Influence of ethanol–water (50%) extracts on the survival of the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans at 0.1 and 1 mg/mL after 72 h incubation time. Untreated Caenorhabditis elegans in medium containing 1% DMSO served as negative control (NC); levamisole HCl (40 mM) served as positive control (PC); **po0.01 compared to NC.
No significant mortality was found for Musa x paradisiaca (1.1% at 1 mg/mL) and no effect at all could be observed for the extracts of Brachyachne obtusiflora and Bryophyllum pinnatum.
The variations in the outcome of the in vitro tests could be explained at least to some extent by the use of different solvents for the extraction, but of course also by the test system.
It should be noted again that this result only refers to an activity against the soil-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and does not proof an inefficiency of the traditional treatment of the respective helminth diseases. Further investigations on differ- ent parasitic species would therefore be desirable where not conducted yet.