Anti-Trypanosoma cruzi and cytotoxic activities of Eugenia uniflora L.

AbstractChagas disease is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, being considered a public health problem. An alternative to combat this pathogen is the use of natural products isolated from fruits such as Eugenia uniflora, a plant used by traditional communities as food and medicine due to its antimicrobial and biological activities. Ethanolic extract from E. uniflora was used to evaluate in vitro anti-epimastigote and cytotoxic activity. This is the first record of anti-Trypanosoma activity of E. uniflora, demonstrating that a concentration presenting 50% of activity (EC50) was 62.76μg/mL. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was ⩽1024μg/mL. Our results indicate that E. uniflora could be a source of plant-derived natural products with anti-epimastigote activity with low toxicity