Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTHELMINTIC ACTIVITY OF LEAVES OF CEDRUS DEODARA (ROXB.)

Amit Sharma*, Bharat Parashar, Esha Vatsa, Shilpa Chandel and Surbhi Sharma

ABSTRACT

Helminthic infections are chronic illnesses both in human beings as well as in cattle. Pheritima postuma is a known helminthic which is commonly known as earth-worms. Parasite worms also infect livestock and crops, affecting food production with a resultant economic impact. Medicinal plants belong to the oldest known health care products that have been used by mankind all over the world in the form of folklore medicines or traditional medicines or ethno medicines. The use of herbal drugs extracts and their remedies have significantly increased throughout the world and the green revolution in terms of herbal medicines has now achieved astonishing popularity against the increasing use of synthetic medicines. Objective: To study phytochemical screening and evaluation of anthelmintic activity of various prepared extracts obtained from the leaves of Cedrus Deodara (Roxb.) against adult earth worms Pheritima postuma. Material and Methods: Three concentrations (10 mg/ ml, 25 mg/ ml and 50 mg/ ml) of various prepared extracts such as Petroleum ether extract, chloroform extract, ethyl acetate extract and methanol extract were tested in earth worms and results were expressed in terms of time for paralysis and time for death of worms. Albendazole (10 mg/ ml) was used as reference standard and tween 80 (0.5%) as a vehicle control group. Result: Among all the extracts tested at 10 mg/ ml, 25 mg/ ml, 50 mg/ ml concentrations, petroleum ether extract shows better anthelmintic activity when compared with other prepared extracts and with the standard drug albendazole. It shows marked significance effect. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that the pet.ether leaves extract of Cedrus deodara possess significant in vitro anti-worm activity at the tested concentrations.

Keywords: Albendazole, Anthelmintic, Cedrus Deodara.