Novel anthelmintic compounds and molluscicides from medicinal plants

This review assesses the role that can be played by allelochemicals (bioactive secondary compounds) from medicinal and other plants in the control of human helminthic diseases. In the search for new anthelmintics among plant allelochemicals, 3 practical issues have considerable significance. They are the range and capacity of anthelmintic bioassays utilised in preclinical studies in vitro on plant extracts, the phenomenon of coexistent allelochemicals with overlapping activity spectra within single plants, and the problem of non-specific cytotoxins among plant allelochemicals. These topics are discussed in the context of the present absence of any clinically useful plant anthelmintics. In the search for new plant molluscicides for schistosomiasis control, the characteristics of a range of molluscicidal plants are measured against those of the synthetic molluscicide of choice, niclosamide, and against the postulated attributes of practically useful plant molluscicides.