Background: The rhizomes of a herb, Acorus calamus Linn. (Acoraceae) have been widely used as a traditional medicine to cure intestinal-helminthic infections in India and South Africa.
Aim: This study was undertaken to investigate the in vivo anthelmintic activity of a standardized methanolic extract obtained from the rhizomes A. calamus in a rodent model.
Materials and Methods: A methanolic extract obtained from rhizomes of A. calamus was characterized for active principle using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, Mass and IR spectroscopy. The amount of active principle in crude extract was assayed using HPLC. Later, the standardized rhizome extract of plant and its active principle was tested for in vivo anthelmintic efficacy against experimentally induced Hymenolepis diminuta, a zoonotic cestode, infections in rats. Results: The study revealed that β-asarone is the active principle of plant. HPLC analysis of crude extract for β-asarone revealed its amount to be 83.54%. The in vivo study revealed that treatment of H. diminuta infected rats by a single 800 mg/kg dose of rhizome extract for 5 days results into 62.30% reduction in eggs per gram of faeces counts and 83.25% reduction in worm counts of animals. These findings compared well with the efficacy of a reference drug, praziquantel. The active principle β-asarone showed slightly better anthelmintic effects than crude extract. In acute toxicity assay, a single oral 2000 mg/kg dose of extract did not revealed any signs of toxicity or mortality in mice, and the LD50 of extract was noted to be greater than 2000 mg/kg. Conclusion: Taken together, the results of this study indicate that rhizomes of A. calamus bear significant dose-dependent effects against intestinal helminths. Further, the Indian variety of A. calamus contains high β-asarone content. Therefore, there exists a great potential to develop some suitable anthelmintic herbal products from this plant.
Key words: KEY WORDS: Anthelmintic; Intestinal helminths; Soil-transmitted helminths; Traditional Medicine; Hymenolepis diminuta
|
