Kawther Tuma Khalaf¹, Raafat M Alaatabi², Zainab Tuama Al-Dallee², Qutaiba A Qasim¹ , Zainab Murtadha Kadhim³

For correspondence:-  Qutaiba Qasim   Email: qutaiba.qasim@uobasrah.edu.iq

Received: 31 August 2025        Accepted: 20 October 2025        Published: 31 October 2025

Citation: Khalaf KT, Alaatabi RM, Al-Dallee ZT, Qasim QA, Kadhim ZM. Identification and quantification of flavonoids extracted from Calotropis procera and evaluation of their antileishmanial activity. Trop J Pharm Res 2025; 24(10):1279-1285 doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tjpr.v24i10.8

© 2025 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To identify and quantify flavonoids from Calotropis procera fruit extract, and evaluate the antileishmanial activity of the extract. Method: Reflux technique was used to extract flavonoids from the fruits at 60 °C. Phytochemical screening of the methanol extract was done using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). To assess its therapeutic potential, the inhibitory effect on Leishmania tropica promastigotes at extract concentrations of 31.5 to 1,000 μg/mL was quantified after 24 h using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) colorimetric assay. Sodium stibogluconate (100 mg/mL) injection was used as positive control, while 2.5 μL of Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used as negative control. Results: Phytochemical analysis revealed that methanolic extract of Calotropis procera fruit contains flavonoid and phenolic compounds. Examples include: rutin (90.5 ppm), quercetin (84.9 ppm), apigenin (74.9 ppm), kaempferol (70.4 ppm), luteolin (69.8 ppm), caffeic acid (41.6 ppm) and gallic acid (88.7 ppm). Extract exhibited significant dose-dependent reduction in promastigote viability when compared to the negative control (p < 0.05). The most pronounced inhibitory effect was recorded at 1000 μg/mL. The inhibitory concentration (IC50) for C. procera methanolic fruit extract was 101.4 μg/mL. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the fruits of Calotropis procera hold potential as a promising source of novel antileishmanial agents.

Keywords: Calotropis procera, Leishmania tropica, Flavonoids, HPLC, Anti-leishmaniasis

Impact Factor
Thompson Reuters (ISI): 0.6 (2023)
H-5 index (Google Scholar): 49 (2023)