less P and D time as compare to Aqueous extract in the study. Further, it would be interesting to isolate the phytoconstituents which may be responsible for anthelmintic activity and the mechanism of action.

REFERENCES:

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Received on 27.10.2010

Accepted on 03.12.2010

Research J. Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics. 3(1): Jan. –Feb. 2011, 25-26