In vitro effects of Cucurbita moschata seed extracts on Haemonchus contortus

This study was carried out to evaluate the in vitro effect of Cucurbita moschata seed against the parasitic nematode of small ruminants Haemonchus contortus. Three extracts (aqueous, methanolic and dichloromethane) of C. moschata seed were tested in vitro on four developmental stages of H. contortus using egg hatch assay (EHA), larval development assay (LDA), L3 migration inhibition (LMI) assay and adult worm motility (AWM) assay. The highly significant (P < 0.001) ability to stop larval development (inhibition > 90% for each extract) and the negative effect of the dichloromethane and methanolic extracts on adult worm motility (inhibition of motility >59.2% after 24 h of incubation) compared to the negative controls, suggest anthelmintic properties of C. moschata seed against H. contortus. The active principles responsible for the activity could be secondary metabolites such as amino acid compounds or terpenoid compounds present in the extracts.