Vet World   Vol.17   June-2024  Article - 14 

Antiparasitic activity of the steroid-rich extract of Schima wallichii against poultry cestode

Background and Aim: Schima wallichii Korth., commonly known as the needlewood tree (family Theaceae) has therapeutic uses in traditional Mizo medicine for human helminthiasis and serves as a balm against ectoparasites in animals. Although the medicinal properties have been studied experimentally, its use as a traditional anthelmintic remains unexplored. This study aimed to analyze the chemical components and antiparasitic activity of S. wallichii. 

Materials and Methods: The chemical analysis of S. wallichi bark extracts was conducted focusing on the secondary metabolites using petroleum ether, chloroform, and methanol. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to identify the specific compounds. An anthelmintic susceptibility test was carried out against Raillietina tetragona, intestinal cestode parasite of fowl. 

Results: The methanol extract yielded the highest concentrations of alkaloids, carbohydrates, glycosides, sterols, saponins, and tannins among all the extracts. Sterols were the most abundant compounds in all extracts, with flavonoids being absent. Secondary metabolites were largely absent in the petroleum ether and chloroform extracts. The GC-MS data identified cholest-22-ene-21-ol as the major steroid component. The cestode parasite was inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner by the plant extract. The plant extract’s anthelmintic activity was evident through observable damage to the parasite’s outer structure. 

Conclusion: Phytosterols in S. wallichii bark are responsible for its anthelmintic properties. The mechanism and pharmaceutical properties of the anthelmintic molecule require further exploration. 

Keywords: anthelmintic, cestode, medicinal plant, parasite, scanning electron microscopy.

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How to cite this article: Lalthanpuii PB and Lalchhandama K (2024) Antiparasitic activity of the steroid-rich extract of Schima wallichii against poultry cestode, Veterinary World, 17(6): 1299–1306.

Received: 2024-02-21    Accepted: 2024-05-23    Published online: 2024-06-19

Corresponding author: Kholhring Lalchhandama    E-mail: chhandama@pucollege.edu.in

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1299-1306

Copyright: Lalthanpuii, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.