Anthelmintic Activity of Wormwood (<i>Artemisia absinthium</i> L.) and Mallow (<i>Malva sylvestris</i> L.) against <i>Haemonchus contortus</i> in Sheep
Dominika Mravčáková,
Michaela Komáromyová,
Michal Babják,
Michaela Urda Dolinská,
Alžbeta Königová,
Daniel Petrič,
Klaudia Čobanová,
Sylwester Ślusarczyk,
Adam Cieslak,
Marián Várady,
Zora Váradyová
Affiliations
Dominika Mravčáková
Institute of Animal Physiology, Centre of Biosciences of Slovak Academy of Sciences, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Michaela Komáromyová
Institute of Parasitology of Slovak Academy of Sciences, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Michal Babják
Institute of Parasitology of Slovak Academy of Sciences, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Michaela Urda Dolinská
Institute of Parasitology of Slovak Academy of Sciences, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Alžbeta Königová
Institute of Parasitology of Slovak Academy of Sciences, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Daniel Petrič
Institute of Animal Physiology, Centre of Biosciences of Slovak Academy of Sciences, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Klaudia Čobanová
Institute of Animal Physiology, Centre of Biosciences of Slovak Academy of Sciences, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Sylwester Ślusarczyk
Department of Pharmaceutical Biology with Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants, Medical University of Wroclaw, 50-556 Wroclaw, Poland
Adam Cieslak
Department of Animal Nutrition, Poznan University of Life Sciences, 60-637 Poznan, Poland
Marián Várady
Institute of Parasitology of Slovak Academy of Sciences, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Zora Váradyová
Institute of Animal Physiology, Centre of Biosciences of Slovak Academy of Sciences, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of dry wormwood and mallow on the gastrointestinal parasite of small ruminants Haemonchus contortus. Twenty-four experimentally infected lambs were randomly divided into four groups of six animals each: unsupplemented lambs, lambs supplemented with wormwood, lambs supplemented with mallow and animals supplemented with a mix of both plants. Faecal samples from the lambs were collected on day 23, 29, 36, 43, 50, 57, 64 and 75 post-infection for quantification of the number of eggs per gram (EPG). The mix of both plants contained phenolic acids (10.7 g/kg DM) and flavonoids (5.51 g/kg DM). The nematode eggs were collected and in vitro egg hatch test was performed. The aqueous extracts of both plants exhibited strong ovicidal effect on H. contortus, with ED50 and ED99 values of 1.40 and 3.76 mg/mL and 2.17 and 5.89 mg/mL, respectively, in the in vitro tests. Despite the great individual differences between the treated lambs in eggs reduction, the mean EPG of the untreated and treated groups did not differ (p > 0.05). Our results indicate that using wormwood and mallow as dietary supplements do not have a sufficient effect on lambs infected with H. contortus.