In vitro activity of the essential oil of Cymbopogon citratus and its major component (citral) on Leishmania amazonensis

Abstract

Leishmaniasis causes considerable mortality throughout the world, affecting more than 12 million people. Cymbopogon citratus (DC) Stapf, Family Poaceae, is a widely used herb in tropical countries and is also known as a source of ethnomedicines. In this study, the inhibitory effect and the morphological and ultrastructural alterations on Leishmania amazonensis by the essential oil (EO) of C. citratus and its main constituent, citral, were evaluated. The results showed that the antiproliferative activity of EO on promastigotes and axenic amastigotes, and intracellular amastigote forms of L. amazonensis was significantly better than citral, and indicated a dose-dependent effect. Neither compound showed a cytotoxic effect on macrophage strain J774G8. The promastigote forms of L. amazonensis underwent remarkable morphological and ultrastructural alterations compared with untreated cultures. These alterations were visible by light, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy of promastigotes treated with EO and citral at concentrations corresponding to the IC(50) (1.7 and 8.0 microg/ml) and IC(90) (3.2 and 25 microg/ml), respectively, after 72 h of incubation. This study revealed that citral-rich essential oil from C. citratus has promising antileishmanial properties, and is a good candidate for further research to develop a new anti-protozoan drug.

In vitro effects of citral on Trypanosoma cruzi metacyclogenesis

“…Indeed, studies have demonstrated the in vitro activity of this essential oil against C. deanei, with mean IC 50 values for symbiont-bearing and symbiont-free strains of 120 and 60 μg/mL, respectively (Pedroso et al 2006). Interestingly, L. amazonensis promastigotes were more sensitive to the essential oil and citral, with IC 50 of about 1.7 and 8.0 μg/mL, respectively, after 72 h of incubation (Santin et al 2009). One study showed that 3.1 µM concentrations of neral or geranial (isomers of citral) were effective against epimastigotes of T. cruzi (Saeidnia et al 2004).…”

“…This essential oil has been shown to be effective against protozoa and significantly reduced the growth of Plasmodium berghei (Tchoumbougnang et al 2005), the insect trypanosomatid Crithidia deanei (Pedroso et al 2006), L. amazonensis (Santin et al 2009) and all three evolutive forms of T. cruzi (Santoro et al 2007a).…”

“…More recently, studies have shown that essential oils may also be used as anti-protozoal drugs. Indeed, essential oils have inhibitory actions against diverse parasitic protozoa, such as Plasmodium falciparum (Valentin et al 1995), Trypanosoma brucei, Leishmania major (Mikus et al 2000), Leishmania amazonensis (Monzote et al 2006, Santin et al 2009 and T. cruzi (Santoro et al 2007a, b, c).…”

Antileishmanial activity of some Brazilian plants, with particular reference to Casearia sylvestris

“…In most cases, these plants are used without any scientific base. In the last years, several works showed the leishmanicidal effect of some Brazilian plant extracts or essential oils (Santin et al 2009, Albernaz et al 2010, Alviano et al 2012, Brito et al 2013. In a previous work, we reported the antileishmanial activity of extracts of 20 plants from the Brazilian flora (Braga et al 2007).…”

Chemical Profiling Analysis and Identification the Bioactivities of Herbal Compress Extracts

“…Kaffir lime possesses antioxidant, antimicrobial, antibacterial properties and the major compounds are sabinene, β-pinene, limonene, α-pinene, camphene, myrcene, terpinen-4-ol, α-terpineol, linalool, terpinolene and citronellal [10][11][12]. The main compounds in the essential oil of lemongrass are the monoterpene citral, a mixtures of the stereisomers geranial , neral and β-myrcene and antioxidant properties has also been reported [13,14]. Tamarind extract owns antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties [15,16].…”