Mikrobiyoloji bulteni, vol.56, no.2, pp.339-348, 2022 (Journal Indexed in SCI Expanded)
Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease that is caused by the protozoa of Leishmania genus. Leishmaniasis is endemic in tropical, subtropical, and large areas of the Mediterranean basin, and covers a total
of 98 countries worldwide. It is estimated, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, that
approximately 350 million people are at risk in these areas, and approximately 12 million people are
infected. Increased drug resistance has been documented lately, in the treatment of leishmaniasis which
causes almost 1.2 million new cases annually. Thus, interest in plant-derived active substances has increased in recent years, and new anti-leishmanial agents are investigated with in vitro studies. The aim of
the present study was to investigate the anti-leishmanial effects of Prangos ferulacea and Ferula orientalis
plant extracts collected from the rural areas of Şırnak province against Leishmania tropica. The water,
chloroform, and ethanol extracts of the roots, stems, and fruits of P.ferulaceae and F.orientalis plants were
obtained, and the cytotoxic activity tests of the extracts were performed. L.tropica isolate obtained from
the Parasite Bank in Manisa Celal Bayar University in Turkey (MHOM/TR/2012/CBCL-LT) was grown on
NNN and RPMI 1640 broth medium. The cytotoxicity of each extract on the L.tropica isolate was evaluated with the XTT test. Amphotericin B (AmpB) was used as the positive control, and the IC50 values
were determined. The lowest IC50 values of the plant extracts were found to be as follows: P.ferulaceae
root chloroform extract 36 µg/ml and fruit chloroform extract 20 µg/ml, F.orientalis root ethanol extract
2.5 µg/ml, and fruit ethanol extract 48 µg/ml, stem chloroform extract 24 µg/ml, and fruit chloroform
extract 3.1 µg/ml. It was also determined in our study that only P.ferulaceae root ethanol extract showed
cytotoxic activity on the WI-38 fetal lung fibroblast cell line at 65.19 µg/ml at 72 hours. This is the first
study that assessed the anti-leishmanial activities of P.ferulaceae and F.orientalis plants that grow in high
altitude areas of our country. It was determined that P.ferulaceae root ethanol extract and fruit chloroform
extract had the lowest IC50 values among the 18 plant extracts that we examined for their anti-leishmanial activities. The outcomes of this study will be useful in further studies for the determination of active
compounds in P.ferulaceae and F.orientalis plant extracts.