Ovicidal and larvicidal potential of Rosmarinus officinalis to control gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep

Abstract Gastrointestinal Nematode Infection (GIN) are the main constraint to the production of small ruminants. Studies of medicinal plants have been an important alternative in the effort to control these parasites. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the in vitro ovicidal and larvicidal activity of essential oil of Rosmarinus officinalis. The oil was extracted, analyzed by gas chromatography and tested on GIN eggs and larvae in six concentrations, 227.5mg/mL, 113.7mg/mL, 56.8mg/mL, 28.4mg/mL, 14.2mg/mL and 7.1mg/mL. To determine the ovicidal activity, GIN eggs were recovered from sheep feces and incubated for 48h with different concentrations of the oil. For the evaluation of larval migration, third-stage larvae (L3) were obtained by fecal culture, and associated with the essential oil for 24h at the same concentrations, after which they were left for another 24 hours on microsieves, followed by the count of migrating and non-migrating larvae. The assays of R. officinalis oil showed a significant (p<0.05) 97.4% to 100% inhibition of egg hatching and a significant (p<0.05) 20% to 74% inhibition of larval migration. The main constituent revealed by gas chromatography was Eucalyptol. The results indicate that R. officinalis essential oil has ovicidal and larvicidal activity on sheep GINs.