Anthelmintic activity of the crude aqueous leaf extracts of <i>Anogeissus leiocarpus</i> in sheep

Abstract

The safety and anthelmintic activity of the crude aqueous leaf extract of Anogeissus leiocarpus was investigated in sheep naturally infected with gastrointestinal nematodiasis using the feacal egg count reduction test and the controlled test. The results indicate that the extract had no significant (P>0.05) effect on the vital parameters such as temperature, respiratory and pulse rates nor did it produce any sign of toxicity in the treated animals. There were also no significant changes (P>0.05) in the body weight and haematological parameters of the albendazole or extract treated groups except the packed cell volume (PCV) of albendazole treated group and the white blood cells of the 400 mg/kg treated group and untreated group seven days post-treatment, which were significantly higher (P<0.05). In the feacal egg count reduction test, the extract produced dose-dependent reduction in the feacal egg count of the treated groups when compared to the untreated control. The result of the controlled test revealed that there was reduction in the number of worms recovered from the gastrointestinal tract of sheep
treated with 400 mg/kg of the extract for three consecutively days than in the untreated control. It is, therefore, concluded that the crude aqueous leaf extract of A. leiocarpus could be tolerated by sheep
and produced limited dose-dependent anthelmintic activity in vivo.