Apigenin inhibits growth of the Plasmodium berghei and disrupts some metabolic pathways in mice.

Due to the challenges in the control, prevention, and eradication of parasitic diseases like malaria, there is an urgent need to discover new therapeutic agents. Plant-derived medicines may open new ways in the field of antiplasmodial therapy. This study is aimed to investigate the toxicity and in vivo antiplasmodial activity of apigenin, a dietary flavonoid. Apigenin cytotoxicity was investigated on Huh7 cell line, brine shrimp (Artemia salina) larva, and human red blood cells. In vivo toxicity of apigenin was assessed by metabolomics approaches. Apigenin exhibited significant suppression of parasitemia in a dose-dependent manner; it suppressed Plasmodium berghei growth by 69.74%, 50.3%, and 49.23% at concentrations of 70, 35, and 15 mg/kg/day, respectively. The IC50 value for apigenin after 24 hr exposure to Huh7 cells was 225 µg/ml. Apigenin did not show noticeable toxicity on A. salina and also on the membrane integrity of red blood cells. After 24 hr exposure of mice to apigenin, alterations were seen in the metabolism of glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, bile acid metabolism (alternative pathway), sulfur metabolism, bile acid metabolism, metabolism of estrogens and androgens, cholesterol catabolism, and biosynthesis of cholesterol. These findings indicate that apigenin has potential in vivo antiplasmodial activity against P. berghei infected mice with high selectivity against malaria, but it can disrupt some metabolic pathways in mice.

Natural products applied against hydatid cyst protoscolices: A review of past to present.

Echinococcus granulosus is the causative agent of cystic echinococcosis (CE), which is distributed all around the world. CE is one of the most important global parasitic infectious diseases, both in humans and animals. This parasite causes hydatid cysts that can be lodge at different organs of host such as liver, lung even in heart and brain which may lead to death. Presently, numerous scolicidal chemical agents have been administrated for inactivation of the hydatid cyst contents. Because of increasing resistance and adverse effects of medications include abnormalities of liver function, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and headache; there is a need to find alternative therapies either with the least or without side effects. Recently, there is a high tendency among researchers to evaluate and present herbal plants as alternative option due to being inexpensive, easy available, low side effects and toxicity. Till now, many efforts have been conducted on herbal extracts against protoscolices of hydatid cysts throughout the world. Therefore, the current review systematically searched the following electronic databases: PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Google Scholar on published papers according to the keywords. In addition, a comprehensive list of medicinal plants was prepared and some of these herbal plants which showed the best efficacy and promising results are discussed elaborately.