In vitro Scolicidal effects of methanolic extract of artemisia (Artemisia aucheri) and ginger (Zingiber officinale) on live protoscoleces of hydatid cyst

Hydatidosis is one of the dengerous zoonotic diseases that cause serious problems for human health, as well as major economic losses for livestock industry. Due to the nature of the parasite life cycle and also the structure of the cyst in human, the control of parasite in community is difficult and its treatment has faced with a major challenge. One of these challenges is inactivating the protoscolices for treatment purposes and preventing secondary cysts. Different chemicals have been used in the treatment of cyst that most of them had serious side effects for the patient. The aim of this study was investigating the scolicidal effects of some herbal extracts in vitro. Liver hydatid cysts were collected from slaughterhouse; the cysts fluid containing live protoscolex was aspirated aseptically and stored at 4°C until use. Three concentrations (25, 50 and 100 mg per ml) of each extract (ginger and artemisia) prepared and protoscoleces placed into incubator at 37oC. The viability of the protoscoleces was determined by eosin staining method at the times 5, 10, 25, 40 and 60 minutes. The methanolic extract of ginger at the concentration of 100 mg/ml leads to kill all of protoscoleces at 40 minutes. While the artemisia extract in none of investigated concentrations had not much effect on the protoscoleces. The study of animal models and complementary tests showed that methanolic extract of ginger can be used as an effective protoscolex for it has high activity.