(Meisn.) Essential Oil as a Weapon Against : In Vitro Assay.

The difficulties encountered and the numerous side effects present in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis have encouraged the research for new compounds that can complement or replace existing treatment. The growing scientific interest in the study of plants, which are already used in folk remedies, has led our group to test essential oil against . Several species of the family, or their compounds, have relevant antiprotozoal activities Therefore, the biological potential on forms from the essential oil of leaves was verified for the first time in that work. The antileishmanial activity was evaluated against promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes, and cytotoxicity were performed with J774.G8, which were incubated with different concentrations of essential oil. Transmission electron microscopy and flow cytometry were performed with essential oil IC. Promastigote forms showed essential oil IC of 7.945 ± 1.285 µg/mL (24 h) and 6.186 ± 1.226 µg/mL (48 h), while for intracellular amastigote forms it was 3.546 ± 1.184 µg/mL (24 h). The CC was 15.14 ± 0.090 µg/mL showing that essential oil is less toxic to macrophages than to parasites. Transmission electron microscopy showed that essential oil treatment is capable of inducing mitochondrial damage to promastigote and intracellular amastigote forms, while flow cytometry showed ΔѰm disruption in treated parasites. These results could bring about new possibilities to develop products based on essential oil to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis, especially for people who cannot receive the conventional therapy.