Author(s): Dipti Ranjan Behera and Sunita Bhatnagar

Abstract: The present investigation deals with the antifilarial activity study of six combretaceae family plants in terms of worm motility, MTT reduction and GST inhibition assays. The antifilarial activity was assessed by the treatment of methanolic extracts on target parasite Setaria cervi at doses 2.5, 5 and 10mg/ml with simultaneous use of control or untreated worms. In vitro worm motility and MTT reduction assay exhibited that methanolic extract of Terminalia arjuna was most active among all the six plant extracts showing motility inhibition at only 2hrs of incubation at 37 ºC with IC₅₀ value of 1.8mg/ml. DEC standard showed IC₅₀ value of 2.84mg/ml i.e. higher than the T. arjuna plant extract. Inhibition effect of active extracts of T. arjuna and C. albidum at 5 and 10mg/ml along with DEC standard on Glutathione-s-transferase was studied by spectrophotometric method. The methanolic extract of T. arjuna plant showed percentage inhibition value of 69.98% at 10mg/ml on GST of Setaria cervi. The GST activity was studied on both treated and untreated worms. We found that the methanolic extract of Terminalia arjuna contains some active constituents that selectively kill the adult parasites thereby providing maximum efficacy among all the six plant extracts and DEC standard.