Montamat E E, Burgos C, Gerez de Burgos N M, Rovai L E, Blanco A, Segura E L
Science. 1982 Oct 15;218(4569):288-9. doi: 10.1126/science.6750791.
Gossypol, a phenolic compound isolated from the cotton plant, is a powerful inhibitor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-linked enzymes (alpha-hydroxyacid dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase) of Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas' disease. Parasites at the epimastigote stage that were incubated for 5 minutes with 100 micromolar gossypol were completely immobilized. Concentrations of gossypol as low as 0.01 micromolar markedly reduced the growth rate of T. cruzi in culture.