Boswellic Acids Show In Vitro Activity against Leishmania donovani.

Hippolyt L Greve,Thomas J Schmidt,Marcel Kaiser,Pascal Mäser

doi:10.3390/molecules26123651

Abstract

In continuation of our search for leads from medicinal plants against protozoal pathogens, we detected antileishmanial activity in polar fractions of a dichloromethane extract from Boswellia serrata resin. 11-keto-β-boswellic acid (KBA) could be isolated from these fractions and was tested in vitro against Leishmania donovani axenic amastigotes along with five further boswellic acid derivatives. 3-O-acetyl-11-keto-β-boswellic acid (AKBA) showed the strongest activity with an IC50 value of 0.88 µM against axenic amastigotes but was inactive against intracellular amastigotes in murine macrophages

Highlights

Vector-borne diseases caused by protozoal pathogens remain a major health problem, especially in low-income countries in sub-tropical and tropical areas [1]
We recently reported results of bioactivity-guided fractionations of Burseraceae resins aiming to find compounds with activity against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) [2,3]
In continuation of our search for antiprotozoal leads from plants, we tested extracts and fractions obtained from Boswellia and Commiphora spp. for their antileishmanial activity

Summary

Introduction

Vector-borne diseases caused by protozoal pathogens remain a major health problem, especially in low-income countries in sub-tropical and tropical areas [1]. We recently reported results of bioactivity-guided fractionations of Burseraceae resins aiming to find compounds with activity against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) [2,3]. In continuation of our search for antiprotozoal leads from plants, we tested extracts and fractions obtained from Boswellia and Commiphora spp. for their antileishmanial activity.

Results

Conclusion