Phytochemical screening and cytotoxicity of selected plants used as anthelmintics in Loitoktok Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

The practice of traditional medicine is as old as the human race, and plants are an important source of research and development of new drugs. Anthelmintic resistance in human and animal pathogenic helminthes has been spreading in prevalence and severity to a point where there is multi-drug resistance against the three major classes of anthelmintics. It has become a global phenomenon in gastrointestinal nematodes of farm animals, and hence the need for novel anthelmintic products. The objectives of this study were to carry out phytochemical screening and determine bioactivity of plants which are commonly used in the treatment and control of helminthosis in LoitoktokSub-Countyof Kenya. The plant species (Albiziaanthelmintica, Myrsineafricana, Embeliaschimperi and Rapaneamelanophloeos) were selected based on their ethnopharmacological uses, as anthelmintics, by the traditional health practitioners. Phytochemical were screened in aqueous and organic extracts using standard methods and cytotoxicity determined using the Brine shrimp lethality test. Phytochemical detected in the extracts were, anthraquinones, flavonoids, glycosides, saponins, steroids, tannins and triterpenoids. Organic extracts were generally more cytotoxic than the aqueous extracts with median lethal dose (LC50) of 11 to 581 µg/ml. and 149 to 1000 µg/ml respectively. It was concluded that some of the plants used as anthelmintic remedies in Loitoktok contain different types of phytochemical which could be responsible for their cytotoxicity and anthelmintic properties. Further studies may be necessary to assess their potential as anthelmintics for possible drug development.