Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is caused by a protozoan parasite, Leishmania donovani (L. donovani). It affects around 1–2 million people around the world annually. There is an urgent need to investigate new medicament of it due to difficult method of drug administration, long period of treatment, high cost of the drug, adverse side-effects, low efficacy and development of parasite resistance to the available drugs. Medicinal plants have also been used for the treatment of different diseases in traditional system of medicines due to their holistic effects. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Geneva, Switzerland has already started the program for identification of potential medicinal plant and plant products having antileishmanial potential. Keeping all these in consideration, we planned to study the antileishmanial activity of one of the medicinal plant, Embilica officinalis L. (EO) fruit extract. EO fruit extract inhibited the growth and proliferation of promastigotes as well as intra-macrophagic amastigotes in dose-dependent manner. EO fruit extract induced morphological and ultrastructural changes in parasites as observed under Electron Microscope. It also induced the oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, DNA laddering and apotosis-like cell death in parasites. Here, we for the first time reported such a detailed mechanism of action of antileishmanial activity of EO fruit extract. Our results suggested that EO fruit extract could be used for the development of new phytomedicine against leishmaniasis.
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•Embilica officinalis L. (EO) fruit extract significantly inhibited the growth of L. donovani.•EO fruit extract induced morphological and ultrastructural changes in parasites.•EO fruit extract induced mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress in promastigotes.•It caused the DNA fragmentation and cell cycle arrest in parasites.•EO fruit extract ultimately induced the apoptosis in L. donovani promastigotes significantly.