COMPARISON OF BLUMEA DENSIFLORA AND SALVINIA CUCULLATA LEAVES FOR THEIR ANTHELMENTIC ACTIVITY BY USING PHERETIMA POSTHUMA

Plant derived drug molecules are frequently showing their role in treating the disease conditions with minimal side effects comparing to the synthetic molecules. Forest and trees are natural assets that provide a variety of benefits to the mankind. Currently available anthelmintic drugs require improved management, high cost and also worms developing resistance to these drugs. So, there is a need of investigation of new anthelmintic molecules. Blumea densiflora (compositae) and Salvinia cucullata (salviniaceae) are selected as test drugs for evaluation of anthelmintic activity. Helminth infections are distressing huge population in the world. These infections are contributing to the disorders like pneumonia, anaemia, eosinophilia and under nourishment. Indian earthworm, Pheretima posthuma was used for evaluating the anthelmintic activity due to its anatomical and physiological resemblance with the intestinal roundworm parasites of human beings.  All the extracts shows significant anthelmintic activity compared to the standards. They exhibited varying degree of activity in a dose dependent manner and causes paralysis of the worms followed by death. The aqueous extract of Salvinia cucullata shows morepotent activity compared to ethanolic extract. Ethanolic extract of Blumea densiflora shows significantly more activity compared to the other extracts.