In Vitro and In Vivo Effectiveness of Carvacrol against Leishmania infantum

Background and Objectives: There are many limitations and adverse effects to the drugs used for treating Leishmania infantum including pentavalent antimonial compounds and amphotericin B. for example antimoan is highly toxic, has a long treatment period and is painful in the injection site.Carvacrol is a monoterpene which is widely used as a bactericide, antivirus, antifungal, pesticide and acaricide.Methods: Carvacrol stock solution which was purchased from sigma, Germany in combination with DMD 1% was prepared and IC50 of the drug was determined and in order to determine the cytotoxicity of Carvacrol MTT method was used. Different concentrations of Carvacrol was used to inhibit Leishmani Infantum growth. Then golden hamsters were infected and histopathology assessment was performed in order to show which concentration of Carvacrol can be effective compared to usual drugs.Results: In the present study 10 mg/ml of Carvacrol had the most inhibitory effect on the growth promastigotes of Leishmania Infantum compared to control group in MTT-24hr and was comparable to 45 mg/ml of glucantime as a standard drug of choice. Also histopathological evaluation of the liver and spleen of the infected hamsters showed that Carvacrol was effectively active against Leishmania Infantum in vitro and human models.Conclusion: The essential oil of Carvacrol is highly promising candidate for the development of effective and safe drugs in the fight against VL

کلیدواژه ها:

visceral leishmania ، hamsters ، MTT ، Glucantime