Therapeutic effects of propolis, royal jelly, ostrich oil, and Aloe vera on cutaneous Leishmaniasis lesions in a laboratory model

In recent decades, effective herbal and natural compounds have been formulated with topical application, reduced side effects, and more economic benefits for Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) treatment. Some of these include Propolis, Royal jelly, Ostrich oil, and Aloe Vera, which have widespread use in health products. The study aimed to evaluate the potential therapeutic effects of a prepared topical combination, including Propolis, Royal jelly, Ostrich oil, and Aloe Vera, on Leishmania major lesions under an in vivo model in BALB/c (concatenation of Bagg and Albino) mice. Fifty BALB/c mice were randomly divided into five groups of ten. CL lesions were induced by inoculation of metacyclic promastigotes at the base of the BALB/c mice's tails. The resulting lesions were treated topically with prepared natural combinations of Propolis, Royal jelly, Ostrich oil, and Aloe Vera. The lesion sizes were determined as the mean ± standard deviation. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the Bonferroni correction method was used for statistical analysis, with p < 0.05 considered statistically significant. Based on the data of this research, comparative ulcer size reductions were 63.4% (3.25 mm ± 0.24), 68.4% (3.55 mm ± 0.22), and 8.5% (0.44 mm ± 0.98) for the natural combination treatment 1, treatment 2, and Glucantime, respectively. Based on the results, the proposed natural combinations were significantly more effective at reducing ulcer size than Glucantime, the standard drug (p<0.05). Collectively, we conclude that a combination consisting of Propolis, Royal jelly, Aloe Vera, and ostrich oil is effective in treating CL in mice and may provide a new agent in the treatment of Leishmaniasis.