Background: Helminthiases inflict annual losses on the meat and dairy
livestock industries. The commonest species of ruminant parasites are the
nematodes: Strongyloides papillosus and Haemonchus contortus,
which lay eggs in the intestine and enter the feces. There, the eggs develop into
larvae, which when voided with the feces crawl onto plants. Methods: In
our experiment, we evaluated the survivability of the noninvasive and invasive
(L and L, respectively) larvae of S. papillosus,
H. contortus (L), and Muellerius capillaris (L)
in vitro by subjecting each to natural compounds present in the
essential oils of many plants. In the experiment, we used aqueous emulsions of
eugenol, isoeugenol, thymol, and carvacrol. Results: Administering 1%
concentrations of those compounds killed 100% of the nematode larvae following
24 h of exposure. Thymol, eugenol, and isoeugenol at a concentration of 0.1%
also caused high larvae mortality (over 96%). Conclusions: Continuous
usage of synthetic anthelmintic drugs in veterinary medicine has led to the
parasites developing resistance, thus, a search for novel nematicidal drugs is
required. Eugenol, isoeugenol, thymol, and carvacrol are promising compounds
against nematodes. However, additional research is required regarding
peculiarities in their actions toward the bodies of mammals and parasitic
nematodes.