[Evaluation of antifungal and mollusuicidial activities of Moroccan Zizyphus lotus (L.) Desf].

Zizyphus lotus (L.) Desf. is one of the traditional drugs commonly used in folk medicine in Morocco. Extracts obtained from the successive exhaustion in petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol were in vitro found active either against nine pathogenic fungi and Bulinus truncatus, the intermediate host and vector of transmission of unitary schistosomiasis in Morocco. Particularly, the chloroform extract appears the most interesting in antifungal tests at lowest concentrations because of its countenance on terpenic compounds. Whereas, methanolic extract was found to possess the strong mollusuicidial activity and exhibited potent "knock-down" effect on molluscans related to its countenance on saponins.