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In vitro evidence that the pastoral Artemisia campestris species exerts an anthelmintic effect on Haemonchus contortus from sheep

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Abstract

Occurrence of anthelmintic resistant strains of helminths is increasing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro anthelmintic activity of Artemisia campestris in comparison to albendazole against Haemonchus contortus of sheep. In this respect, in vitro anthelmintic activities of crude aqueous and crude ethanolic extracts of aerial parts of A. campestris were investigated on eggs and adults of Haemonchus contortus. Chemical analyses revealed that overall profile of both extracts samples were dominated by flavonoids among them quercetin and apigenin derivatives were the most abundant phenolics constituents. Both extract types completely inhibited egg hatching at a concentration close to 2 mg/ml. Lethal concentration 50% of A. campestris ethanolic and aqueous extracts were 0.83 and 1.00 mg/ml respectively (p < 0.05). The ethanolic extract showed better in vitro activity against adult parasites than the aqueous extract in terms of the paralysis and/or death of the worms at different hours post-treatment. Dose dependent activity was also observed for both extract. After 8 and 24 h of exposure, the ethanolic extract induced 91.3 and 100% mortality at the highest tested concentration respectively, while the aqueous extract induced 3.22 and 70.96% at the same concentration respectively.

To our knowledge, these results depict for the first time that A. campestris possesses in vitro anti-Haemonchus contortus properties.

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Acknowledgments

This work received financial support by “Laboratoire d’Epidémiologie d’Infections Enzootiques des Herbivores en Tunisie” (Ministère de l’enseignement supérieur, Tunisia). We are grateful to Mr Limam Sassi, Mr Mohamed Jedidi, Mr Bechir Guesmi and Mr Tawfik Lahmar for their valuable technical assistance. We are grateful to Médivet S.A. Laboratories for kindly providing Albendazole.

Conflict of interest

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Parasitologie, Université de la Manouba, École Nationale de Médecine Vétérinaire de Sidi Thabet, 2020, Sidi Thabet, Tunisia

    Hafidh Akkari, Mohamed Aziz Darghouth & Mohamed Gharbi

  2. Institut Supérieur de Biotechnologie de Béja, 9000, Béja, Tunisia

    Kais Rtibi

  3. Laboratoire des substances naturelles, Institut National de Recherche et d’Analyses Physico-Chimiques-Pôle Technologique de Sidi Thabet, 2020, Sidi Thabet, Tunisia

    Fatma B’chir

  4. International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), P.O. Box, 950764, Amman, 11195, Jordan

    Mourad Rekik

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  1. Hafidh Akkari
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Correspondence to Hafidh Akkari.

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Akkari, H., Rtibi, K., B’chir, F. et al. In vitro evidence that the pastoral Artemisia campestris species exerts an anthelmintic effect on Haemonchus contortus from sheep. Vet Res Commun 38, 249–255 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-014-9609-y

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