Evaluation of Methylene Blue as An Effective Antiseptic for Medicinal Leeches ().

OBJECTIVE

Medicinal leeches ( spp.) have been used for therapeutic purposes in humans since ancient times. Because of their growth conditions, leeches carry certain bacteria and endosymbionts (e.g., spp). In both leech farms and hirudotherapy clinics, there are no reliable antiseptics that can be used with leeches. This study aimed to determine whether methylene blue (MB) is a safe antiseptic for medicinal leeches and assess its safe usage.

METHODS

This study evaluated the efficacy of MB by determining lethal concentrations (LC), effective concentrations (EC), and lethal times (LT) for the medicinal leech Carena, 1820. A total of 570 specimens obtained from a local farm were used in this study. Eighteen different concentrations of MB (between 1 ppm and 512 ppm) were tested.

RESULTS

The LC and EC values for were determined to be 60.381 (53.674-66.636) ppm and 2.013 (1.789-2.221) ppm, respectively. The LT50 durations for MB concentrations of 32 and 512 ppm were calculated as 212.92 h (138.43 h-1485.78 h) and 17.82 h (8.08 h-23.90 h), respectively.

CONCLUSION

The results show that MB concentrations between 2 and 19 ppm can be safely used as antiseptics in hirudotherapy clinics and leech farms to address bacterial concerns caused by medicinal leeches.