Intestinal and Urinary Parasites600 mg oregano oil extract was orally administered for 6-weeks to 14 patients who had tested positive for the intestinal parasites Blastocystis hominis, Entamoeba hartmanni and Endolimax nana. After the 6 week treatment there was complete disappearance of Entamoeba hartmanni in 4 cases, Endolimax nana in 1 case, and Blastocystis hominis in 8 cases. Gastrointestinal symptoms also improved in 7 of the 11 patients who had tested positive for Blastocystis hominis.
Oregano extract immobilized all of the furcocercariae (parasitic larva) of Schistosoma haematobium exposed to the extract within 15 min. Schistosoma haematobium are parasites found in the urinary bladder.
Mexican oregano (Lipia beriandieri) extract has been shown in vitro to be effective against the giardia parasite, and superior to tinidazol which is a drug of common use in the treatment of giardiasis.
Ref: Force M, Sparks WS, Ronzio RA. Inhibition of enteric parasites by emulsified oil of oregano in vivo. Phytother Res. 2000 May;14(3):213-4. PMID: 10815019.
In the world, giardiasis is still a very important parasitic disease; only in Asia, Africa and America, there are more than 200 million of infected people in a year. The usual treatments are drugs that produce undesirable secondary effects, perhaps favouring the resistant strain selection.
One alternative is to research compounds from plants used as antidiarrhoeic or antiparasitic in the traditional medicine. In a previous work, we found that Lippia beriandieri (Oregano) revealed to be more potent than tinidazole, a common antigiardiasic drug.
Parasitol Res. 2006 May;98(6):557-60. Epub 2006 Jan 20.