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In Vitro Effectiveness of Curcuma Longa and Zingiber o Cinale Extracts On Echinococcus Protoscoleces
In Vitro Effectiveness of Curcuma Longa and Zingiber o Cinale Extracts On Echinococcus Protoscoleces
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
a
Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
b
Department of Medical Laboratory, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia
c
Clinical Division of Fish Medicine, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
d
Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt
KEYWORDS Abstract Hydatid disease is an important economic and human public health problem with a wide
Hydatid cyst; geographical distribution. Surgical excision remains the primary treatment and the only hope for
Scolicidal; complete cure of hydatosis. The most important complications arising from surgical excision, how-
Ethanolic extract; ever, is recurrence, which is due to dissemination of protoscolices during the surgery. Pre-surgical
Turmeric; inactivation of the contents of the hydatid cyst by injection of scolicidal agent into the cyst has been
Ginger used as adjunct to surgery in order to overcome the risk of recurrence. In the present study, ethano-
lic extracts of turmeric (Curcuma longa) and ginger (Zingiber officinale) were tested as scolicidal
agent for Echinococcus protoscoleces. Protoscoleces were collected aseptically from sheep livers con-
taining hydatid cysts. Three concentrations (10, 30 and 50 mg/ml) of each extract were investigated
and viability of the protoscoleces was tested by 0.1% eosin staining. Ginger extract showed the
strongest scolicidal effect (100%) after 20 min at a concentration of 30 mg/ml and 10 min at
50 mg/ml. The maximum scolicidal effect of turmeric was 93.2% after 30 min at a concentration
of 50 mg/ml. It is concluded that turmeric and ginger extracts have high scolicidal activity and could
be used as effective scolicidal agents against Echinococcus protoscoleces.
2016 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is
an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2016.05.007
1319-562X 2016 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Effect of turmeric and ginger extracts on Echinococcus protoscoleces 91
carnivores, while the larval stage can establish itself in a wide 2.2. Viability test
range of intermediate hosts, including cattle, sheep, pigs,
horses and humans (Gholami et al., 2013). Infection of these In the present study, the viability of the protoscolices was
hosts may occur after ingestion of infective eggs in contami- tested with 0.1% aqueous solution of eosin stain (1 g of eosin
nated food or water (Moazeni and Roozitalab, 2012). Infec- powder in 1000 ml distilled water). Five minutes after expo-
tion is a result of the development of hydatid cysts, mainly sure to the stain, dead protoscolices appeared stained while
in the liver and lungs, although cysts can arise anywhere in the viable ones remained colourless under the microscope
the body (Budke et al., 2009). (Smyth and Barret, 1980). The red purple stained protoscolices
Surgical removal of the intact hydatid cyst remains the were considered dead while unstained ones were recorded as
preferred method of therapy (Gholami et al., 2013) but alive (Fig. 1). The percentage of viability was determined by
surgery can increase the chance of intraoperative spillage of
scolices, which is a major cause of recurrence and multiple
secondary echinococcosis (Kilicoglu et al., 2008; Moro and
Schantz, 2009). Many scolicidal agents have been used as
an adjunct to surgery as a prophylactic means of preventing
spillage of the contents of the cyst (Blanton et al., 1998;
Spicher et al., 2008). The most frequently used agents are
formalin, hypertonic saline, alcohol and povidone iodine
(Karaoglanoglu et al., 2011). However, it has been reported
that the use of these agents are accompanied in most
cases with toxicity and severe hepatobiliary complications
and also they may cause fatal hyperthermia (Yetim et al.,
2005; Topcu et al., 2006; Adas et al., 2009; Karaoglanoglu
et al., 2011).
Therefore, there is an urgent need for scolicidal agents that
are less harmful to the patient, and also more effective for use
in hydatid cyst surgery (Adas et al., 2009). Recently, efforts
have been made to discover new anti-scolicidal compounds
from sources such as plants and microorganisms (Moazeni
et al., 2012). Zingiberaceae is one of the largest families in
the plant Kingdom and is an important natural resource that
offers several useful products including food, spices, medicines,
dyes, perfume and aesthetics (Sirirugsa, 1999). Members of the
Zingiberaceae family such as turmeric (Curcuma longa) and
ginger (Zingiber officinale) have been used for many years as
spices and in traditional forms of medicine to treat a variety
of diseases (Flores-Sanchez and Gang, 2013). Both plants are
rich in phyto-constituents such as alkaloids, saponins, flavo-
noids, terpenes and steroids, which are widely used as drug
components in medicine (Singh et al., 2011). Since both plants
have been shown to have a number of medicinal properties, the
present study aimed to evaluate the in vitro scolicidal effects of
the ethanolic extracts of both plants on the protoscoleces of
hydatid cysts.
4. Discussion References
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