Abstract
Leishmaniasis is an important parasitic problem and is in focus for development of new drugs all over the world. Objective of the present study was to evaluate phytochemical, toxicity, and antileishmanial potential of Jurinea dolomiaea, Asparagus gracilis, Sida cordata, and Stellaria media collected from different areas of Pakistan. Dry powder of plants was extracted with crude methanol and fractionated with n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and water solvents in escalating polarity order. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of different class of compounds, that is, alkaloids, saponins, terpenoids, anthraquinones, cardiac glycosides, coumarins, phlobatannins, flavonoids, phenolics, and tannins, was tested. Its appearance was observed varying with polarity of solvent used for fractionation. Antileishmanial activity was performed against Leishmania tropica KWH23 promastigote. Potent antileishmanial activity was observed for J. dolomiaea methanol extract (IC50 = 10.9 ± 1.1 μg/mL) in comparison to other plant extracts. However, J. dolomiaea “ethyl acetate fraction” was more active (IC50 = 5.3 ± 0.2 μg/mL) against Leishmania tropica KWH23 among all plant fractions as well as standard Glucantime drug (6.0 ± 0.1 μg/mL). All the plants extract and its derived fraction exhibited toxicity in safety range (LC50 > 100) in brine shrimp toxicity evaluation assay.
Highlights
Leishmaniasis is an important protozoal disease caused by parasite belonging to genus Leishmania
In Pakistan, leishmaniasis was first accounted in northern areas in 1960
J. dolomiaea methanol extract and JDCE fraction showed the presence of all the classes of phytochemicals determined in this study except phlobatannins that was not recorded in JDCE
Summary
Leishmaniasis is an important protozoal disease caused by parasite belonging to genus Leishmania. Leishmaniasis is a major health risk and a danger to 350 million populations throughout the world. 12 million peoples are currently infected and every year around 1-2 million new cases are appearing [1]. This disease may vary in its presentation; it can be self-healing or fatal. Various infectious types of leishmaniasis can be categorized as (a) cutaneous leishmaniasis; (b) mucocutaneous leishmaniasis; and (c) visceral leishmaniasis. About 0.5 and 1.5 million cases of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis are reported, respectively. In Pakistan, leishmaniasis was first accounted in northern areas in 1960. It was confined to northern sphere but it is widely spreading throughout the country [2]
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