Research Article In Vivo Antiprotozoal Activity of the Chloroform Extract from Carica papaya Seeds against Amastigote Stage of Trypanosoma cruzi during Indeterminate and Chronic Phase of Infection

Copyright © 2014 Matilde Jimenez-Coello et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in anymedium, provided the originalwork is properly cited. In order to evaluate the antiprotozoal activity of the chloroform extract of Carica papaya seeds during the subacute and chronic phase of infection of Trypanosoma cruzi, doses of 50 and 75mg/kg were evaluated during the subacute phase, including a mixture of their main components (oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids). Subsequently, doses of 50 and 75mg/kg in mice during the chronic phase of infection (100 dpi) were also evaluated. It was found that chloroform extract was able to reduce the amastigote nests numbers during the subacute phase in 55.5 and 69.7 % (P> 0.05) as well as in 56.45 % in animals treated with the mixture of fatty acids. Moreover, the experimental groups treated with 50 and 75mg/kg during the chronic phase of the infection showed a significant reduction of 46.8 and 53.13 % respectively (P < 0.05). It is recommended to carry out more studies to determine if higher doses of chloroformic extract or its administration in combination with other antichagasic drugs allows a better response over the intracellular stage of T. cruzi in infected animal models and determine if the chloroform extract of C. papaya could be considere