Evaluation of Anthelmintic Activity of the Wood of Soymida febrifuga. (Meliaceae)

 

S.A. Gangurde1*, P.H. Jadhav1, S.M. Dange1, S.B. Datir1,  N.P. Jain2 and S.C. Pal3

1Department of Pharmacognosy, S.N.D. College of Pharmacy, Yeola (M.S)

2Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, S.N.D. College of Pharmacy, Yeola (M.S)

3Department of Pharmacognosy, N.D.M.V.Ps College of Pharmacy, Nasik (M.S)

 

 

ABSTRACT:

Soymida febrifuga belonging to family meliaceae is commonly called mans Rohini in Marathi and traditionally reported for treatment of various diseases. Different parts of S. febrifuga are reported in Ayurvedic medicine for treatment of variety of ailments like dysentery, cough, asthma and antiperiodic. Efforts will be made to find out active constituents and their pharmacological action. Traditionally plant was known to have activity against worms and have been used in the treatment of dysentery caused by worms. Thus the present study aims to evaluate the traditional anthelmintic properties of the plant.  Aqueous extract and methanol extract of the wood of S. febrifuga were screened for anthelmintic activity. Results showed that methanol extract of the wood of S. febrifuga is having potent anthelmintic activity. Thus we can conclude that, the anthelmintic property of the plant is due to the polar phytoconstituents present in the wood

 

KEYWORDS: Soymida febrifuga, Anthelmintic activity, Pherotima posthuma

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

The tree is frequently found on dry stony hills and on laterite soil. In its natural habitat the absolute maximum temperature varies from 400C to 460C, and the absolute minimum temperature from 00C to 100C. The normal rainfall is from 65 to 150 cm.1,2 It distributed in the dry forests of W. Peninsular, extending northwards to Merwara the Mirzapur hills. Chota Nagpur, Kerala, Gujrat, Utter Pradesh, Bihar and Ceylon. The world health organization estimates that a staggering two billion people harbor parasitic worm infection. Parasitic worm also infects liver stocks and crops; affecting food production with a resultant economic impact. Despite this prevalence of parasitic infection the research of anthelmintic drug is poor. As per WHO, only few drugs are frequently used in the treatment of helminthes in human beings. anthelmintic from natural source may play a key role in treatment of these parasitic infections. In view of this an attempts has been made to study the anthelmintic activity of wood of S. febrifuga Traditionally plant was known to have activity against worms and have been used in the treatment of dysentery caused by worms1. In this study petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of wood of S. febrifuga. were used and observed for paralysis and death of earthworm.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Plant material

Mature wood of S. febrifuga was collected from Ahmednagar district, Rahuri, cleaned and dried at room temperature in shade, away from direct sunlight and coarsely powdered in grinder. Mr. P. G. Diwakar Deputy Director Botanical Survey of India, Koregaon Road Pune, authenticated plant by comparing morphological features and a sample voucher specimen ABG-1 identified and authenticated as S. febrifuga belonging to family Meliaceae

 

Test animal:

Earthworms (Pherotima posthuma) of about 3-5 cm long were used for anthelmintic activity, collected from vermiculture plant, Kopergaon, Dist- Ahmednagar (MS).

 

Drugs and Chemicals:

Methanol (PCL), Albendazole (Intas, Mumbai)

 

Preparation of extract:

Dried and coarsely powdered wood of S. febrifuga was subjected to successive solvent extraction in Soxhlet extractor using, methanol as solvent3 and aqueous extract by direct reflux were vacuum dried to produce ME (6.23% w/w), AQE (9.51% w/w) extracts respectively.

 

Evaluation of anthelmintic activity: 4.

Three groups of approximately equal size earthworms consisting of six earthworms in each group were used for the present study. Group first serve as control, receive only normal saline; Group second serve as standard, receives standard drug albendazole 20mg/ml. Group third serve as methanol extract of 20mg/ml; Group fourth serve as aqueous extract20mg/ml, each. Observations were made for the time taken to paralysis and death of individual worms. Paralysis was set to occur when the worms do not revive even in normal saline. Death was concluded when the worms lost their motility followed with fading away of their body color.

 

Phytochemical screening of extracts:

Various Phytochemical studies including test for carbohydrates, proteins, alkaloids, glycosides, steroids, flavonoids, tannins and phenolic compounds were carried out5.

 

Statistical Analysis:

The extract treated groups were treated with one way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test and compared with vehicle treated group.

 

RESULT AND DISCUSSION:

In the present study it was observed that, methanol extract (ME) was more potent than the other extract (table 1.). Methanol extract at the dose of 20 mg/Kg shows significant anthelmintic activity (graph 1 and 2).

 

Table 1: Evaluation of anthelmintic activity: -

Group

Treatment

Time for Paralysis (min)

Time for death (min)

I

Control

No paralysis (up to 20min)

No death (up to 20min)

II

Albendazole (10 mg/ml)

1.206 ± 0.0548

17.79 ± 0.884

III

AQE (20 mg/ml)

2.873 ± 0.224

21.926 ± 0.818

IV

ME(20 mg/ml)

2.573 ± 0.267

20.526 ± 0.609

 

Graph 2: Time for death

 

*P<0.01 compared to vehicle treated group (One way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test)

 

CONCLUSION:

Phytochemical screening performed on various extracts of S. febrifuga shows that methanol extract of the leaves contains flavonoids, tannins and phenolic compounds. Thus, we can conclude that the polar constituents in the plants like flavonoids, tannins and phenolic compounds may be responsible for the anthelmintic activity of the plant.

 

 

REFERENCES:

1.        Kirtikar, K.R. & Basu, B.D. (1991). Indian Medicinal Plants, Lalit M. Basu, Allahabad; 3: 2066-2068.

2.        Nadkarni, A.K. (1987). Indian Materia Medica, Popular Book Depot, Bombay.; 1: 21-22.

3.        Mukherjee, P.K. (2002). Quality Control of Herbal Drugs (1st edition: 133, 176, 177, 189, 193, 380, 384, 492). An approach to Evaluation of Botanicals. Business Horizones Publication, New Delhi.

4.        Qureshi Md. Shamim; Giri I. C.; panday V. K.; choudhary R and Patel J. “Anthelmintic activity of Smilex zeylanica leaf.” Research J. Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry (2009); 1(1); 78-79.

5.        Khandelwal, K.R. (2005). Practical Pharmacognosy Techniques and Experiments (13th edition: 149-153). Nirali Prakashan.

 

Received on 16.02.2010

Accepted on 24.03.2010        

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Research Journal of Pharmacognosy  and Phytochemistry. 2(3): May-June 2010, 231-233