Antiprotozoal activity and cytotoxicity of extracts from Solanum arboreum and S. ovalifolium (Solanaceae)

Antileishmanial and cytotoxic activities of four Andean plant extracts from Colombia

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Licania salicifolia (L.S) Cuatrec., Persea ferruginea (P.F) Kunth, Oreopanax floribundus (O.F), and Psychotria buchtienii (P.B) belong to the families Chrysobalanaceae, Lauraceae, Araliaceae, and Rubiaceae, respectively, which have been used as medicines by communities in the Andes. This study evaluated the leishmanicidal and cytotoxic activities of alcohol and non-alcohol extracts from four Andean plant extracts (L.S, O.F, P.F, and P.B).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Extracts were obtained by percolation with solvents of different polarities - hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and ethanol. Phytochemical screening was conducted based on reported methods. All products were evaluated in vitro to determine the leishmanicidal activity against amastigotes of Leishmania panamensis and cytotoxicity against U937 cells.

RESULTS

Flavonoids, triterpenes, and tannins were the main secondary metabolites found. From the results, dichloromethane extracts from O.F and P.B, ethanol extract from P.B, and ethyl acetate extracts of all plants were active, with EC50 <30 μg/mL. Ethyl acetate was the most active extract, which showed EC50 values of 9.8, 14.1, 23.7, and 25.5 μg/mL, for L.S, P.B, O.F, and P.F, respectively. Hexane extracts from P.B and O.F exhibited moderate activity with EC50 values of 84.8 and 87.4 μg/mL, respectively. Hexane and ethanol extracts from O.F, ethyl acetate, and ethanol extracts from L.S, and all extracts from P.F were not toxic. Alternatively, hexane and dichloromethane extracts from L.S and P.B as well as dichloromethane and ethyl acetate extracts from O.F displayed high toxicity.

CONCLUSION

Based on the activity we observed, ethyl acetate extract can continue in its usage in the search for new antileishmanial drugs, mainly ethyl acetate extract from L.S showed activity comparable to meglumine antimoniate and was not cytotoxic.

The Genus Solanum: An Ethnopharmacological, Phytochemical and Biological Properties Review

Over the past 30 years, the genus Solanum has received considerable attention in chemical and biological studies. Solanum is the largest genus in the family Solanaceae, comprising of about 2000 species distributed in the subtropical and tropical regions of Africa, Australia, and parts of Asia, e.g., China, India and Japan. Many of them are economically significant species. Previous phytochemical investigations on Solanum species led to the identification of steroidal saponins, steroidal alkaloids, terpenes, flavonoids, lignans, sterols, phenolic comopunds, coumarins, amongst other compounds. Many species belonging to this genus present huge range of pharmacological activities such as cytotoxicity to different tumors as breast cancer (4T1 and EMT), colorectal cancer (HCT116, HT29, and SW480), and prostate cancer (DU145) cell lines. The biological activities have been attributed to a number of steroidal saponins, steroidal alkaloids and phenols. This review features 65 phytochemically studied species of Solanum between 1990 and 2018, fetched from SciFinder, Pubmed, ScienceDirect, Wikipedia and Baidu, using "Solanum" and the species' names as search terms ("all fields").

In vitro antiprotozoal activity of some medicinal plants against sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis

AIM

Antiprotozoal activity of 36 medicinal plants was evaluated.

MATERIALS & METHODS

In vitro potency against Trypanosoma brucei brucei, T. b. rhodesiense, T. cruzi and Leishmania infantum beside cytotoxicity on MRC-5 fibroblasts were determined.

RESULTS & CONCLUSION

Maytenus parviflora showed the highest activity against T. b. brucei (IC₅₀ of 0.6 μg/ml) and T. b. rhodesiense (IC₅₀ of 0.5 μg/ml) with low cytotoxicity (CC₅₀ of 30 μg/ml). Saussurea costus and Commiphora wightii, showed pronounced potency against T. cruzi with an IC₅₀ of 3.6 and 2.5 μg/ml, respectively. Jatropha pelargonifolia and Solanum villosum exhibited pronounced activity toward L. infantum with an IC₅₀ of 3.2 and 2.0 μg/ml, respectively. M. parviflora, S. costus, C. wightii, J. pelargonifolia and S. villosum showed relevant selectivity.