Preliminary Studies on Plants with Anthelmintic Properties in Kashmir—The North-West Temperate Himalayan Region of India

There is a growing interest in traditional uses of plants for health care among different communities especially in the developing countries. Kashmir valley is a temperate agro-climatic zone of north-west temperate Himalayan region of India and is blessed with a diverse variety of medicinal flora. The traditional uses of plants against parasitic infections in human beings and their live-stock is a common practice in the valley as most of the populations are rural and conventional veterinary drugs are very expensive and therefore unaffordable. This study is an ethno-botanical survey of those plant species traditionally used as anthelmintic that may warrant scientific validation for efficacy. The survey utilized well structured questionnaire and detailed discussions and recorded 44 plant species belonging to 37 genera and 26 families claimed as traditional anthelmintics in different preparations and forms. Out of these some plant species like Artemisia absinthium (tethwen) and Achillea millifolium (pahel-ghassa) were scientifically validated for their claimed anthelmintic action against gastrointestinal nematode infections in sheep. A few of other plants like Allium sativum (rohun), Myrsine africana have been scientifically validated for their claim by other people in various parts of the world. These plants together with other species reported in this study could be further scientifically evaluated for in vitro and in vivo anthelmintic activity against a diverse variety of parasitic groups in host and non host animals. That will lay a foundation and set a targeted platform for pharmacological studies and development of novel anthelmintic products to fill a gap in the anthelmintic drug industry, which is facing the crisis of anthelmintic resistance to conventional anthelmintic drugs.