doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00626 Leishmanicidal activities of Artemisia annua leaf essential oil against Visceral Leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), the second-most dreaded parasitic disease after malaria, is currently endemic in 88 countries. Dramatic increases in the rates of infection, drug resistance, and non-availability of safe vaccines have highlighted the need for identification of novel and inexpensive anti-leishmanial agents from natural sources. In this study, we showed the leishmanicidal effect of essential oil from Artemisia annua leaves (AALEO) against Leishmania donovani in vitro and in vivo. AALEO was extracted by hydrodistillation and characterized by GC-MS, the most abundant compounds were found to be camphor (52.06 %) followed by β-caryophyllene (10.95 %). AALEO exhibited significant leishmani-cidal activity against L. donovani, with 50 % inhibitory concentration of 14.63 1 1 ± 1.49 μg ml − and 7.3 ± 1.85 μg ml − , respectively, against the promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes. The effect was mediated through programmed cell death as confirmed by externalization of phosphatidylserine, DNA nicking byTdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling assay, dyskinetoplastidy, cell cycle arrest at sub-G0–G1 phase, loss of mitochondria