Abstract

Chagas’ disease is a chronic illness caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. According to estimates, approximately 16-18 million people are infected in Latin American. Plant extracts exhibit a wide variety of secondary metabolites and can play an important role in the discovery of new compounds with biological potential. The in vitro trypanocidal activity of the extracts obtained from six plant species collected in Egypt (Parkia africana, Parkia roxburgi, Lagerstromeia speciosa, Schinopsis lorentzii, Lagerstromeia indica, and Sapindus saponaria) was assayed against trypomastigote and amastigote forms of T. cruzi. The cytotoxic activity of the most active extract was also evaluated by conducting MTT assays. S. lorentzii and S. saponaria were the most active extracts against the trypomastigote form; IC50 values were 9.9 and 27.34 g/mL, respectively. The S. lorentzii extract was also evaluated against the amastigote form (IC50 was 111.5 g/mL). The S. lorentzii extract did not exhibit significant cytotoxic activity. The selectivity index value indicated that this extract was highly selective for the parasite. The S. lorentzii and S. saponaria extracts exhibit trypanocidal activity, probably as a result of the presence of different constituents and their concentrations in the extracts.

Key words: Egyptian medicinal plants, trypanocidal activity, Trypanosoma cruzi, phytoconstituents