Abstract
BACKGROUND: Treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is occasionally highly resistant to pentavalent antimonials, the gold standard in pharmacotherapy of CL. Since there is no effective vaccine, the discovery of natural antileishmanial products as complementary therapeutic agents could be used to improve the current regimens. OBJECTIVE: In this study in vitro and in vivo antileishmanial activities of osthole, a natural coumarin known to possess antibacterial and parasiticidal activities are evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Leishmania major infected J774.A1 macrophages were treated with increasing concentrations of osthole. CL lesions of BALB/c mice were treated topically with 0.2% osthole. RESULTS: Osthole exhibited dose-dependent leishmanicidal activity against intracellular amastigotes with IC50 value of 14.95 μg/ml. Treatment of CL lesions in BALB/c mice with osthole significantly declined lesion progression compared to untreated mice (P < 0.05), however did not result in recovery. CONCLUSION: Osthole demonstrated remarkable leishmanicidal activity in vitro. Higher concentrations of osthole may demonstrate the therapeutic property in vivo. SUMMARY: In vitro and in vivo antileishmanial activities of osthole, a pernylated coumarin extracted from Prangos asperula Boiss., are studied against Leishmania major.