It has been estimated that over billion people in the world are infected with some kind of worms. It has also been frequently stated by experts that in many parts of India, 90 per cent of the population may be carrying worm infection. The Ankylostoma duodenale is one of the two worms which causes hookworm infection. The larvae of this worm enters the body through the skin, reaches the blood where it grows into an adult worm. It can cause severe anaemia which result in weakness, breathlessness and swelling of limbs. Hookworm disease, which result in millions of man-hours lost and which shoes and not allowing the larvae in the soil to enter the body.
Allopathic medicine can treat hookworm disease by a drug recently discovered, Metronidazole. However, as is well known Metronidazole and other allopathic drugs are not always available to our rural population who actually suffer from hookworm disease. More drugs are needed for treating this disease.
The most promising plant for the treatment of hookworm is the Ebony, known as Diospyros mollis. The fruits of this tree is used in Thailand for treating infestation of worms. In the traditional system of medicine in Thailand, ten fruits of ebony tree are pounded together and the juice is given to the patient on an empty stomach. The juice is mixed with coconut milk. This has been mentioned in the book, Thai medicinal plants by Dr Nuntawan and Professor Farnsworth. A clinical trial on the effect of this plant on hookworm infection was carried out by Dr Saudn and Dr Vajrasthira on sixty patients in 1954. The results were published in the scientific journal, Parasitology in the same year. The investigators found that the juice of the fresh fruit and the coconut cured most of the patients and they became worm free. They found that the juice was more effective than Hexylresorcinol in patients with hookworm disease. There are several other research papers from Thailand with similar findings.
Dr H G Sen, a leading parasitologist in India has also worked with extracts of the fruit of the ebony plant. He has clearly demonstrated that the plant has an anti-hookworm effect on experimental animals. The work was carried out at the Ciba Laboratories at Goregaon and published in the German Scientific journal, Erzneimittle Forschung in the early 70s.
Surprisingly, Diospyros mollis does not appear to grow in India although the book Medicinal Plants of India contains information about Diospyros benum, Diospyrus melanoxylon and Diospyrus Montana. The common Hindi name of the plant is tendu. The work carried out on the medicinal properties of these three plants demonstrates many different kinds of activity but no evidence is presented indicating that any of them has an effect on hookworm disease. The alcoholic extract of the stem of Diospyros preagina was however found to have effective properties against the parasite which causes amoebiasis.
In view of the importance of finding a cheap, easily available plant which could cure hookworm disease, it would appear reasonable for Thai scientists to again take a good look at the fruits of Diospyrus mollis with a view of developing a drug for hookworm from this plant. At the same time Indian scientists should test the species of the ebony available in India, to see whether they posses any anti-hookworm activity.
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