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Helminthic infections continue to be the major health hazard to the people, especially those living in tropical developing countries. Although these infections do not cause significant morbidity and mortality when compared with many other parasitic infections, they do cause substantial, but often less measurable effects. For example, infections with gastrointestinal helminths often lead to malabsorbtion, diarrhoea, anaemia and other states of poor health, particularly in infants and school-age children. Though there are several synthetic anthelmintics available at the present time against these parasites, the fact remains that a large proportion of the world’s population still does not have access to, or cannot afford to pay for modern medicines, particularly in remote rural areas in poor countries. Besides, the continued usage of current anthelmintic drugs is also posing a major problem of drug resistance in several parasite species. There is thus an urgent need for newer and inexpensive drugs that are able to act for longer periods before resistance sets in. In this context, traditional medicines, based largely on medicinal plants, offer a major and accessible source of health care to people living in developing countries.

For much of our past history, forages, plant parts or extracts have been used to combat worm infections, and in many parts of the world natural products are still in use as herbal remedies. In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in new reports of the antiparasitic activity of natural products, both from scientific studies and from studies into the traditional uses of these products for treating diseases. Thus, plant/herbal based medicines are …