Evaluation of In Vitro Anthelminthic Activity of Pseudocedrela kotschyi Harms. (Meliaceae) a Dry Zone Ceder Stem Bark Aqueous Extract

Helminths infections are chronic illness in human being and cattle. The use of alternate drugs has been a remedial measure against the resistant strains of helminth parasites, as well as means of reducing the cost of controlling diseases caused by helminthes. Pseudocedrelakotschyi is a medicinally valuable plant and possesses various pharmacological properties. P. kotschyi has been traditionally used as an anthelminthic agent. To justify the ethnomedicinal claims, the anthelminthic property of P. kotschyi was evaluated using Lumbricusterrestris as an experimental model because of similar anatomical features with intestinal helminthes. Piperazine citrate was used as the standard reference drug. Among the various concentrations tested (10-50 mg/mL), 50 mg/mL aqueous extract showed efficient paralysis effect (13.1 min), and also showed significant anthelminthic activity with 25.4 min death time . Standard drug at 10mg/mL concentration showed paralysis at 6.4 min and time of death was 19.1 min. This investigation revealed that aqueous extract of Pseudocedrelakotschyi showed significant anthelminthic activity against Lumbricusterrestris. It therefore validates the ethnomedicinal use of Pseudocedrelakotschyi stem bark as an anthelminthic agent.