In vitro Anti-Toxoplasma gondii Activity of Root Extract/Fractions of Eurycoma longifolia Jack

Abstract

Background Toxoplasma gondii infection causes toxoplasmosis, an infectious disease with worldwide prevalence. The limited efficiency of drugs against this infection, their side effects and the potential appearance of resistant strains make the search of novel drugs an essential need. We examined Eurycoma longifolia root extract and fractions as potential sources of new compounds with high activity and low toxicity. The main goal of this study was to investigate the anti- T. gondii activity of crude extract (TACME) and four fractions (TAF 273, TAF 355, TAF 191 and TAF 401) from E. longifolia , with clindamycin as the positive control. Methods In vitro toxoplasmacidal evaluation was performed using Vero cells as host for T. gondii . Light microscopy technique was used to study in situ antiparasitic activity. Results Significant anti- T. gondii activity was observed with clindamycin (EC50 = 0.016 μg/ml), follow by TAF 355 (EC50 = 0.369 μg/ml) and TAF 401 (EC50 = 0.882 μg/ml). Light microscopy revealed that most Vero cells were infected after 3 h of exposure to T. gondii . After 36 h of exposure to the E. longifolia fraction, the host Vero cells showed no visible intracellular parasite and no remarkable morphological changes. Conclusions Our study demonstrated that TAF 355 and TAF401 fractions may be the sources of new anti- T. gondii compounds.

Review on Eurycoma longifolia Pharmacological and Phytochemical Properties

“…One of the E. longifolia fraction did not show toxicity (CC50>20 μg mLG 1 ) towards Vero cell, so the Vero cell was chosen as the host for anti-parasitic studies. The inhibitory study showed E. longifolia fraction significantly inhibited T. gondii growth even at concentration as low as 0.369 μg mLG 1 (Kavitha et al, 2012). Further advantage is the E. longifolia fraction was less toxic to host cell than Clindamycin, the current drug for toxoplasmosis treatment.…”

“…All the three quassinoids showed significant inhibitory effect on S. japonicum but the activities were found to be weaker than the current drug for schistosoma treatment, the praziquantel. Kavitha et al (2010Kavitha et al ( , 2012 investigated the anti-parasitic activities of E. longifolia on toxoplasmosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii, one of the most widespread protozoan parasites, chronically infecting approximately 30% of the global human population. Before studying the inhibitory effect, they first identified an appropriate host to support the growth of the parasite to ensure that the E. longifolia extract used not toxic to the host and affect host performance.…”

“…There was a discouraging report by Hout et al (2006) where they revealed E. longfolia extracts showed low selectivity between human and plasmodium cells. Kavitha et al (2012) in their studies on the treatment of toxoplasmosis, compared the toxicity of several E. longifolia extracts and standard drug Clindamycin. Results showed that one extract did not show any toxicity towards Vero cells while Clindamycin showed toxicity at CC50<20 µg mLG 1 .…”

Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Simarubaceae); Advances in Its Medicinal Potentials

“…[45] It is anticipated that the antimalarial activity presented by quassinoids is probably due to their ability to hinder protein synthesis in plasmodium falciparum. [46] In a separate study, Kavitha et al [18,47] reported toxoplasmicidal action by E. longifolia extracts against Toxoplasma gondii. Their findings suggested the inhibition of toxoplasmosis 3 hours following the treatment.…”

Kinetic Motilities of Cryopreserved Bull Spermatozoa: Owing to the Effect of <i>Eurycoma longifolia</i> Jack Aqueous Extract

“…Traditionally it is used to treat fever, malaria, erectile dysfunction (Bhat and Karim, 2010). EL has been well described to be anti-oxidant (Varghese et al, 2013), anti-tumour (Al-Salahi et al, 2014Tong et al, 2015), anti-inflammatory (Han et al, 2016), anti-malarial (Kuo et al, 2004), anti-microbial (Khanam et al, 2015), anti-parasite (Kavitha et al, 2012) and anti-stress (Talbott et al, 2013). It has also been reported to improve sex derive of the male (Ang and Sim, 1997;Low et al, 2013;Ebrahimi et al, 2016) and female (Abdulghani et al, 2012).…”