Essential oils: in vitro activity against Leishmania amazonensis, cytotoxicity and chemical composition.

Camila Lasse Silva,Jaime Martins De Santana,Milene Aparecida Andrade,Flávia Nader Motta,Clênia Dos Santos Azevedo,Izabela M D Bastos,Maria Lucília Dos Santos

doi:10.1186/s12906-016-1401-9

Camila Lasse Silva, Jaime Martins De Santana + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-016-1401-9

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Abstract

BackgroundThe current chemotherapy for cutaneous leishmaniosis (CL) has a series of drug limitations such as toxic side effects, long duration, high costs and drug resistance, which requires the development of new drugs or effective alternatives to the CL treatment. Essential oils (EOs) are complex mixtures of secondary metabolites from various plants. It has been shown that several EOs, or their constituents, have inhibitory activity against protozoa. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the biological activity of different essential oils (EOs) on Leishmania (L.) amazonensis promastigotes forms, as well as their cytotoxicity on mammalian cells and chemical composition.MethodsSixteen EOs were evaluated by mean of IC50/24 h and cytotoxicity against L6 cells (CC50/24 h) using Resazurin assay. Only those EOs that presented better results for IC50/24 h were submitted to GC–MS analysis to determine their chemical constitution.ResultsThe EO from Cinnamodendron dinisii, Matricaria chamomilla, Myroxylon peruiferum, Salvia sclarea, Bulnesia sarmientoi, Ferula galbaniflua, Siparuna guianensis and Melissa officinalis were the most active against L. amazonensis with IC50/24 h ranging from 54.05 to 162.25 μg/mL. Analysis of EOs by GC–MS showed mainly the presence of β-farnesene (52.73 %) and bisabolol oxide (12.09 %) for M. chamomilla; α-copaene (13.41 %), safrole (8.35 %) and δ-cadinene (7.08 %) for M. peruiferum; linalool (28.80 %) and linalyl acetate (60.08 %) for S. sclarea; guaiol (48.29 %) and 2-undecanone (19.49 %) for B. sarmientoi; ethyl phthalate (13.09 %) and methyl-8-pimaren-18-oate (41.82 %) for F. galbaniflua; and neral (37.18 %) and citral (5.02 %) for M. officinalis.ConclusionThe EO from F. galbaniflua showed to be effective against L. amazonensis promastigotes forms and presented low cytotoxic activity against L6 cells. Thus, it represents a strong candidate for future studies aiming its molecular activity on these pathogenic parasites.

Highlights

The current chemotherapy for cutaneous leishmaniosis (CL) has a series of drug limitations such as toxic side effects, long duration, high costs and drug resistance, which requires the development of new drugs or effective alternatives to the CL treatment
The most effective Essential oils (EOs) was of the one from S. guianensis (48.55 ± 3.64 μg/mL), followed by C. dinisii (54.05 ± 4.88 μg/mL), M. chamomilla (60.16 ± 4.24 μg/mL), C. verbenaceae (64.75 ± 2.04 μg/mL), B. sarmientoi (85.56 ± 3.38 μg/mL), F. galbaniflua (95.70 ± 1.82 μg/mL), M. officinalis (132.02 ± 3.14 μg/mL), M. peruiferum (162.25 ± 1.57 μg/mL), S. sclarea (325.92 ± 8.58 μg/mL), F. officinalis (328, 28 ± 6,80 μg/mL) and P. graveolens (363.71 ± 6.77 μg/mL)
Evaluation of cytotoxicity showed that the least cytotoxic EO was that of C. camphora (CC50/24 h = > 500.00 μg/ mL), followed by E. cardamomum (439.57 ± 2.27 μg/mL), L. officinalis (377.56 ± 8.91 μg/mL), F. galbaniflua (377.26 ± 2.71 μg/mL), S. sclarea (375.37 ± 3.62 μg/mL), P. graveolens (368.39 ± 3.90 μg/mL), F. officinalis (368.27 ± 3.81 μg/mL), M. officinalis (297.45 ± 1.32 μg/mL), L. cubeba (180.72 ± 1.37 μg/mL), M. chamomilla (173.04 ± 1.24 μg/mL), B. sarmientoi (163.46 ± 1.77 μg/mL), M. peruiferum (160.80 ± 1.62 μg/mL), C. odorata (142.80 ± 1.76 μg/mL), C. verbenaceae (130.00 ± 1.08 1.77 μg/mL), C. dinisii (106.31 ± 2.23 μg/mL) and the most cytotoxic EO was of the one from S. guianensis (78.02 ± 1.19 μg/mL) (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

The current chemotherapy for cutaneous leishmaniosis (CL) has a series of drug limitations such as toxic side effects, long duration, high costs and drug resistance, which requires the development of new drugs or effective alternatives to the CL treatment. The first-line drugs for systemic treatment of leishmaniasis are parenterally administered antimonials such as the sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam®) and the Nmethyl glucamine antimoniate (Glucantime®) [7, 8] generally required for the treatment of CL in the New World due to the risk of mucosal involvement [9] This current chemotherapy presents several issues such as high cost, difficult administration and elevated toxicity, associated with serious side effects [10], for instance musculoskeletal pain, gastrointestinal disturbances, mild to moderate headache, electrocardiographic QTs interval prolongation and mild to moderate increase of liver and pancreatic enzymes [11]. Miltefosine, the first oral antileishmanial drug, is the treatment of choice for diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis and New World cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania braziliensis but increasing resistance to this drug has been notified [12]

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