Medicinal Herb Extracts Inhibit Growth of Rhabditis elongata : Nematoda:Rhabditidae

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

We tested the influence of extracts from three medicinal herbs -- Salvia miltiorrhiza, Schizandra chinensis, and Eugenia caryophyllata -- on activity of the nematode Rhabditis elongata. Treatment with E. caryophyllata was most useful, causing the greatest decrease in populations and mobility, but did not have any detrimental effect on the initial growth of the host microorganism, Escherichia coli. For example, when 0.5 g/L of the extract was added to an inoculated liquid culture, we counted 710 nematodes/mL, with a multiplication rate 5 times greater than the initial population. This was in contrast to the control sample, which had a count of 1100 nematodes/mL and a growth ratio of 11. For our field test, nematode mobility in the presence of the extract also decreased, to 6.8㎜/day, compared with 20㎜/day for the control. Likewise, when 1.0 g/L of the extract was added to the soil, the total number of nematodes was reduced to only 30- to 40% of the control population.