Antileishmanial activity of Allium hirtifolium on promastigote and amastigote developmental stages of the parasite, Leishmania major

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of the most common parasitic diseases with great public health concern. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Allium hirtifolium on promastigote and amastigote developmental stages of Leishmania major. L. major promastigote was cultured in RPMI-1640 medium. The viability of promastigote stage after 24, 48, and 72 hr incubation using alcoholic extracts of A. hirtifolium and Meglumine evaluated by MTT Assay and IC50 values (50% inhibitory concentrations) were calculated. Amastigote growth in mouse macrophages was evaluated. The efficacy of different doses of the A. hirtifolium and Meglumine were calculated as 24, 48, and 72 hr after addition. The promastigote growth stage of L. major was inhibited by A. hirtifolium extracts after 24, 48 and 72 hours. The IC50 of Allium hirtifolium extracts on amastigote growth of L. major were μg/ml, 70.1 μg/ml and 51.4 μg/ml after 24, 48, and 72 hr respectively. Alcoholic extract of A. hirtifolium was reported to have anti-parasite effect in vitro on both the promastigote and amastigote development stages.