Scolicidal activity of some medicinal plant essential oils on Echinococcus granulosus protoscolices

We assessed a panel of six essential oils (EOs) including Clausena anisata, Lippia alba, Pimpinella anisum, Syzygium aromaticum, Litchi chinensis and Heracleum sphondylium for their chemical constituents and scolicidal activity on Echinococcus granulosus. Protoscolices were collected from fertile hydatid cysts and exposed to different concentrations of the EOs. After 10 min of exposure, S. aromaticum and C. anisata EOs at the concentration of 100 μg/ml resulted in the mortality rate of 63.33 and 51.33%, respectively. EOs of S. aromaticum, L. alba and C. anisata were the most potent with LC50 values of 16.8, 23.9 and 24.3 μg/ml, respectively. EO of L. alba showed a LC90 value of 442.7 μg/ml, which was significantly higher than S. aromaticum (58.4) and C. anisata (76.7). The obtained results demonstrated that EOs of S. aromaticum and C. anisata can be further studied for the development of new therapeutics and have the potential to be tested under in vivo conditions.