Flavonoids and Sesquiterpene Lactones from Artemisia absinthium and Tanacetum parthenium against Schistosoma mansoni Worms.

Luísa Maria Silveira De Almeida,Marcos Paulo Nascimento Da Silva,Josué De Moraes,Ademar A Da Silva Filho,Pedro Luiz Silva Pinto,Lara Soares Aleixo De Carvalho,Matheus Coutinho Gazolla

doi:10.1155/2016/9521349

Abstract

Human schistosomiasis, caused by trematode worms of the genus Schistosoma, is one of the most significant neglected tropical diseases, affecting more than 200 million individuals worldwide and praziquantel is the only available drug to treat this disease. Artemisia absinthium L. and Tanacetum parthenium L. are species popularly used as anthelmintics. We investigated the in vitro schistosomicidal activity of crude extracts of A. absinthium (AA) and T. parthenium (TP) and their isolated compounds. AA and TP, at 200 μg/mL, were active, causing 100% mortality of all adult worms. Chromatographic fractionation of AA leads to isolation of artemetin and hydroxypelenolide, while santin, apigenin, and parthenolide were isolated from TP. Artemetin, hydroxypelenolide, santin, and apigenin, at 100 μM, were inactive against adult worms. Parthenolide (12.5 to 100 μM) caused 100% mortality, tegumental alterations, and reduction of motor activity of all adult worms of S. mansoni, without affecting mammalian cells. Confocal laser scanning microscopy showed tegumental morphological alterations and changes on the numbers of tubercles of S. mansoni worms. This report provides the first evidence for the in vitro activity of parthenolide against adult worms of S. mansoni, opening the route to further schistosomicidal studies with this compound.

Highlights

Human schistosomiasis, caused by trematode worms of the genus Schistosoma, is one of the most significant neglected tropical diseases, affecting more than 200 million individuals worldwide [1]
Our work describes, for the first time, the schistosomicidal activity of parthenolide, the active schistosomicidal sesquiterpene lactone isolated from T. parthenium L
The leaf rinsed extract of A. absinthium L. was obtained by immersing the air-dried leaves (243 g) in dichloromethane for thirty seconds at room temperature, and the solvent was removed under vacuum below 40∘ C, affording 6.2 g of leaf rinse extract (AA)

Summary

Introduction

Human schistosomiasis, caused by trematode worms of the genus Schistosoma, is one of the most significant neglected tropical diseases, affecting more than 200 million individuals worldwide [1]. PZQ has only a limited effect on already developed liver and spleen lesions and there is a considerable concern about the development of PZQ resistance [4, 5] Such facts have encouraged the scientific community to develop novel and inexpensive drugs against schistosomiasis [6]. Plants of the genus Tanacetum (Asteraceae) are popularly used for many medicinal purposes all over the world, including anthelmintic [11] Tanacetum extracts and their isolated compounds are reported to exhibit antiparasitic activities [15, 16]. Several studies have reported that T. parthenium extracts and its isolated compounds exhibit trypanocidal [15, 18] and leishmanicidal activities [16] This present work evaluated the in vitro schistosomicidal effects of the crude extracts of A. absinthium L. and T. parthenium L., which have not yet been reported. Our work describes, for the first time, the schistosomicidal activity of parthenolide, the active schistosomicidal sesquiterpene lactone isolated from T. parthenium L

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusion