Phytochemical characterization of the Ziziphus joazeiro Mart. metabolites by UPLC-QTOF and antifungal activity evaluation.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antifungal and modulatory potential of the Ziziphus joazeiro bark and leaf extracts, both in isolation and in association with fluconazole, against resistant species from the Candida genus. Antifungal assays were used to determine the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of the extract in isolation and in combination with fluconazole using the broth microdilution method and spectrophotometric readings, followed by verification of the minimum fungicidal concentration by solid medium subculture. According to the cell viability curve, both extracts inhibited fungal growth in a concentration dependent manner, in addition to showing inhibitory concentrations similar to fluconazole. However, the extracts behaved in a fungistatic manner with minimum inhibitory concentration > 8.19 mg/mL and IC50 values ranging from 0.450 mg/mL to 9 mg/mL. The minimum inhibitory concentration for both extracts decreased when in combination with fluconazole, with the AEL standing out against Candida albicans URM 4387, displaying an IC50 equal to that of fluconazole (0.002 mg/mL). Nevertheless, fluconazole antagonism was observed against the tested strains. Overall, the evaluation of both extracts against Candida spp. presented inhibitory concentration values greater than fluconazole. Moreover, despite these being chemically complex crude extracts, they did demonstrate antifungal effects and properties that concur with their ethno-biological aspect.

Antiparasitic effect of the Psidium guajava L. (guava) and Psidium brownianum MART. EX DC. (araçá-de-veado) extracts.

In the search for new therapeutic agents against neglected diseases, both aqueous and hydroethanolic extracts from Psidium guajava L. and P. brownianum Mart ex DC leaves were investigated regarding their antiparasitic effect and cytotoxic potential. The extracts were tested at three concentrations (250, 500 and 1000 µg/mL) against Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigote forms (Chagas, 1909), Leishmania braziliensis (Vianna, 1911) and L. infantum promastigotes forms (Nicolle, 1908), as well as against fibroblasts. P. guajava showed no activity against T. cruzi forms, while the hydroethanolic (PBHE), aqueous by decoction (PBAED) and aqueous by infusion (PBAEI) P. browninaum extracts were responsible, respectively, for inhibiting 100, 100 and 92.68% of T. cruzi epimastigote growth at the 1000 µg/mL concentration. The P. brownianum hydroethanolic extract (PBHE) at the highest concentration caused 58.46% death in L. braziliensis, thus demonstrating moderate activity, however when tested against L. infantum, the PBHE inhibited their growth by 37.16%, revealing its low activity. As for the cytotoxicity assays, the P. brownianum aqueous extract by decoction (PBAED) obtained the highest death percentage when compared to the others, causing 90.85% fibroblast mortality at the 1000 µg/mL concentration.

Avaliação da atividade citotóxica e potencial antiparasitário in vitro do a-pineno e carvacrol / Cytotoxic and antiparasitic in vitro activities of a-pinene and carvacrol

A leishmaniose e a doença de Chagas tem sido um grande desafio, no que diz respeito à sua terapêutica. Devido à grande dificuldade de encontrar fármacos que garantam uma ação terapêutica eficiente e menos agressora à espécie humana, diferentes produtos naturais vêm sendo testados. Muitas espécies vegetais foram investigadas quanto à sua ação leishmanicida e tripanocida na expectativa de que seus compostos metabólicos possuam atividade antiparasitária e ausência ou baixa citotoxicidade. Neste estudo sobre bioatividade do a-pineno e carvacrol, avaliaram-se os potenciais leishmanicida e tripanocida. O carvacrol apresentou um percentual de inibição de 38,34% e 74,12% para as formas promastigotas e epimastigotas respectivamente, na concentração de 100µg/mL, apresentando uma citotoxicidade de 21,62%. O a-pineno apresentou 100% e 5,30% de inibição para as formas epimastigota e promastigota na concentração de 100 µg/mL, com citotoxicidade de 87,88%.

Leishmaniasis and Chagas Disease represent a great challenge against the modern therapeutics. Due the high difficult to find new drugs with therapeutic efficacy and low toxicity, several natural products had been screened. Many species of plants were investigated about their leishmanicidal and trypanocidal activities. Some phytocompounds are the a-pinene and carvacrol. In this work, we evaluated the bioactivities of a-pinene and carvacrol against Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania braziliensis cell lines. The carvacrol inhibited 38,34% and 74,12% of the promatigote and epimastigote forms, respectively at 100 µg/mL, showing a low cytotoxic activity (21,62%). The O a-pinene inhibited 100% and 5,30% against the epimastigote and promastigote forms respectively, at 100 µg/mL, showing a higher cytotoxic activity (87,88%).