THERAPEUTIC EFFICACY OF SOME NATURAL MEDICINALS AGAINST GIARDIA IN VIVO AND ASSOCIATED MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES
*Magda M. Sanad and °Areej J. Al-Ghabban
*Department of Zoology, College of Science, Female Center for Scientific and Medical Colleges, King Saud University, P.O. Box 22452, Riyadh 11495, Saudi Arabia and °Department of Biology, Girls College of Education, Tabouk University, Tabouk, Saudi Arabia
Giardia lamblia, the causative agent of giardiasis, is a protozoan intestinal flagellate that infects humans, specially children, allover the world. The current therapeutic agents have considerable adverse effects or be contraindicated in certain clinical situations or show failure due to drug resistance. Using a mouse model, the intent of the present study was to evaluate the in vivo therapeutic efficacy of garlic plant, wheat germ agglutinin "WGA" and selenium in comparison with metronidazole, and to declare their impact on ultrastructure of luminal trophozoites. The patent period, intensity of infection, cyst shedding and cure rate in groups treated by the natural therapeutics revealed a highly significant difference in comparison with the non-treated control and insignificant difference in comparison with metronidazole, a finding that might be beneficial at least in clinical situations where current chemotherapy is contraindicated. All of the tested therapeutics proved to be injurious to the parasite with evident morphological changes. While garlic appeared to induce changes that interfere with the progress of trophozoite motility, selenium seemed to be more destructive to the parasite and WGA seemed to be evidently lethal to the parasite with plenty of luminal ghosts.
June 2011