In vitro response of Blastocystis hominis against traditional Chinese medicine

This is the first inn vitro study on the activity of 20 kinds of crude extracts of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on the intestinal parasite, Blastocystis hominis using the criteria of living cell count (LCC) and living cell rate (LCR). LCC and LCR were applied as observation indicators, the former as a fixed-quantity and the latter as a fixed-quality method. LCR calculated percentage rate of living cells using eosin-brilliant cresyl blue staining which could differentiate between living cells and dying or dead cells. There were five extracts with no inhibitory activity, thirteen with moderate inhibition and two with high inhibition. The crude extracts of Coptis chinensis (CC) and Brucea javanica (BJ) were found to be most active against B. hominis. The active concentration of CC was 100 micrograms/ml. The active concentration of BJ was 500 micrograms/ml. The active concentration of metronidazole (MD) was 10 micrograms/ml and this was taken as an active standard drug for B. hominis.