Efficacy of components from leaves of Calophyllum brasiliense against Leishmania amazonensis

Leishmanicide potential of Calophyllum brasiliense leaves on promastigote and amastigote of Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis is evaluated. The LD50 of the dichloromethane extract and the hexane fraction for promastigotes was respectively 40mg/ml and 20mg/ml. In mouse peritoneal macrophages infected with Leishmania amastigotes the Infection Index decreased respectively 100% and 84.2% in 80mg/ml and 40mg/ml concentrations of dichloromethane extract. The hexane fraction decreased the Infection Index respectively by 98.7% and 91.3% within the same concentrations. It was found that pretreatment with dichloromethane extract or with hexane fraction of experimentally infected BALB/c mice decrease the volume of the lesions by L. amazonensis. Moreover, animals treated topically also revealed healing lesions. Besides, the parasite load in the animals' popliteal lymph nodes was significantly reduced in treated animals, showing that plant components actually control infection. Results show that crude extract and hexane fraction of C. brasiliense reveal a significant in vitro and in vivo leishmanicide activity [1]. The amentoflavones, (–)mammea A/BB and mammea B/BB, were identified in the extracts and fractions by comparison with standard samples and by analyses of HPLC-UV.

Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to CNPq for providing a research grant and fellowships

References: 1. Honda A. (2010) Phytomedicine. 17: 333–338.