Public Library of Science, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 6(7), p. e2251, 2013
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002251
Full text: Download
Schistosomiasis is a disease caused by parasitic worms of several species of genus Schistosoma that affects almost 200 million people mostly common in Asia, Africa and South America. The transmission is carried out by the parasitic larvae hosted in fresh water snails of the genus Biomphalaria. Considering the socioeconomic importance of this disease, the management of the snail population in the lakes and fresh water sources is one strategy to control the schistosomiasis. Nowadays, one synthetic compound, niclosamide, is available, but it is considered toxic to other organisms in the environment. Thus in this work piplartine was evaluated as a new active natural molluscicide extracted from a tropical plant. In addition a fish Danio rerio and a microcrustacean Daphnia similis were used as model organisms to evaluate the environmental toxicity risk of piplartine that was less toxic compared to niclosamide in the experimental conditions.