Assessment of in vivo leishmanicidal effect of Artemisia spp. native to Khorasan Razavi province

Leishmania major is the responsible organism for cutuneous leishmaniasis. Many people are infected or at risk of infection with leishmania parasites. The drugs used for the treatment of leishmaniasis have unpleasant side-effects or are not effective. Therefore production of new and effective leishmanicidal agents is necessary. Artemisia spps have leishmanicidal property but there have been no report about such property in Artemisia spp. native to Khorasan Province. The objective of this study was to assess the leishmanicidal activity of 11 Artemisia spps. native to Khorasan Province. Eleven species of Artemisia were collected from Khorasan Provinces and their ethanol, ethylacetate, dichloromethan and hexan extracts were prepared. Leishmania major promastigotes were cultured in vitro in RPMI culture medium. Leishmanicidal effects of these extracts were evaluated by MTT assay and reported as 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50). All extracts were inhibited proliferation of promastigotes in a dose-dependent manner. Ethanol extracts had the strongest effect and hexan extracts (except for A.fragrans) had the weakest effect. Ethanol extracts of A.kulbadica (IC50:0.025), A.ciniformis (IC50:0.025) and A.santolina (IC50:0.080) had the most potent leishmanicidal activity. All ethyl acetate extracts (except for A.fragrans and A.turanica) showed stronger leishmanicidal activity than dichloromethan extracts. Our results demonstrated Artemisia spp. from Khorasan Province are suitable plants to be assessed for leishmanicidal activity in vivo. So, isolation of effective compounds and determination of their structures will be necessary.