Quincy Lou G. Delfin, Mel Vincent U. Oliva, Maja Sefra M. Peralta (March 2009)
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PSHS WVC), Brgy. Bito-on, Jaro, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
ABSTRACT
The common parasitic worm found in humans is the nematode Ascaris lumbricoides. Each female Ascaris lays up to 240,000 eggs. Therefore, several thousands of eggs will be passed in the feces of the infected individual and are thus present in wastewater, contaminated soil or drinking water sources.
Neem elaborates a vast array of biologically active compounds that are chemically diverse and structurally complex. All parts of the neem tree are recognized to possess wide range of pharmacological effects.
This study determined the effects of different concentrations of neem leaf extracts on the percent mortality of Ascaris lumbricoides eggs for up to 72 hours of exposure. The eggs were stained using Trypan blue and the number of viable eggs was initially counted. The eggs were exposed to 10%, 20%, 30% neem, Mebendazole as positive control and saline solution as negative control. The number of viable eggs was counted after 24, 48 and 72 hours of exposure and the percent mortality at these time intervals were computed.
One-way ANOVA showed that the percent mortality of Ascaris lumbricoides eggs after 24, 48, and 72 hours of exposure to the Neem leaf extract has no significant difference with the percent mortality after exposure to Mebendazole and Saline solution.
However, since there is no significant difference between the percent mortality after exposure to saline solution and Mebendazole, no valid conclusion can be drawn from the results because of the high variability within replicates and the questionable viability of the eggs used for the experiment.