Anthelmintic potency of Rumex crispus L. extracts against Caenorhabditis elegans and non-targeted identification of the bioactive compounds

Traditional healers and ethnoveterinary therapists use severalmedicinal plants, such asRumex crispusL., to treatendoparasiteinfections.R. crispushas been established by researchers to be effective agasint a few parasitic worms. In this study, we evaluated the potency ofR. crispusextracts on the model organism,Caenorhabditis elegansand the bioactive compounds of the extracts were also identified. The solvent extracts ofR. crispuswere tested againstC. elegansfor up to 72h. The effect of the extracts onC. eleganswas examined using light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). LM and SEM analysis showed damage on the body wall, reduced body and slight modifications of the nematode organs. Thelethalitytest reveals a significant reduction in the viability of the nematode with the water extract of leaf (LF-WAE), among others, having the strongest potency against the nematode, with 83% lethality. Anlysis done with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra reveals various characteristic vibration bands and fingerprint bands at 3400–600cm−1, identifying phenols, organic acids, aromatics, amines, among others in the plant. The compounds were identified with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), under the categories of flavonoids, steroidalalkaloidsand proanthocyanidin. In conclusion, this study confirmed thatR. crispushas anthelmintic potential, using standardisedC. elegansmodels as a tool and suggests that there could be novel compounds yet to be explored in the studied plant that could be of great benefit to livestock and humans.