Original Article Phenolic Acid Composition and Anti-Parasitic Effects of Four Peucedanum Species on Entamoeba histolytica Trophozoites

Background: The aim of this study was to determine phenolic acid composi-tion and anti-parasitic effects of Peucedanum caucasicum, P. palimbioides, P. longibracteo-latum and P. chryseum on Entamoeba histolytica. Methods: Methanol extracts of the plant species were prepared by soxhlet ex-traction. Phenolic acid compositions were determined by HPLC. Anti-prolifera-tive effect of extracts on trophozoites was determined by using trypan blue dye exclusion test. For counting the cells, approximately a hundred of E. histolytica trophozoites were examined in each time. The data were presented as mean val-ues with standard deviations and analyzed by repeated measures of ANOVA fol-lowed by Tukey test for post-hoc pairwise comparisons. The P-value was set at 0.05 for significance level. Results: All of the extracts showed a time and dose dependent amoebicidal ac-tion on trophozoites. Among the extracts tested, P. longibracteolatum showed the strongest amoebicidal effect on the trophozoites. As expected, this plant specie