Swollen and vacuolated hepatocytes were reported in all of the animals. In 13 animals, cellular changes were accompanied by buy RG7204 a randomly distributed focal to multifocal lymphocytic infiltration. Microscopic changes
in the kidneys were characterised by slight cytoplasmic vacuolation in the tubular epithelium and focal lymphocytic inflammatory infiltration in the cortical interstitium. These changes were observed in only one animal in the group treated with sisal, whereas two goats in the negative control group demonstrated tubular changes characterised by a discrete cellular vacuolation and cystic dilatation of some cortical tubular structures. The treatment of goats with AESW had a partial effect on the number of eggs and L3 larvae, but there was no difference (p > 0.05) in the number of adult worms between the group I and negative control. These results indicate that AESW was not effective in controlling gastrointestinal Volasertib nematodes, considering that the effectiveness of an anthelmintic is defined a reduction of greater than 90% ( Vercruysse et al., 2001). However, fewer parasites were detected in the group treated with sisal compared to the negative control group, which may suggest the presence of compounds with activity against nematodes in the aqueous extract. The activity of AESW was more effective against the development of L3. This result is likely due to the residual effects of the extract in the faeces of treated animals,
which may contribute to reduce the contamination of pastures with infective-stage parasites (L3). Domingues (2008) treated goats with 0.9 g/kg BW/day of liquid waste (-)-p-Bromotetramisole Oxalate from A. sisalana during a period of eight days, and discovered a 36% reduction in total number of L3 larvae in coprocultures, but no decrease in FECs. The daily dose of the extract used in that study was 95% higher than the amount used in the current study, which may explain the higher percentage reduction observed for L3 larvae and FECs. These results suggest an association between the dose and the anthelmintic effect. The antiparasitic activity of various plants that contain saponins
has been described by Chapagain et al. (2008). The associated mechanism of action may be due to the destabilisation of membranes and increased cell permeability (Francis et al., 2002), because the saponins consist of a sugar moiety linked to a hydrophobic aglycone (triterpenoid or steroid), and are characterised based on their ability to reduce the surface tension of water in addition to their, detergent and emulsifying properties. The steroidal saponins from the Agavaceae family have been described (Simmons-Boyce and Tinto, 2007). Thus, the aqueous extract from sisal waste (AESW) was partitioned using iso-butanol to remove any small water-soluble molecules such as sugar. The iso-butanol was subjected to 1H NMR (Fig. 1) to analyse the major component. In this spectra, two distinct regions were observed: sterols (0.5–1.5) and sugars (4–5 ppm).