Trypanosoma cruzi: Activity of essential oils from Achillea millefolium L., Syzygium aromaticum L. and Ocimum basilicum L. on epimastigotes and trypomastigotes

Identification and Quantification of the Major Fungitoxic Components of the Brazilian Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) Essential Oil

“…As it can be noted, the EO yields obtained in this study were different from that reported in studies in other countries, including from Brazil. EO yield (0.4%) obtained in this study was much lower than the 3% yield reported in one Brazilian study (Trevisan et al, 2006) while yields were not reported in the other two studies in Brazil (Almeida et al, 2007;Santoro et al, 2007). Variations in EO yield and composition were expected as they are affected by several factors such as genotype, agro climatic conditions, solar irradiance level, etc.…”

Synergistic effects of floral phytochemicals against a bumble bee parasite

“…Eugenol and thymol are both hydrophobic volatiles with free hydroxyl groups; they can penetrate membranes, disrupt ionic gradients needed for energy production, and precipitate oxidative stress that damages vital lipids and proteins (Bakkali, Averbeck, Averbeck, & Idaomar, 2008). In T. cruzi, both eugenol (Santoro, Cardoso, Guimarães, Mendonça et al., 2007) and thymol (Santoro, Cardoso, Guimarães, Salgado et al., 2007) caused cytoplasmic swelling, rounding of the cell body, and altered nuclear morphology. In Leishmania major , both eugenol (Ueda‐Nakamura et al., 2006) and thymol (de Medeiros et al., 2011) affected mitochondria.…”

“…In the yeast Candida albicans , both eugenol and thymol altered membrane morphology (Braga, Sasso, Culici, & Alfieri, 2007). Although neither compound affected the plasma membrane of T. cruzi (Santoro, Cardoso, Guimarães, Mendonça et al., 2007; Santoro, Cardoso, Guimarães, Salgado et al., 2007), eugenol altered the mitochondrial membrane in L. donovani (Ueda‐Nakamura et al., 2006), and thymol caused membrane wrinkling and submembrane accumulation of lipid droplets in L. amazonensis (de Medeiros et al., 2011). Given the similar chemical structures and modes of action of eugenol and thymol, we predicted that these compounds would behave additively.…”

“…Both eugenol and thymol have recognized antitrypanosomal effects, including against C. bombi (Palmer‐Young, Sadd, Stevenson, Irwin, & Adler, 2016), with 50% growth inhibition of Trypanosoma cruzi by 76–246 ppm eugenol and 53–62 ppm thymol (Santoro, Cardoso, Guimarães, Mendonça, & Soares, 2007; Santoro, Cardoso, Guimarães, Salgado et al., 2007). Combinations of thymol and eugenol had synergistic effects against Escherichia coli (Pei, Zhou, Ji, & Xu, 2009), but antagonistic effects against Crithidia fasciculata (Azeredo & Soares, 2013).…”

“…However, compounds with similar or overlapping targets typically have additive effects (Jia et al., 2009). Eugenol and thymol are similar in chemical structure—each is a lipophilic compound with an aromatic ring and free hydroxyl group; eugenol and thymol also had similar effects on cell morphology of Trypanosoma cruzi (Santoro, Cardoso, Guimarães, Mendonça et al., 2007; Santoro, Cardoso, Guimarães, Salgado et al., 2007). Therefore, we predicted that eugenol and thymol would have additive effects on C. bombi .…”