Constituents and Anthelmintic Activity Evaluation of Albizia Adiantifolia (Schumach) W.F. Wright Essential Oils FromNigeria

Albizia adiantifolia (Schumach) W.F. Wright (Fabaceae) is a plant used traditionally in treating different health ailments which includes worm infections. The essential oils (EOs) were obtained by hydrodistillation in an all glass Clevenger apparatus, and characterized by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis (GC-MS). In vitro petri-dish anthelmintic activity was carried out using adult earthworm, Eudrilus eugeniae. The leaves, stem bark and root bark EOs afforded a total of 40, 26 and 20 constituents representing 90.9%, 94.1% and 90.9% of the total oil fractions respectively. The classes of compounds identified in the leaves, stem bark and root bark are oxygenated monoterpenes (4.1%, 1.7% and 4.0% respectively), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (39.5%, 67.3% and 42.6% respectively), oxygenated sesquiterpenes (18.7%, 22.3% and 30.1% respectively), non-terpene derivatives (12.1%, 2.6% and 14.2% respectively) and apocarotenoids (16.5% and 0.2% in the leaves and stem-bark). β-caryophyllene (23.0%), E-geranylacetone (7.4%), acorenone (6.4%), viridiflorol (6.4%), α-zingiberene (6.3%) and ar-curcumene (4.6%) were the major constituents in the leaves oil, β-caryophyllene (39.3%), selin-11-en-4-α-ol (10.4%), α-zingiberene (9.6%), ar-curcumene (7.2%), caryophyllene oxide (6.4%) and α-humulene (5.6%) were the major constituents in the stem bark oil, while β-caryophyllene (32.1%), selin-11-en-4-α-ol (13.1%), caryophyllene oxide (8.4%), pentadecanal (6.1%) and α -humulene (4.4%) were the major constituents in the root bark oil. β -caryophyllene dominated the oils. The leaf EO was the most active against E. eugeniae worm. All the oils showed a relatively higher activity compared to Albendazole, in a concentration dependent manner. There was significant difference (p<0.001) in activity.