Effects of alcoholic extract from pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) peels on gastrointestinal nematode egg counts in doe

Abstract

Anthelmintic drug resistant is one of the major problem that quietly reflecting the small ruminant production qualities. Because this problem recently spread out in many areas all over the world, the alternative anthelmintic methods are recently requiring, especially using local economic plants or remedies for reducing the impact. The pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is one kind of fruit that is used as an anthelmintic plant in Ayurveda remedies for a long time. We investigated the anthelmintic activity of alcoholic extract from pomegranate peels against female goat gastrointestinal nematodes and the toxic effects after treatments. The results were shown that albendazole and pomegranate peel powder could not affect percent of strongyle egg per gram (EPG) when comparing with pre-treatment control data. In contrast, ivermectin injections could significantly affect a first 24h (32 ± 5%), and had continuously effect at day 3, 7 and 14 (31 ± 17%, 51 ± 13% and 33 ± 11%, respectively). Alcoholic extract of pomegranate represented significantly anthelmintic effects at day 1, 3 and 7 (45 ± 11%, 57 ± 14% and 64 ± 7%, respectively) with non-significantly different when comparing with ivermectin. We also preliminary investigated the effects of alcoholic extract from mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) peels, it could not effect on egg count number per gram when comparing with pre-treatment control. The results suggested that alcoholic crude extracts from pomegranate peels could inhibit gastrointestinal strongyle-type egg production and may be promising used as an alternative anthelmintic drugs in small ruminant farms.