Asteraceae and Essential Oils Trigger Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in Promastigotes.

We report the chemical composition and anti- and antioxidant activity of L. and - Asso. essential oils (EOs). Our results showed that these extracts exhibit different antioxidant activities according to the used assay. The radical scavenging effects determined by DPPH assay were of IC = 3.3 mg/mL and IC = 9.1 mg/mL for and - essential oils, respectively. However, antioxidant effects of both essential oils, determined by ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, were in the same range (2.3 and 2.97 mg eq EDTA/g EO, resp.), while the - essential oil showed highest chelating activity of Fe ions (27.48 mM Fe). Interestingly, we showed that both EOs possess dose-dependent activity against promastigotes with IC values of 68 g/mL and 44 g/mL for - and , respectively. We reported, for the first time, that antileishmanial activity of both EOs was mediated by cell apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest at the sub-G0/G1 phase. All our results showed that EOs from - and plants are promising candidates as anti- medicinal products.