title: Chemical composition and antiprotozoal activities of Colombian Lippia spp essential oils and their major components.
abstract: The chemical composition and biological activities of 19 essential oils and seven of their major components were tested against free and intracellular forms of Leishmania chagasi and Trypanosoma cruzi parasites as well as Vero and THP-1 mammalian cell lines. The essential oils were obtained from different species of Lippia, a widely distributed genus of Colombian plants. They were extracted by microwave radiation-assisted hydro-distillation and characterised by GC-FID and GC-MS. The major components were geranial, neral, limonene, nerol, carvacrol, p-cymene, gamma-terpinene, carvone and thymol. The essential oil of Lippia alba exhibited the highest activity against T. cruzi epimastigotes and intracellular amastigotes with an IC50 of 5.5 microg/mL and 12.2 microg/mL, respectively. The essential oil of Lippia origanoides had an IC50 of 4.4 microg/mL in L. chagasi promastigotes and exhibited no toxicity in mammalian cells. Thymol (IC50 3.2 +/- 0.4 microg/mL) and S-carvone (IC50 6.1 +/- 2.2 microg/mL), two of the major components of the active essential oils, were active on intracellular amastigotes of T. cruziinfected Vero cells, with a selective index greater than 10. None of the essential oils or major components tested in this study was active on amastigotes of L. chagasi infected THP-1 cells.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Centro de Investigación de Enfermedades Tropicales. pescobarwww@yahoo.co.uk
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Escobar
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Milena Leal
authors.forename: Laura Viviana
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Herrera
authors.forename: Jairo Rene
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stashenko
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D018314:Leishmania infantum / Q000187:drug effects*; D032411:Lippia / Q000737:chemistry*; D009822:Oils, Volatile / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010938:Plant Oils / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000187:drug effects*; D014709:Vero Cells
chemical_list: D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents; D009822:Oils, Volatile; D010938:Plant Oils