Abstract
According to WHO, diarrhea is the passage of 3 or more loose or liquid stools per day. It is usually a symptom of gastrointestinal infection, which can be caused by a variety of microorganism, parasites or viruses. Severe diarrhea leads to fluid loss, and may be life-threatening. Among the causative agents of diarrhea are parasitic protozoan
Entamoeba histolytica
and
Giardia intestinalis
. These parasites became recently multidrug resistant, so the finding of new synthetic or natural drugs is of great necessity. We tested the aqueous crude extracts of some medicinal plants belonging to the family Myrtaceae that are used popularly for the treatment of diarrhea [1] such as the
Syzygium aromaticum
(L.) Merr. & Perry,
Eucalyptus camaldulensis
Dehnh and the
Myrtus communis
L. The extracts showed an important degree of inhibition effect against
Entamoeba histolytica
and
Giardia intestinalis.
The extracts were not toxic to hep 2 and vero cells at the IC
50
concentrations. Results were compared also with metronidazole as shown in the table.
IC
50
Entamoeba histolytica
Giardia intestinalis
Plant name
300µg/ml
60µg/ml
Myrtus communis
150µg/ml
150µg/ml
Eucalyptus camaldulensis
30µg/ml
60µg/ml
Syzygium aromaticum
0.7µg/ml
0.7µg/ml
Metronidazole
References: 1. Duke, J.A. (2003) CRC Handbook of Medicinal, Boca Raton-Florida.