0235-B4

The Anticestodal Activity of Albizia anthelmentica Stem Bark Against Moneizia expansa in Sheep

A. M. Atta El Mannan and H. E. Khalid ¹

Abstract

The paper investigates the anticestodal activity of Albizia anthelmintica Borong. Family Leguminosae. The in- vitro activity against Monezia expansa revealed that the 20 % concentration of the aqueous extract of the bark showed high level of effectiveness. Further the aqueous extract was subjected to in-vivo investigation using Sheep naturally infected with M. expansa. Fecal examination during the three post treatment days revealed the prsence of progottids of the tape worm. The egg count decreased to zero in animals treated with the plant extract while the untreated group still showed a high out put of egg count.

INTRODUCTION

Livestock production suffers heavy economic losses due to gastrointestinal parasites (Copeman 1980; AL. Quaisy, et al., 1987). Some of these economic losses are: loss of weight. reduced productivity, death, carcass and organ condemnations and expensive control measures. Beside that the bill of anthelmentic drugs imported by the Veterinary Medical Supplies exceeds 80 % of the total imported drugs.

The adopted treatment by conventional chemotherapeutics, had been out of, reaches of the ordinary farmers due to cost and / or unavailability. This led to renew the awareness, to Traditional Veterinary Medicine. Hence some plants were investigated for their anthelmentic properties such as Albizia anthelmintica. Brongn.

A. anthelmintica., (Leguminase) is a bush tree which is common in Western Sudan and East and West Africa. In Sudan it is known as girfat El Doud, Um Takirni.

The stem bark has been used in Sudanese Traditional Medicine for treatment of human tapeworm infections and also used in South West Africa, Abysina and Somalia for the same infection (Watt and Breyer - Brandwijk 1962).

Zain Eldin and Atta Elmannan (1983), reported that the bark suspension of A. anthelmintica possesses an anticestodal effect against dog tape worm T. hydatigena while other experimental studies demonstrated a parasiticidal effect of A. anthelmintica on Hymenolepis diminuta in rats (Khalid 1991).

The specific objective of this study was to investigate the in-vivo and in-vitro action of A. anthelmintica on Moneizia expansa the common tapeworm of sheep and goats in Sudan.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In-vitro Test:

Worm Collection
Moneizia expansa adult tapeworms were obtained from infected sheep after being slaughtered at Omdurman Central Abattoir laboratory. The recovered worms were washed twice in normal saline then transfered to a nutrient broth, whose constitution as follows:

Peptone 10 gm
Sodium chloride 5 gm
Yeast extracts 2.5 gm
Distilled water 1000 ml

PH is adjusted to 8.5 by adding 2 ml of 40 % Na oH, Penicillin, 500 unit / ml and streptomycin 0.1 mg/ ml were added to the medium.
The worms were left for ½ - 1 hour at room temperature.
Preparation of aqueous solution of A. anthelmintica.

Albizia anthelmintica stem bark was collected from Rashad area and botanically identified at the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Institute - National Center for Research.

The plant material was dried under shade (Figures 1.1, 1.2), the bark was coarsely crushed into powder using junior laboratory Mill (Cheristy & Morris Ltd.). The powder was macerated into 100 ml of distilled water and left over night. The solution was sieved in a sterile glass container using filter paper or cotton. The volume was adjusted to 100-ml i.e. (l gm/ ml) and kept stored at freeze for further use (Figure 2).

Anti-cestodal Testing

Four different concentrations of A. anthelmentica stem bark aqueous extract were prepared 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. Each concentration was added to a separate petridish containing nutrient broth. The worms were placed into the four petridishes containing the different concentrations of the extracts and nutrient broth. The fifth dish containing the nutrient broth only was kept as a control. All the petridishes were incubated at room temperature. Observations concerning motility, paralysis and light reflexes were recorded, (Figure 3).

In-vivo Test

The animals:
Twelve goats of both sexes aged 6 months, with average weight of 10 kilograms were purchased from Omdurman local market. They were naturally infected with Moneizia expansa, the animals were allotted into four groups (1,2,3 and 4 ) each containing three goats. The number of eggs per gram of faeces were determined for M. expansa using Mc Master Modified technique.

Plant preparation and treatment

One hundred grams of powdered plant were macerated in distilled water, allowed to stand overnight at room temperature and filtered using cotton wool. The filtrate was adjusted to 300 ml with distilled water to give a concentration of 1gm of dried powder per 3ml.

The animals were treated with the plant extract for three consecutive days using a glass bottle to dispense the following oral dose rates in an oral dose rates (I) 10gm /kg body weight (II)5gm / kg body weight, (III) 2.5gm / kg body weight and group( IV) was kept as untreated ( control).

The fecal egg count was checked after the third day of treatment and for three consecutive days.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In-vitro Test

The result of the in-vitro test were calculated as concentration of A, antheminetica against time, the following observations were recorded:

All worms died after two hours post treatment, the 20% concentration solution cause death during ½ hour time. The worms first showed wriggling movement, then appeared coiled and shrinking, their bodies completely relaxed, stopped movement and died, the dead bodies showed sloughing and desquamation of tissues.

Worms in the control group still moving around the media.

In-vivo Test

At all applied dose rates this herbal preparation used in this investigation was well tolerated by all animals tested. No adverse effects were observed through the duration of the experiment.

Fecal examination during the three post treatment days revealed the presence of long proglottids of the tape worms. However long segments were passed in clumps, and the egg count showed great variations after treatment with A. anthelmintica. The eggs out put decreased to zero in animals of group I, II and III but the untreated control group IV still showed a high out put of eggs.

No worms were detected in the feaces of the untreated control groups.

Recently chemotherapy is recommended for use in the control programs of helminthes infections but it requires foreign currency which is restricted in many developing countries. Accordingly the traditional use of some local plants avail a safe, efficient, cheap and easily applicable mean of control of these worms.

The results of this trial demonstrated that the intake of the aqueous extract of A. anthelmintica reduced significantly the tape worm load in the naturally infected goats, and affected the worms directly in the in-vitro test. These results are in agreement with the results obtained by Zain Eldin and Atta El Mannan, (1983) who reported a parasiticidal effect of A. anthelmintica against Taeina hydatigena in dogs and also the results were compatible with the work done by Khalid (1991) who reported the effect A. anthelmintica on Hymenolypis diminuta in the rat.

The use of A. anthelmintica in the dose rates given in periodical treatments is therefore nearly as good as any modern commercial anthelmintics for the control of tape worms in domestic animals.

More studies therefore are recommended to find out the bioactive agent(s) or ingredients present in A. anthelmintica responsible for the anthelmintic activity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was partially sponsored by UNDP, Programme of the strategic planning.

The authors are grateful to the technical staff of the Parasitology Department at Central Veterinary Research Laboratories Center, Soba and Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Research Institute, for their technical assistance.

REFERENCES

Al-Quaisy, H.H.K., -Al - Zubaidy, K.I. Altaf, L.I. and Makkawi, T.A. (1987). The pathogenicity of heamonchosis in sheep and goats in Iraq I. Clinical parasitological and haematological findings. Vet. Parasit. 24: 221 - 228.

Copeman, D.B.(1980). The importance of helminth parasites in animal production system in the tropics, proceedings of the first Asian, Australian Animal Science Congress, Serdang, Malaysia 91 - 97.

Khalid, H.E. (1991). Biological and phytochemical studies on Albizia anthelmintica Ph. D. thesis, Faculty of pharmacy, University of Khartoum.

Zain El Din, E.A. and Atta El Mannan, A.M. (1983). Preliminary investigation of the efficacy of Albizia anthelmintica against the dog tapeworm taenia hydatigena. Sudan J. Vet. Res. 5, 147 - 149.

Watt, J.M. and Breyer - Brandwick, M. G. (1962) The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern Africa 2 ^nd ed. Edinburgh E & S Livingstone.

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