Background::
Hydatidosis is one of the most dangerous zoonosis diseases in the world caused by the larval stage of the broad-worm or Echinococcus granulosus parasite. Today, cysts' rupture or content leakage during surgery and in-volvement of organs adjacent to the organ involved, and consequently secondary cysts, are the major concern for hydatid cyst surgeons. Therefore, using scolicidal substances such as hypertonic saline 20%, silver nitrate and formalin has been considered to reduce the risk of protoscoleces spread and recurrence of disease in recent years. The current work designed to assess the antiparasitic effects of Capparis spinose L. extract against hydatid cyst protoscoleces.
Methods::
Collected protoscoleces from liver fertile hydatid cysts of infected sheep were exposed to the different concentra-tions of the essential oil (150, 300, 600 mg/mL) for 5-60 min in vitro and ex vivo. Then by using the eosin exclusion assay the viability of protoscoleces was studied. The primary phytochemical analysis of the C. spinosa extract was done to assess the presence of tannins, alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, terpenoids and glycosides.
Results::
C. spinosa extract had a powerful protoscolicidal activity in vitro so that at the 300 and 600 mg/ml entirely elimi-nates the parasite after 10 and 5 minutes; whereas at lower doses demonstrated weak protoscolicidal activity. Ex vivo assay, no similar effect with in vitro was observed, so that requiring a more time to show a potent protoscolicidal activity. C. spi-nosa extract at the concentrations of 300 and 600 mg/mL after exposure time of 20 and 12 min, killed 100% of protoscole-ces within the hydatid cyst, respectively. The findings of primary phytochemical screening of the C. spinosa extract demon-strated the existance of flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, glycosides and alkaloids in this plant.
Conclusion::
The obtained results in vitro and ex vivo exhibited that potent protoscolicidal effects of C. spinosa extract particu-larly at the concentrations of 600 and 300 mg/ml which entirely eliminates the parasite after 5-20 min exposure. However, more and supplementary works are required to verify these findings through assessing in animal models and clinical subjects.
Comparative molecular study between some plant extract and tinidazole on hydatid cysts in Basra, southern Iraq
