In vitro antileishmanial activities of three medicinal plants: argemonemexicana, murraya koenigii and cinnamomum tamala against miltefosine resistant promastigotes of leishmania donovani parasites
- Vol.13(9)
- M P Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd 2021
- 27-33p.
Objective: Leishmaniasis is one of the neglected tropical diseases in terms of drug development and discovery. Non-responsiveness and resistance to the drug in Leishmaniaspecies need to develop new antileishmanial potentials; herbal medicines could be the alternative one.Methods: In the present study, semi-purified fractions were prepared from the traditionally used three medicinal plants of India: Argemone mexicana (aerial shoot), Murraya koenigii (stem), and Cinnamomum tamala (bark) by using multiple solvent systems (non-polar to polar, beginning with petroleum ether followed by n-hexane, benzene, and chloroform) and an effort was given to assess the leishmanicidal activities against Leishmania donovani miltefosine resistant HePC-R (Ld/MIL-30) promastigotes in vitroand the IC50 concentrations were estimated.Results: The study revealed that the semi-purified fractions of A. mexicana, M. koenigii, and C.tamala have effective antileishmanial activities and the 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) are 50 μg/ml, 98 μg/ml, and 200 μg/ml, respectively. At these (IC50) concentrations, these plant semi-purified fractions were found to interfere in lipid and protein biosynthesis, alter cell morphology, DNA content, mitochondrial membrane potential, generating ROS, and apoptosis in promastigotes. The semi-purified fractions were also found noticeably non-toxic towards host splenocytes.Conclusion: These results could suggest that A. mexicana, M. koenigii, and C.tamala could carry potential novel compounds for the development of new drugs against Leishmaniasis.