It is generally held that worm infestations are the most commonly encountered infections in man, with millions of people infected globally. When an individual is infected, the person excretes faeces infected with eggs of worms, thereby contaminating the soil.
Worm resides in the intestinal tract and other tissues of the host’s body, with symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea, itching around the anus, weight loss, tiredness and diarrhoea. Its invasion could result into cases of anaemia, pneumonia, and malnutrition.
Although the worm invasion is not known to be lethal as compared to other infections, they are thought to be recurrent among poor people living in poor sanitary conditions who also, due to financial constraints, are unable to access effective conventional medications.
Over the years, conventional medicines for intestinal worm, such as, albendazole have been widely patronised in treating worm infestations. However, due to cost of these medicines, their toxic effects, and reported cases of resistance development, their patronage and usefulness especially among people living in low-middle income countries, have been limited and substituted with cheaper alternatives, mainly, herbal medicines.
Several studies have documented the traditional or folkloric use of herbal medicines for deworming and scientific justifications have been widely documented for some of these medicinal plants. The stem bark, flowers, roots, and seeds of pawpaw tree have all been well documented to be used for the management of several conditions, including the management of intestinal worms.
Pawpaw tree is well known for its nutritional and medicinal values. The leaves are thought to increase breast milk and used in the treatment of tonsillitis and gingivitis. Different preparations from the leaves have found use in managing haemorrhoids, asthma, urinary tract infections and poultice for sores.
The fruit is used in treating indigestion, chronic diarrhoea, ringworm infections, bleeding piles, and amoebic dysentery. The roots have been suggested to be beneficial in managing arsenic poisoning. Howbeit, there are differences in the chemical composition of the various parts of the pawpaw tree. In a study, comparing the activities of these parts for intestinal worms, experts showed the seeds are more effective than the stem bark or leaves.
The study at the departments of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacognosy in the School of Pharmacy, Central University Accra, Ghana, found that the extracts from the seeds possess the highest de-worming activity.
The 2020 study in the journal, Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, indicated that extract from the seeds was more effective than the extract from the stem bark and leaves, both in reducing paralysis and death in worms.
In addition, the de-worming activities of all crude extracts prepared were more effective than albendazole in reducing paralysis time and death time. But the effects of these extracts were concentration dependent; increasing the concentration of the extract caused significant decline in both the paralysis time and death time recorded in worms.
For the study, three concentrations of ethanolic and hydroethanolic extracts of the plant parts were prepared and tested against Pheretima posthuma (earthworms) using albendazole as the positive control and 0.9 per cent normal saline solution as the negative control.
Preliminary phytochemical investigation found chemical substances such as alkaloids, saponins, and reducing sugars of glycosides in all the crude extracts of pawpaw as well as some oils only in the extracts of its seeds.
These observations were consistent with outcomes of previous studies reporting the de-worming effects of seeds, stem barks and leaves, and the latex from the fruit.
Other alternative treatments for worm infestation mentioned during informal oral interviews of folks about plants used in treating worm infestation, in rural areas in eastern Nigeria, were leaves of Irvingia gabonensis (locally called ogbono), Ficus exasperate (asisa in Igbo) and bitter leaf. The young, tender leaves are macerated in water and drunk.
In 2012, researchers, in Pharmaceutical Biology journal, said leaf extracts of F. exasperata, bitter leaf and I. gabonensis exhibited varying degrees of larvicidal activities on the infective stage larvae of Heligmosomoides bakeri in mice under laboratory conditions whereas F. exasperata showed no activity on the parasites.
Other plants with worm expelling properties include scent leaf, ginger, black walnuts, coconut, wormwood, garlic and pumpkin seeds. A mixture of ground pumpkin seeds and water can help expel tapeworms. Eating three cloves of raw garlic per day can help in getting rid of all types of intestinal worms.
Coconut is another useful remedy for intestinal worms. Take a tablespoon of blended coconut during breakfast, followed by 30ml of castor oil. Castor oil needs to be taken after two and a half hours. Some people use garlic as a complementary remedy for pinworm, hookworm, and roundworm infections. Pumpkin seeds contain a compound called cucurbitacin that very early studies suggested makes pumpkin seeds effective against internal parasites.
Dried or fresh young leaves of Corchorus olitorious are used as worm expeller by both communities and taken as curry once a week regularly. Similarly, one to four teaspoonfuls of the powdered seeds of Moringa olifera is administered for one week to kill worms.
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