A literature review of plants with antiparasitic properties against horse endoparasites

In light of the expansion of anthelmintic resistance, this literature review focusses on plant use against common endoparasites in horses: strongyles, cyathostomins, and ascarids, all of which negatively impact the horse's quality of life. Evidence-based literature from databases such as ScienceDirect and PubMed and search engines such as GoogleScholar was selected, and publications that met the criteria were included in the review. The plants included in the review are native species in Europe or can be easily grown in the provided climate. The search provided a total of 5936 publications from which, after evaluation, only 12 were included in the review. The main aim of the research was to compare the efficacy of selected plants by evaluating the information of the study design, a plant component or preparation and its concentration used in the investigation, and the results obtained, while also describing the bioactive compounds that are responsible for the potential antiparasitic effect. The search covered commonly mentioned plants with anthelmintic potential for equines, and in the result, only eight of the plants had their effectiveness evaluated in the form of research, Artemisia absinthium, Hippophae rhamnoides, Onobrychis viciifolia, Allium sativum, Inula helenium, Zingiber officinale, Cichorium intybus and Pimpinella anisum. The results emphasize the necessity for further explorations to be made - the results tend to be inconsistent with each other, showing that there might be a possibility for the plants to become a part of routine anthelmintic therapy, but many of the findings have not been convincing enough so far.