Biological evaluation of CH3OH and C2H5OH of Berberis vulgaris for in vivo antileishmanial potential against Leishmania tropica in murine models

Abstract

Abstract Leishmaniasis is one of the global health issues and is still being handled with costly and sometimes unsuccessful compounds having serious side effects, highlighting the importance of seeking new potent antileishmanial compounds. Herbal medicines have been considered as the main source of prevention and treatment for a wide variety of diseases as well as other photogenetic diseases over the last few centuries. The current study was designed to investigate the in vitro and in vivo antileishmanial efficacy of ethanolic and methanolic extracts of Berberis vulgaris root collected from Kurez region of District Orakzai, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Stationary growth-phase metacyclic promastigotes form of Leishmania tropica was incubated in vitro in methanolic and ethanolic extracts using amphotericin B as a positive control. The antileishmanial activity of B. vulgaris extracts was measured after the incubation period using methoxynitrosulfophenyl-tetrazolium carboxanilide assay. For the in vivo study, BALB/c mice were infected with metacyclic L. tropica promastigotes, and lesions appeared after 28 days of inoculum. The results of study research showed that B. vulgaris extract had a powerful antileishmanial activity on promastigotes of L. tropica at different concentrations (5, 10, 25, 50, and 75 μg/mL). The inhibition concentration 50 values for ethanolic and methanolic extracts of B. vulgaris were determined to be 15.37 and 17.55 μg/mL, respectively. In the in vivo activity, it was observed that B. vulgaris ethanolic extract at the concentration of 1.5 mg/kg decreased the lesion diameter in BALB/c infected mice. The ethanolic extract topically and orally reduced the lesion size 0.51 ± 0.023 and 0.56 ± 0.008 mm, while methanolic extract both topically and orally decrease the lesion diameter of 0.63 ± 0.008 and 0.68 ± 0.009 mm relatively, in comparison with negative control (1.45 ± 0.016 mm). Hematological parameters of mice including blood red blood cells, hematocrit, and hemoglobin in mice groups (infected non-treated) were found to be decreased, while the mice group treated with extract demonstrated nearly similar results to non-infected group. It is concluded from the current study that antileishmanial activity of B. vulgaris from Pakistan against L. tropica in both in vitro and in vivo showed a promising antileishmanial activity. This study might be helpful in the control strategies of cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. tropica.