An experimental investigation on the anthelmintic efficacy of crude aqueous extracts of selected medicinal herbs against gastrointestinal helminths in native chickens

Abstract

This study assessed the anthelmintic efficacy of selected crude aqueous herbal extracts against gastrointestinal helminths in native chickens raised under semi-scavenging conditions. Forty-five natu-rally infected birds were randomly allocated to five treatment groups: T1 (distilled water), T2 (commercial levamisole), T3 (Basella alba), T4 (Carica papaya), and T5 (Allium sativum). Treatments were administered orally at 3 mL/kg body weight, and fecal egg counts (EPG) were measured at base-line (day 0) and at days 10 and 14 post-treatment. Phytochemical analysis confirmed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, and tannins in all tested species. By Day 10, substantial reduc-tions in EPG occurred, with C. papaya (966.7 ± 76.4) and A. sativum (1100.0 ± 217.9) achieving sig-nificantly lower counts compared to distilled water (5283.3 ± 236.3) and the commercial anthelmintic levamisole (8650.0 ± 1468.3) (P < 0.05). B. alba exhibited intermediate efficacy (1233.3 ± 361.7), comparable statistically to the two most effective botanicals. However, EPG values rebounded signifi-cantly across all groups by day 14, though C. papaya (5166.7 ± 464.6), A. sativum (5266.7 ± 189.3), and B. alba (5250.0 ± 482.2) maintained significantly lower burdens compared to the control (10300.0 ± 3404.4) and levamisole (6716.7 ± 2878.5) groups (P < 0.05). These results show that botanical ex-tracts could be good short-term replacements for traditional anthelmintics. They also suggest that para-site control may require repeated or optimized dosing.