Review article Medicinal plants used as anthelmintics: Ethnomedical, pharmacological, and phytochemical studies Juan Carlos Romero-Benavides a, b, * , Ana Lucía Ruano b, c , Ronal Silva-Rivas a, b , Paola Castillo-Veintimilla a, b , Sara Vivanco-Jaramillo a, b , Natalia Bailon-Moscoso d a Departamento de Química y Ciencias Exactas, Universidad T ecnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), San Cayetano alto s/n, CP:1101608, Loja, Ecuador b Programa Nacional para el Abordaje Multidisciplinario de las parasitosis desatendidas en el Ecuador PROPAD, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones en Salud Pública LIP, Ecuador c Facultad de Ciencias M edicas, Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador d Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad T ecnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano alto s/n, CP:1101608, Loja, Ecuador article info Article history: Received 7 December 2016 Received in revised form 6 January 2017 Accepted 4 February 2017 Available online 16 February 2017 Keywords: Antihelmintic Ethnomedicine Secondary metabolites Plant extracts abstract Intestinal parasites delay mental and physical development in children. Infection with these parasites can result in complications during pregnancy and alter the health of newborns, which has long-term effects on educational attainment and economic productivity. The appearance of resistance against classical drug treatments generates interest in the development of new deworming alternatives. We think that research of new plants species may reveal potential antiparasitic compounds. This review is focused on the use of plants and secondary metabolites against intestinal parasites. We discuss the use of plants in traditional medicine and the use of plant secondary metabolites tried in in vitro and in vivo models when available. © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 209 2. Plant species used in ethnomedicine with anthelmintic properties ...................................................................... 210 3. Plant extracts characterized in in vitro and in vivo studies ............................................................................. 210 4. In vitro studies of secondary metabolites ............................................................................................. 214 5. Secondary plant metabolites with in vivo activity .............................................. ....................................... 214 6. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 215 Conflicts of interest ............................................................ ................................................... 216 Acknowledgments ............................................................ .................................................... 216 Supplementary data ............................................................................................................... 216 References ........................................................................................................................ 216 1. Introduction According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.5 billion people, or 24% of the world's population, are infected with soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) [1]. Morbidity induced by infection with the major STHs results in an estimated 5.19 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) [2]. Infections are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical areas, with the greatest numbers occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, China, and East Asia where coinfection with schistosomes and soil-transmitted helminths is common [1]. * Corresponding author. Departamento de Química y Ciencias Exactas, Uni- versidad T ecnica Particularde Loja (UTPL), San Cayetano alto s/n, Loja, CP:1101608, Ecuador. E-mail address: jcromerob@utpl.edu.ec (J.C. Romero-Benavides). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ejmech http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2017.02.005 0223-5234/© 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 129 (2017) 209e217