Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Antileishmanial Activity of Selected Turkish Medicinal Plants

Ahmet Ozbilgin¹, Cenk Durmuskahya², Husniye Kayalar³ , Hatice Ertabaklar⁴, Cumhur Gunduz⁵, Ipek Ostan Ural⁶, Fadile Zeyrek⁷, Ozgur Kurt⁸, Ibrahim Cavus¹, Cuneyt Balcıoglu¹, Seray Ozensoy Toz⁹, Yusuf Ozbel¹

¹Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Celal Bayar University, Manisa; ²Izmir Katip Celebi University, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Engineering, Balatcik; ³Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ege University, Izmir; ⁴Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Adnan Menderes University, Aydın; ⁵Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir; ⁶Vocational School of Health Services, Celal Bayar University, Manisa; ⁷Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Harran University, Sanlıurfa; ⁸Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Acıbadem University, Istanbul; ⁹Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey.

For correspondence:- Husniye Kayalar Email: husniyekayalar@gmail.com Tel:+90-232-3112549

Received: 22 September 2014 Accepted: 9 November 2014 Published: 15 December 2014

Citation: Ozbilgin A, Durmuskahya C, Kayalar H, Ertabaklar H, Gunduz C, Ural IO, et al. Antileishmanial Activity of Selected Turkish Medicinal Plants. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(12):2047-2055 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i12.15

© 2014 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To determine the in vitro and in vivo anti-leishmanial activities of extracts obtained from Centaurea calolepis, Phlomis lycia, Eryngium thorifolium, Origanum sipyleum and Galium incanum ssp. centrale.

Methods: To estimate the cytotoxicity of plant extracts, WST-1 assay was used. Parasite inhibition in the presence of plant extracts (25 - 500 µg/ml) in comparision with control group and reference group (glucantime, 25 µg/ml) at 12 - 72 h were determined in vitro on L. tropica promastigotes. The in vivo leishmanicidal activity of the extracts was evaluated against L. tropica-infected mice with glucantime as reference drug.

Results: The chloroform extract of Galium incanum ssp. centrale showed the highest cytotoxicity with IC₅₀ value of 0.0316 ± 0.005 μg/ml. In vitro parasite inhibition by the plant extracts ranged between 16.7 ± 0.01 % and 100 ± 0.00 % at 25 μg/ml concentration. The methanol extract of Eryngium thorifolium possessed the highest activity on promastigotes of L. tropica with 100 % inhibition at 25 μg/ml. The water and chloroform extracts of C. calolepis and water and methanol extracts of E. thorifolium at a dose of 100 mg/kg reduced parasitaemia in L. tropica infected mice.

Conclusion: Parasite viability results suggest that the methanol extract of Eryngium thorifolium, regarded as non-cytotoxic, is a promising candidate drug for treating L. tropica infection.

Keywords: Leishmaniasis, Leishmania tropica, Eryngium thorifolium, Promastigote, WI-38 Human fibroblasts