In vitro and in vivo anthelmintic activities of Iris kashmiriana Linn.

In search of a natural antiparasitic, in vitro and in vivo anthelmintic activities of methanol and aqueous extracts of Iris kashmiriana Linn. rhizome were tested against gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep. A worm motility inhibition assay was used for in vitro study and a faecal egg count reduction assay was used for in vivo study. Crude aqueous extracts of I. kashmiriana exhibited greater anthelmintic activity against Haemonchus contortus than crude methanolic extract (P < 0.05). The aqueous extracts of I. kashmiriana resulted in a mean worm motility inhibition of 85.0%, while methanolic extracts resulted in a mean worm motility inhibition of 100.0%. The in vivo anthelmintic activity of aqueous and methanolic extracts of I. kashmiriana in sheep naturally infected with mixed gastrointestinal nematodes species demonstrated a maximum (70.27%) egg count reduction in sheep treated with aqueous extracts at 2 g kg−1 body weight on day 15 after treatment, closely followed by methanolic extracts at 1 g kg−1 body weight on day 15 after treatment (33.17% egg count reduction) while as lethal concentration (LC50) values of aqueous and methanolic extracts of I. kashmiriana on adult worms of gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep H. contortus are 18.50 mg/ml and 16.66 mg/ml respectively. Thus aqueous extracts exhibited greater anthelmintic activity under both in vitro and in vivo conditions; this could be due to the presence of water soluble active ingredients in I. kashmiriana. From the present study it can be suggested that I. kashmiriana rhizome exhibited significant anthelmintic activity against gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep and has the potential to contribute to the control of gastrointestinal nematode parasites of small ruminants.