Effects of scent leaf (ocimum gratissimum) on intestinal helminths affecting local free range chickens

Scent leaf or Ocimum gratissimum is introduced to test its effectiveness as herbal purgatives in the treatment/eradication of gastrointestinal parasites in native chickens. Therefore, considering the side effects and the extracts and biologically protozoan builds against drugs, more attention should be given to the extracts and biologically active compounds which are isolated from plant species commonly used in herbal medicine. Hence, there is need for the study of potentials use of scent leaf (Ocimum gratissimmum) in the control of gastro-intestinal parasites of local free range chicken. A total of 18 local free range chickens were used for the study. The birds were sourced from the local community market at 17 weeks of age. The local birds were weighed to determine their initial body weight. Six (6) local chickens were allocated to three (3) treatment. The results reveals that all the free range chicken that were given scent leaf extract and commercial dewormer shows great reduction in number of eggs in their feaces. This indicates that scent leaf extract are equally effective as commercial dewormer (mebendazole). From the studies, Ocimum gratissimum is a good antioxidant and also has some medicinal and nutritive values. This method of gastrointestinal helminthes control/eradication is cheap and easy to practice and could be adopted to replace conventional use of anti-helminthic drugs because of recent development of resistance of the helminthes to these drugs. The formulation of the plant extract regimen could be carried out without much technical know-how and the use of highly sophisticated equipment. Consequently, rural dwellers could access this nascent method of eradication of gastrointestinal helminthes in local free range chickens with little training/orientation. From the results of this study it is recommended that Ocimum gratissimum extract and commercial dewormer (Mebendazole) be incorporated into the treatment of local free range chickens without any detrimental effect.