Planta Med 2011; 77 - PM196
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1282954

Anthelmintic activity of Cymbopogon schoenanthus and Cymbopogon martinii essential oils evaluated by four different in vitro tests

LM Katiki 1, AS Chagas 2, HR Bizzo 3, JF Ferreira 4, AF Amarante 5
  • 1Instituto de Zootecnia, Nova Odessa – SP, Brazil
  • 2Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, São Carlos- SP, Brazil
  • 3Embrapa Agroindústria de Alimentos, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil
  • 4USDA-ARS – Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center, Beaver – WV, USA
  • 5Dep. Parasitologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu-SP, Brazil

Anthelmintic resistance is a worldwide matter in small ruminant industry and new compounds derived from plants are being studied to be used as an additional tool to control nematodes [1,2]. Cymbopogon schoenanthus Spreng. and Cymbopogon martinii (Roxb.) J. F. Watson (family Poaceae) essential oils were chosen to be evaluated against development stages of trichostrongylids from sheep by Egg Hatch Assay (EHA), Larval Development Assay (LDA), Larval Feeding Inhibition Assay (LFIA) and Larval Exsheathment Assay (LEA). The essential oils were analyzed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, and their major constituents were geraniol (55.3%) and geranial (13.3%) for C. schoenanthus and geraniol (81.4%) and geranyl acetate (10.1%) for C. martinii. In all in vitro tests C. schoenanthus oil presented the best activity against ovine trichostrongylids. LC50 values are presented in Table 1. Considering these results, C. schoenanthus essential oil was selected for further experiments to evaluate its anthelmintic activity in in vivo models.

Table 1: CL50 (µL/mL) and confidence limits of Cymbopogon schoenanthus and Cymbopogon martinii essential oils in egg hatch assay (EHA), larval development assay (LDA), larval exsheathment assay (LEA) and larval feeding inhibition assay (LFIA) against

C. schoenanthus

C. martinii

EHA

0.05 (0.04–0.06)

0.15 (0.13–0.17)

LDA

0.07 (0.06–0.08)

0.18 (0.17–0.19)

LEA

27.10 (21.37–32.38)

32.02 (29.87–34.47)

LFIA

0.01 (0.01–0.02)

0.04 (0.04–0.05)

Keywords: Anthelmintic activity, essential oils, Cymbopogon schoenanthus, Cymbopogon martinii

References: 1. Molan AC, Waghorn WC, McNabb WC (2002) Vet Rec 150: 65–69.

2. Brunet S, Hoste H (2006)J Agric. Food Chem 54: 7481–7487.