Abstract
Modern medicines are gaining less attention due to their limited availability and affordability in human intestinal helminthesis. Thus, most of the world's population depends to a greater extent on traditional medical remedies. Carissa spinarum, Linn. (Apocynaceae) is a small spinous, evergreen shrub growing throughout India in dry regions. Further, C. spinarum roots are traditionally used for their purgative properties as well as to treat worm infested wounds in animals. There is no report on pharmacologically evaluated antihelmintic activity of root extract of C. spinarum till date. Therefore, in the present study we have investigated the antihelmintic activity of methanolic, aqueous and chloroform extracts of root of C. spinarum on Pheretima posthuma. The fresh and dried root of C. spinarum were collected in the month of November from the Bilaspur region, Chhattisgarh state, India, and the antihelmintic activity was evaluated in terms of time taken to cause paralysis and death of the adult Indian earthworm Pheretima posthuma. Piperazine citrate (PC; 10 mg/ml) was included as reference compound. The present investigation revealed that the methanolic (100 mg/ml) and chloroform (50 and 100 mg/ml) extracts have equivalent potency compared to PC (10 mg/ml) in time taken for both paralysis and death of Pheretima posthuma. Standardization of each extracts and isolation of phytoconstituents in each extracts is required in the future. Furthermore, the pharmacological studies for antihelmintic activity should be undertaken in other parasites to mimic the exact human helminthesis.