Effect of Scrophularia striata essential oil against Leishmania major promastigotes and axenic amastigotes

Objective: Leishmaniasis is protozoan disease that considered as one of the problems in public health. Due to toxicity and resistance of available drugs, development of new compounds is important. The aim of the present study was to evaluate in vitro effect of Scrophularia striata essential oil on L. major. Materials Methods: First, essential oil was prepared and analysed with GC/MS. The promastigotes were grown at 26ºC in BHI medium plus 10% heat- inactivated fetal calf serum (FCS), pH 7.0 and 1 % of Penicillin (50 u/ml) Streptomycin (50 μg/ml) solution. Axenic amastigotes were cultured in BHI medium containing 20 % FCS, pH5.5, and incubated at 37 °C in 5 % CO2. After exposure of different stages of parasites to different concentrations of essential oil, viability of promastigotes and axenic amastigotes were investigated by colorimetric assay and the obtained results were expressed as 50% inhibitory concentration. Results conclusion: Essential oil analysis showed that nonane, linalool and α-terpineol were the most abundant compounds. In MTT assay IC50 was obtained 6 and 4.5% for L. major promastigotes and axenic amastigotes, respectively. Overall, according to S. striata low cost, availability and acceptable leishmanicidal effects, further investigation can be done.