Anthelmintic Study - Yarrow

Reading about these herbal studies is really interesting and I learn something new all the time. Yarrow has been one of my favorite herbs; I had no idea that it was also vermifuge and generally hasn't been considered one of the plants listed for parasites. Once again this goes to prove that "old knowledge" passed down from the ages has some validity.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18419857?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

J Helminthol. 2008 Apr 18:1-7.

Anthelmintic efficacy of Achillea millifolium against gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep: in vitro and in vivo studies.

Tariq KA, Chishti MZ, Ahmad F, Shawl AS.

Post Graduate Department of Zoology, The University of Kashmir, Srinagar-190 006, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Achillea millifolium Linn., commonly called 'Pehl-ghasa', is used by farmers in traditional animal health care as a vermifuge. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anthelmintic efficacy of crude aqueous extracts and crude ethanolic extracts of entire A. millifolium against the gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep. The worm motility inhibition assay was used for in vitro studies and faecal egg count reduction assay was used for in vivo studies. In vitro studies revealed significant anthelmintic effects of aqueous extracts and ethanolic extracts on live Haemonchus contortus worms (P < 0.05) as evident from their paralysis and/or death at 8 h post exposure. Aqueous extracts of A. millifolium resulted in a mean worm motility inhibition of 94.44%, while ethanolic extracts resulted in mean worm motility inhibition of 88.88%. The mean mortality index of aqueous extracts was 0.95 while for ethanolic extracts it was 0.9. The lethal concentration 50 was 0.05 mg ml- 1 for aqueous extracts and 0.11 mg ml- 1 for ethanolic extracts. The in vivo anthelmintic activity of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of A. millifolium demonstrated a maximum (88.40%) nematode egg count reduction in sheep treated with aqueous extracts at 2 g kg- 1 body weight on day 15 after treatment. Ethanolic extracts resulted in a maximum of 76.53% reduction in faecal egg counts on day 15 after treatment with 2 g kg- 1 body weight. Thus, the aqueous extracts exhibited greater anthelmintic activity under both in vitro and in vivo conditions, and could be due to the presence of water-soluble active principle/s in A. millifolium. It is concluded that the entire plant of A. millifolium possesses significant anthelmintic activity and could be a potential alternative for treating cases of helminth infections in ruminants.
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