Parasites and plants – bioactive compounds with anti-parasitic effect from Cichorium intybus

Increasing resistance to the limited number of existing drugs against gastrointestinal parasites (GIP) has led to an urgent need to explore new control options. Cattle grazing on chicory (Cichorium intybus) have lower levels of Ostertagia ostertagi infection, indicating that chicory could be a promising anti-parasitic agent in cattle [1]. The putative active compounds in chicory are sesquiterpene lactones (SL) [1]. However, it is not known if the anti-parasitic effect is from the action of individual SL’s or a combined synergistic effect of different compounds within the plant.

In this project, we aimed to isolate and characterize the active compounds from chicory and assess their anti-parasitic activity in a number of GIP.

SL enriched extracts from five different chicory cultivars were prepared and analyzed by HPLC-MS. The extracts were tested for anti-parasitic effects using a model in vitro system based on assessing viability of third stage larvae of the swine nematode Ascaris suum. PCA analysis of the molecular profiles from different cultivars led to identification of likely groups of active compounds. In parallel, bio-guided fractionation of chicory MeOH:DCM extract on A. suum using in vitro assays led to several active fractions. The active fractions were submitted to flash chromatography and purified compounds were identified by NMR. Indeed one specific SL showed a moderate effect in the A.suum assay. Given the magnitude of the effect, a synergistic effect with other SL’s cannot be excluded. Further research is devoted to finding these synergistic combinations and explore the anti-parasitic effect of the identified single SL in other assays.

• References

• 1 Pena-Espinoza M, Thamsborg S. M, Desrues O, Hansen T. V, Enemark H. L. Anthelmintic effects of forage chicory (Cichorium intybus) against gastrointestinal nematode parasites in experimentally infected cattle. Parasitology 2016; 143 (10) : 1279-1293