Medicinal Plant Preparations Administered by Botswana Traditional Health Practitioners for Treatment of Worm Infections Show Anthelmintic Activities.

Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths are some of the priority neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) targeted for elimination by the World Health Organization (WHO). They are prevalent in Botswana and although Botswana has begun mass drug administration with the hope of eliminating soil-transmitted helminths as a public health problem, the prevalence of schistosomiasis does not meet the threshold required to warrant large-scale interventions. Although Botswana has a modern healthcare system, many people in Botswana rely on traditional medicine to treat worm infections and schistosomiasis. In this study, ten plant species used by traditional health practitioners against worm infections were collected and tested against (zoonotic hookworm), (roundworm of rodents), (New World hookworm), (blood fluke) [adult and newly transformed schistosomula (NTS)], (threadworm) and (nematode parasite of mice) in vitro. Extracts of two plants, and , displayed promising anthelmintic activity against NTS and adult , respectively. displayed 85.4% activity at 1 μg/mL against NTS, while displayed 78.5% activity against adult at 10 μg/mL.