A TEST OF RAW ONIONS IN THE DIET AS A CONTROL 
MEASURE FOR WORMS IN DOGS 1 
By M. C. Hall, J. E. Shillinger, and E. B. Cram, Bureau of Animal Industry , 
United States Department of Agriculture 
INTRODUCTION 
Recently, Blanchasal {8 ) 2 has rec¬ 
ommended that as soon as pups are 
old enough to take any food other than 
mother’s milk they be fed two to 
three raw onions in minced meat or in 
hard-boiled egg with bread and milk 
added to make a fine paste. According 
to him, onions are anthelmintic when 
used raw, but not when cooked. This 
idea that onions are anthelmintic is 
not confined to veterinary medicine. 
Wolff {13) has recently noted that at 
Paramaribo, in Dutch Guiana, the 
British-Indian population has a low 
incidence of ascarid infestation (35 per 
cent) as compared with that of the 
negro population (76 per cent) and 
that of the creole population (58 per 
cent), and the suggestion is made by 
him that this lessened incidence may 
be due to an anthelmintic action of the 
onions, garlic, and other herbs which 
enter into the diet of the British 
Indians. The antiquity of this belief 
may be judged from the statement of 
Khalil {6) that Avicenna (this name 
being the Latinized form of Ibn Sina), 
who was born in 981 and died in 1037, 
recommended garlic, among other 
things, for “long worms.” As further 
evidence it may be noted from an 
article in the Hospital and Health 
Review (£), on “Folk Lore in Medi¬ 
cine,” that in Brittany the peasants 
wear as a protection against worms an 
amulet composed of cloves of garlic 
threaded together lengthwise on an 
ordinary string. This is worn as a 
collar and its charm is believed to act 
both as a preventive and as a cure for 
worms. Onion clysters are commonly 
recommended for pinworms. 
The idea that articles of diet may 
have anthelmintic value is widespread 
and has received more or less attention 
from medical men. In many cases 
there is practically no evidence given 
to support the belief, but in other in¬ 
stances there is some available evidence 
in regard to the value of certain sub¬ 
stances. Diet has been reported as a 
factor in the control of pinworms. 
Recently Nyberg ( 8) has recommended 
the use of fresh blueberries for oxyuri¬ 
asis. Adults and large children are 
advised to eat half a liter of the fresh 
berries three or four times during the 
first day and once a day as a meal for the 
next six days. His original article is not 
available and his evidence in support 
of the idea that the treatment is of 
value can not be cited. Lutz (7) 
advised in oxyuriasis the use of a diet 
which would give the smallest possible 
residue. Along the same lines, Stet- 
tiner {11) reported that he had treated 
one patient for pinworm infestation 
for years with never more than tran¬ 
sient benefit until the patient developed 
diabetes and carbohydrates were ex¬ 
cluded from the diet. Following this 
the pinworms disappeared. Subse¬ 
quently, he used an antidiabetic diet 
as an adjuvant to the usual measures 
for pinworm infestation and had 
prompt cures in four cases under this 
treatment. 
The use of sugars has been recom¬ 
mended for the control of certain 
worms. A writer in the Pastoral Re¬ 
view (Melbourne, Australia) (f), re¬ 
ports the passage of large numbers of 
worms by horses after being fed several 
handfuls of coarse brown sugar. Rich¬ 
ards {9) reports that at the suggestion 
of an Indian hospital attendant he 
fed large amounts of raw sugar to 
patients infested with the Guinea 
worm, Dracunculus medinensis, and 
found that if this was continued for 
two days the worm usually came out 
on the third day, being wound out 
easily and without rupturing. The 
treatment was successful in all cases, 
the worms coming away in the course 
of a few days instead of several weeks. 
In connection with filarids it may be 
mentioned that Robertson {10) believes 
that pepper and piperine have pro¬ 
phylactic value in food and therapeutic 
value in the treatment of established 
cases. 
1 Received for publication May 19, 1924; issued April, 1925. • 
2 Reference is made by number (italic) to “literature cited,” p. 159. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
( 155 ) 
Vol. XXX, No. 2 
Jan. 15, 1925 
Key No. A-92 
