Peppermint (Mentha piperita) and albendazole against anisakiasis in an animal model

Abstract

Abstractobjectives Therapy against anisakiasis requires invasive techniques to extract L 3 , and an effective drug against this nematode is needed. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of peppermint essential oil (EO) and its main components against the parasite in comparison to albendazole, a drug currently prescribed to treat anisakiasis.methods We conducted in vitro experiments and studied an experimental model simulating the human infection in Wistar rats. We used polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism to identify A. simplex s.s. and A. pegreffii and determine any differences in their pathogenicity and susceptibility to the treatments.results The in vitro and in vivo experiments both showed that the larvicidal activity of peppermint EO, menthol, menthone and menthyl acetate is higher than that of albendazole. Large stomach lesions were observed in 46.7% of the albendazole-treated rats, whereas no gastrointestinal lesions were detected in those treated with peppermint EO, menthol, menthyl acetate or menthone.conclusions In this animal model, treatment with peppermint EO or its main components was more effective than was treatment with albendazole. Lesions were more frequently produced by A. simplex s.s. larvae than by A. pegreffii larvae.

Natural products: Perspectives in the pharmacological treatment of gastrointestinal anisakiasis

“…Essential oil of Thymus vulgaris (T. vulgaris) was found to act on L3 larvae when added to the muscle tissue of the parasitized fish at a concentration of 10% in sunflower oil. In most cases, alterations were observed in the morphology of the larva, mainly involving the cuticle and the digestive tract, especially the ventricular area [23][24][25][26][27][28]. Essential oil of Piper nigrum (P. nigrum) killed 83.3% of parasites at 125 mg/mL while Myristica fragans (M. fragans) showed no activity (data not published).…”

“…The essential oils of M. piperita and M. chamomilla were studied in vivo by Romero et al [25][26][27], and it was observed that in rats treated with chamomile essential oil in conjunction with the larvae, only 2.2% had lesions in the gastric mucous membrane, as opposed to 93.3% in the control group. In rats treated with peppermint essential oil, no lesions appeared in the gastrointestinal tract, nor were there any larvae attached to the digestive tract, from which we can deduce that this essential oil significantly (P < 0.001) reduces the pathogenic capacity of the larvae when compared to the control.…”

“…Concentration [23] T. vulgaris 10% in oil sunflower 100.0 7 [28] M. chamomilla 125 mg/mL 100.0 4 [25][26][27] M. piperita concentrations of certain compounds found in Z. officinale and P. frutescens, such as [6]-shogaol (62.5 mg/mL), [6]-gingerol (250 mg/mL), perillaldehyde (125 mg/mL) and perillyl alcohol (250 mg/mL). Moreover, Lin et al [31] Suzuki et al [32] studied the effect of other compounds of natural origin.…”

Current knowledge on use of essential oils as alternative treatment against fish parasites

“…Many of these bioactive molecules are found at low concentrations (less than 1%), while a few of them are major compounds that can represent up to 70% of the total volume of oil and are mainly responsible for the bioactive effects of the EO (Bakkali et al, 2008;Cunha et al, 2017). Several of these secondary metabolites of medicinal plants present diverse antiparasitic activity (Bakkali et al, 2008;Soares and Tavares-Dias, 2013;Romero et al, 2014, Valero et al, 2015Hashimoto et al, 2016, Soares et al, 2016Sharifi-Rad et al, 2017).…”

“…Most of the in vitro studies on the effects of EOs or their compounds have been directed to A. simplex (Valero et al, 2015), a nematode that can cause zoonosis in humans (Hierro et al, 2004;Romero et al, 2014;Giarratana et al, 2015;Valero et al, 2015;Pérez et al, 2016), along with monogeneans (Tab. 2), which are helminths ectoparasites that cause great economic losses in fish farming due to epizootics (Steverding et al, 2005;Soler-Jiménez et al, 2017).…”