Anthelmintic activity of Trikatu churna and its ingredients

Abstract

Aim: The alcoholic extract of Trikatu churna and its ingredients were evaluated for anthelmintic activity. Introduction: The dried fruits of Piper nigrum L. (Piperaceae), Piper longum L. (Piperaceae) and rhizome of Zingiber officinale Roscoe. (Zingiberaceae) were powdered and mixed together in equiproportions to get a polyherbal formulation, Trikatu churna. All these three ingredients are spicy, commonly used in our daily diet, also well known for their tremendous therapeutic potential, since from the Vedic period. Materials and Methods: The alcoholic extract of Trikatu churna and its ingredients were screened for preliminary phytochemical studies and also tested for anthelmintic activity against Pheritima posthuma and recorded the time taken for induction of paralysis and death. Piperazine citrate (10 mg/ml) was included as standard reference and distilled water as control. Result and Discussion: The results demonstrated that, the extracts of Trikatu churna and its plant ingredients showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, lignins, saponins and steroids, but P. nigrum has shown negative for steroid tests, P. longum for saponins and tannins, Z. officinale for Labat test (for Lignans). Where as, the Trikatu churna showed positive for all the above said tests. All these test samples were also exhibited potent anthelmintic activity, but the highest activity was noticed in Trikatu churna, this might be due to the multifunctional effect of all the three plant ingredients of Trikatu churna. Conclusion: Based on the above results, it is confirmed that, combination of Piper nigrum, Piper longum and Zingiber officinale in Trikatu churna offered promising anthelmintic effect than using the ingredients alone.