In vitro anthelminthic activity of aqueous leaf extracts from Leucaena leucocephala and Moringa oleifera against Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Parasitic infections cause a tremendous burden of disease worldwide and over the years, some helminth species have developed a resistance to the current anthelmintics available in the market. Herbal medicine can therefore be alternative sources of anthelmintics possibly reversing the acquired resistance against some of the conventional drugs. This study aims to determine the anthelmintic properties of aqueous extracts of Leucaena leucocephala and Moringa oleifera leaves, individually and combined, on helminth model Caenorhabditis elegans. Thirty adult C. elegans were incubated in the presence of various concentrations (3 mg/mL, 6 mg/mL and 10 mg/mL) of each plant leaf extract, and the combined plant leaf extracts (5 mg/mL), with M9 buffer as negative control, and ivermectin as positive control. All adult worms were counted and assessed for their viability at 20 and 40 hours post-treatment. The aqueous extracts of both plants inhibited the survival of the adult worms in a concentration-dependent manner. Greater efficacy was observed at 10 mg/mL, with mortality rates of 97% for M. oleifera and 100% for L. leucocephala both at 40 h post-treatment. When combined, the mixed extracts induced adult C. elegans mortality with 70% and 94% mortality at 20 and 40 h post-treatment, respectively. This study revealed that both aqueous leaf extracts from M. oleifera and L. leucocephalaexhibited strong in vitro anthelmintic activity against the model organism C. elegans, which could be potential sources of lead molecules against helminthic infections.