Abstract
Plant extracts are a potential source of new compounds for nematode control and may be an excellent alternative for the control gastrointestinal nematodes that are resistant to conventional anthelmintics. However, research involving natural products is a complex process. The main challenge is the identification of bioactive compounds. Online analytical techniques with universal detectors, such as high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), together with metabolomics could enable the fast, accurate evaluation of a massive amount of data, constituting a viable option for the identification of active compounds in plant extracts. This study focused on the evaluation of the ovicidal activity of ethanol extracts from 17 plants collected from the Pantanal wetland in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, against eggs of Haemonchus placei using the egg hatchability test. The ethanol extracts were obtained using accelerated solvent extraction. The data on ovicidal activity, mass spectrometry and metabolomics were evaluated using HPLC-DAD-MS, partial least squares regression analysis (PLS-DA) and a correlation map (univariate correlation analyses) to detect compounds that have a positive correlation with biological activity. Among the ten metabolites with the best correlation coefficients, six were phenylpropanoids, two were triterpene saponins, one was a brevipolide, and one was a flavonoid. Combinations of metabolites with high ovicidal action were also identified, such as phenylpropanoids combined with the triterpene saponins and the flavonoid, flavonoids combined with iridoid and phenylpropanoids, and saponins combined with phenylpropanoid. The positive correlation between classes of compounds in plants belonging to different genera and biological activity (as previously identified in the literature) reinforces the robustness of the statistical data and demonstrates the efficacy of this method for the selection of bioactive compounds without the need for isolation and reevaluation. The proposed method also enables the determination of synergism among the classes, which would be impracticable using traditional methods. The present investigation demonstrates that the metabolomic technique was efficient at detecting secondary metabolites with ovicidal activity against H. placei. Thus, the use of metabolomics can be a tool to accelerate and simplify bioprospecting research with plant extracts in veterinary parasitology.
Highlights
Gastrointestinal nematodiasis (GIN) substantially affects cattle health, in cases of co-infection by infectious and parasitic agents [1]
The main challenge is the identification of bioactive compounds in plant extracts [11]
HpIBR1 is an isolate of H. placei cryopreserved at the Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS)
Summary
Gastrointestinal nematodiasis (GIN) substantially affects cattle health, in cases of co-infection by infectious and parasitic agents [1]. Among parasitic species of veterinary concern, the hematophagous nematode Haemonchus placei is pathogenic to cattle in tropical regions, causing hypoproteinemia, anemia, and anorexia in host animals [2], often with considerable economic losses. Given the economic impact of GIN on cattle [3,4] and considering the increasing difficulty in controlling these parasitic nematodes with traditional anthelmintic drugs, especially H. placei [5,6,7], plant-based agents constitute a promising alternative [8,9,10,11]. Plants extracts are a potential source of new compounds for the control of nematodes [12] and the use of plantbased drugs with anthelmintic activity may be an excellent alternative for controlling GIN in ruminants [9, 11]. The main challenge is the identification of bioactive compounds in plant extracts [11]
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