Assessment of macrofilaricidal activity of leaf extracts of Terminalia sp. against bovine filarial parasite Setaria cervi

Abstract Antifilarial potential of three medicinal plants namely, Terminalia bellerica , Terminalia chebula and Terminalia catappa was explored using Setaria cervi, a bovine filarial parasite at concentrations of 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/ml. Amongst all the extracts, methanol extract of T. bellerica showed highest macrofilaricidal activity i.e. 84.63 ± 1.11 at 10 mg/ml in MTT reduction assay with IC 50 value of 2.7 mg/ml. which was better than the standard DEC i.e. 79.22 ± 3.1% at 10 mg/ml with IC 50 value 2.84 mg/ml. Other plant extracts showed mild in vitro macrofilaricidal activity. T. bellerica methanol extract exhibited significant GST activity of 18.86 ± 0.21 and 12.83 ± 0.03 μM/ml/min at 5 and 10 mg/ml with percentage inhibition value of 73.96% and 82.29% respectively. DEC showed GST activity value of 40.03 ± 4.14 and 21.48 ± 6.44 μM/ml/min with percentage inhibition value of 21.76% and 58.01% at 5 and 10 mg/ml respectively. Thus, methanol extract of leaves of T. bellerica exhibited highly significant antifilarial potential and needs detailed analysis.