Guinea worm Intestine

Humans become infected with guinea worms by drinking water contaminated by infected Cyclops. On reaching the intestine, the Ci/clops get digested by gastric juice liberating free larvae which pierce the intestinal mucosa and reach the connective tissues where they live and attain sexual maturity in about a year. 

N early 60% of illness around the world is due to contaminated water and lack of sewer treatment. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 2.4 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation facifities, and more than one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. Unclean water causes diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, guinea worm infection, typhoid, intestinal worm infection and trachoma [3]. According to the WHO, four bilfion people get diarrhoea every year that kills nearly 1.8 million people of which 90% are children under the age of five. 

Traditional use A water infusion of the aboveground parts is used to treat colitis, intestinal colic, and as a laxative for constipation, as well as a hemostatic to treat hemoptysis, and menstrual and hemorrhoid hemorrhages. A water extract of the dried plant collected during flowering stage is used as an antiprotist and antibacterial. A decoction of the roots is used to treat guinea worm and jaundice. Young stems are used as a source of vitamins. Leaves are used as a diuretic and a decoction of the leaves is used to treat headaches (Zolotnitskaya 1965 Makhlayuk 1967). 

Bengal. In the Ayurvedic system of medicine, it is said to be useful in flatulence, cold, rheumatism, intestinal worms, anemia, fever and jaundice. The outstanding effect of arborine, isolated from this plant, is inhibition of the peripheral action of acetylcholine on rat uterus, on guinea pig ileum and on skeletal muscle. It also markedly inhibits the action of pituitrin on the rat uterus. The arborine-induced fall in blood pressure in the intact cat is central in origin, being absent in the spinal cat, but present in the vagotomized animal 37, 43). 

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