title: Evaluation of antileishmanial activity and cytotoxicity of the extracts of Berberis vulgaris and Nigella sativa against Leishmania tropica.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Leishmaniasis is a major public health problem, and the alarming spread of parasite resistance underlines the importance of discovering new therapeutic products. The present study aims to investigate the in vitro antileishmanial activity and cytotoxicity of the ethanolic extract of Berberis vulgaris fruits and chloroform extract of Nigella sativa seeds against Leishmania tropica.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, antileishmanial activity of B. vulgaris and N. sativa extracts on promastigote and amastigote stages of L. tropica in comparison to meglumine antimoniate (MA) was evaluated, using MTT assay and macrophage model, respectively. MTT test was also used to assess the cytotoxicity of extracts on murine macrophages. The significance of differences was determined by analysis of variances (ANOVA) and student's t-test using SPSS software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that ethanolic extract of B. vulgaris (IC50 4.83 μg/ml) and chloroform extract of N. sativa (IC50 7.83 μg/ml) significantly reduced the viability of promastigotes of L. tropica in comparison to MA (IC50 11.26 μg/ml). Furthermore, extracts of B. vulgaris (IC50 24.03 μg/ml) and N. sativa (IC50 30.21 μg/ml) significantly decreased the growth rate of amastigotes in each macrophage as compared with positive control (p <0.05). Our findings also revealed that extracts of B. vulgaris and N. sativa had no significant cytotoxicity against murine macrophages.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The B. vulgaris and N. sativa extracts exhibited an effective leishmanicidal activity against L. tropica on in vitro model. Further, works are required to evaluate the exact effect of these extracts on Leishmania species using a clinical setting.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mahmoudvand
authors.forename: Fariba
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sharififar
authors.forename: Monireh Sezavar
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Rahmat
authors.forename: Razieh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tavakoli
authors.forename: Ebrahim Saedi
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Dezaki
authors.forename: Sareh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jahanbakhsh
authors.affiliation: Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Iraj
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sharifi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000633:toxicity; D028142:Berberis / Q000737:chemistry*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003124:Colorimetry; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D007895:Leishmania tropica / Q000187:drug effects*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D031881:Nigella sativa / Q000737:chemistry*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000633:toxicity; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013778:Tetrazolium Salts / Q000378:metabolism; D013844:Thiazoles / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents; D010936:Plant Extracts; D013778:Tetrazolium Salts; D013844:Thiazoles; C022616:thiazolyl blue