Antileishmanial effect of Crataegus microphylla leaf extract on Leishmania major (MRHO/IR/75/ER) promastigotes

Various chemical drugs have been used for leishmaniasis treatment, but their side effects and drug resistance have led to look for new effective compounds. Crataegus microphylla the traditional and medicinal herb is a valuable source of new Pharmaceutical agents. The extract were prepared The extract obtained by maceration method, and diluted with 5% DMSO. Leishmania major promastigotes were cultured RPMI- 1640, enriched with 10% fetal calf serum and Penicillin- Streptomycin.Then the biological activity of herb extract and drug susceptibility was evaluated on L.major promastigotes compared to Glucantime ( Sb III) drug using MTT colorometry. The optical density was measured with Eliza reader set, and the IC50 value was calculated. In this study, we used the GC / mass. IC50 of Glucantime ( Sb III) was 616.18 μg/ml, and alcoholic extracts of Crataegus microphylla 1094 μg/ml. Although Glucantime was more effective than plant extracts, all extracts had profound effects on promastigotes of L.major. The studied herb extract had considerable antileishmanial effects compared to Glucantime ( Sb III) In vitro, the necessity of conducting more experiments to investigate its effect on the parasite in animal model is also appreciated.