TY - JOUR A2 - Albuquerque, Ulysses Paulino AU - De Queiroz, Aline Cavalcanti AU - Dias, Thays de Lima Matos Freire AU - Da Matta, Carolina Barbosa Brito AU - Cavalcante Silva, Luiz Henrique Agra AU - de Araújo-Júnior, João Xavier AU - Araújo, Givanildo Bernardino de AU - Moura, Flávia de Barros Prado AU - Alexandre-Moreira, Magna Suzana PY - 2014 DA - 2014/07/13 TI - Antileishmanial Activity of Medicinal Plants Used in Endemic Areas in Northeastern Brazil SP - 478290 VL - 2014 AB - This study investigates the leishmanicidal activity of five species of plants used in folk medicine in endemic areas of the state of Alagoas, Brazil. Data were collected in the cities of Colonia Leopoldina, Novo Lino, and União dos Palmares, Alagoas state, from patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (Leishmania amazonensis) who use medicinal plants to treat this disease. Plants extracts were tested at a concentration of 1–100 μg/mL in all experiments, except in an assay to evaluate activity against amastigotes, when 10 μg/mL was used. All plants extracts did not show deleterious activity to the host cell evidenced by LDH assay at 100, 10, and 1 μg/mL after 48 h of incubation. The plants extracts Hyptis pectinata (L.) Poit, Aloe vera L., Ruta graveolens L., Pfaffia glomerata (Spreng.) Pedersen, and Chenopodium ambrosioides L. exhibited direct activity against extracellular forms at 100 μg/mL; these extracts inhibited growth by 81.9%, 82.9%, 74.4%, 88.7%, and 87.4%, respectively, when compared with promastigotes. The plants extracts H. pectinata, A. vera, and R. graveolens also significantly diminished the number of amastigotes at 10 μg/mL, inhibiting growth by 85.0%, 40.4%, 94.2%, and 97.4%, respectively, when compared with control. Based on these data, we conclude that the five plants exhibited considerable leishmanicidal activity. SN - 1741-427X UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/478290 DO - 10.1155/2014/478290 JF - Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -