Plants are important sources of biologically active natural products. Among the plants used in popular medicine, Annona squamosa, known as sweetsop, is reported to have several medicinal actions such as insecticidal and anthelmintic activity. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the anthelmintic activity of aqueous (AE) and ethanolic (EE) extracts from sweetsop leaves on the chicken roundworm Ascaridia galli, both in vitro and in vivo. In the former, nematodes were placed on a Petri plate containing different concentrations of the extracts; in the in vivo test, six egg-laying chickens per group received 10 mL Kg-1 of the extracts. In vitro results indicated that A. squamosa AE at the concentrations 2.4 and 9.6 mg mL-1 could kill 63.33% and 53.33% nematodes, respectively. However, EE did not have any significant effect. According to the in vivo test, the elimination percentage for AE was 39% and for EE, 20%. These data suggest that the substance responsible for parasite mortality was present at a higher concentration in the aqueous fraction. Thus, A. squamosa AE is believed to have a potential anthelmintic activity on A. galli.
Anthelmintics; Annona squamosa; Ascaridia galli; plant extracts
