ANTI-LEISHMANIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF THE ETHANOL EXTRACT OF Croton argyrophylloides MUELL. ARG.

Leishmaniasis is a severe and potentially fatal chronic disease caused by Leishmania spp. The treatment primarily based on antimony, is not always effective and have toxic effects. Plant molecules are considered promising agents with anti-leishmanial action. The objective of this study was to evaluate the in vitro anti-leishmanial activity of the ethanol extract of the leaves of Croton argyrophylloides Muell. Arg. (EEFCA), popularly known as silver quince, as well as determine its main constituents, the antioxidant activity and toxicity in Artemia salina. The anti-leishmanial test was performed in vitro against the promastigote form of Leishmania infantum in a 96 well plate (106 parasites per well). The EEFCA was dissolved in DMSO and tested at five concentrations from 100 ?g/ml. Pentamidine was used as a standard drug. The effective concentration that kills 50% of the culture (EC50) was determined using the MTT colorimetric test, the measurement was performed in a microplate reader at 570 nm. The EEFCA presented anti-leishmanial activity than pentamidine, with EC50 5.63 and 23.71 µg/ml respectively, moderate antioxidant activity, as well as good activity against A. salina in BST test. Therefore, the EEFCA, is presented as a potential source for the extraction of compounds with activity anti-leishmanial.