Medicinal plants as potential bioresource of anticoccidial drugs

Coccidiosis is a lethal managemental disease of poultry. It causes high mortality in affected flocks and results in the annual loss of millions of US dollars by the poultry industry. To control coccidiosis, yearly expenditures on anticoccidial drugs total approximately $650,000. For poultry producers, this is probably the largest expenditure for medication. In India and other developing countries where a large percentage of the population is unemployed, cheap food production is necessary. If the control of the coccidian parasite could be made more economical, these savings could be passed on to the consumer. In Europe, where the economics are different, people are becoming more aware of the potential dangers of using antimicrobials in producing animal protein. A solution to all these problems could be the use of plant products that function by mechanisms other than those of chemotherapeutics, with the additional advantage of a natural origin. The present article provides a background on coccidiosis and reviews the advantage of using medicinal plants as source of anticoccidial drugs.