Anthelmintic Activity of Nigella sativa against Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Increasing resistance against classical anthelmintic drugs makes discovering new anthelmintic compounds from natural plants important. Nigella sativa (N. sativa) is used as a medicinal plant overall the world and is known to have anthelmintic activity. Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), a common cost-effective model organism that is easily maintained, is useful to determine the anthelmintic activity of new compounds derived from natural products. In our study we aimed to evaluate through toxicity assays the nematocidal activity of N. sativa on C. elegans during its larval and adult stages. Different concentrations of N. sativa oil (900, 450 and 270 mg/mL) were tested and toxicity assessments were done under stereomicroscope by counting the number of surviving nematodes. This study showed that N. sativa essential oil significantly decreases survival of C. elegans in both larval and adult stages at 900 mg/mL final concentration. Larval-stage worms were more sensitive to N. sativa essential oil than were adults. We recommend further studies on other effects of N. sativa on C. elegans after removing the toxic compound(s) from the extract. The further discovery of N. sativa essential oil compounds responsible for anthelmintic activity and determination of their mechanisms of toxicity can pave the way toward new medicines.

Black Cumin Seed Extract Decrease Motility and Shortening Mortality Time of Ascaridia galli Worm In Vitro

“…Thymoquinone is also reported to cause oxidative damage to worm proteins and to increase host immunity as a defense against parasites (Ullah et al, 2017;Angel et al, 2018). Sen et al (2021) reported that thymoquinone could inhibits nonenzymatic lipid peroxidation, thus it will affect the organism's lipid structures. Another study by El-Naggar et al (2010) reported that black cumin had a sedative effect and the ability to accelerate the release of gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA).…”

In Vitro Susceptibility of Cryptosporidium parvum to Plant Antiparasitic Compounds

“…Al-Shaibani et al [ 60 ] found that aqueous and ethanol extracts of N. sativa had ED 50 values on in vitro egg hatching of a mixture of GI sheep nematodes, including H. contortus , of 2.2 × 10 7 ng/mL and 2 × 10 7 ng/mL, respectively, and both extracts reduced in vivo egg counts by 200 mg/kg p.o compared to untreated control sheep. In another study, the essential oil of N. sativa at 9 × 10 8 ng/mL significantly reduced the survival of C. elegans larval and adult stages compared to negative (1% ethanol) and positive (levamisole at 8 × 10 6 ng/mL) controls, with larvae being more sensitive than adult worms [ 61 ]. The seeds of N. sativa contain fixed and volatile oils, rich sources of quinones, unsaturated fatty acids, amino acids and proteins, and traces of alkaloids and terpenoids.…”