Antileishmanial effects of extract, fractions and essential oil from aerial parts of Zataria multiflora Boiss
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- 2Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- 3Medicinal Plants Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- 4Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Background: Leishmaniasis, an endemic disease in approximately 100 countries, has different manifestations from skin lesions to visceral infections leading to death. There is currently no effective vaccine for leishmaniasis and the common drugs are expensive and have adverse side effects; also, the frequency of resistant infections are increased. Zataria multiflora Boiss. is a species from Lamiaceae family, showed favorable antileishmanial activity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate antileishmanial activities of crude extract, different fractions and the essential oil of Z. multiflora on promastigotes of Leishmania major, and in the next step to separate, purify and identify the active compounds of the most effective and less toxic fraction.
Methods: The essential oil of Z. multiflora aerial parts was prepared by hydro-distillation, also the crude extract was obtained by maceration with methanol 80% and fractionated to hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol fractions. The antileishmanial effects of Z. multiflora essential oil and fractions were determined by counting the number of live promastigotes after treatment, and cytotoxicity of samples against fibroblast were evaluated by MTT assay. The components of essential oil were identified and determined by GC/MS and abundant phytochemical of the most effective fraction was elucidated with different chromatographic and spectroscopic methods.
Results: The research results showed that the essential oil of Z. multiflora had the best activity against promastigotes of L. major parasite (IC50= 0.26, 0.33 and 0.35 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively), even in comparison with Amphotericin B (IC50= 2.00, 2.70 and 3.99 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively)) (P > 0.05), but it was toxic for fibroblast cells (CC50 =3.28 µg/ml after 48 h). The chloroform fraction had the best antileishmanial activity (IC50= 24.11, 22.41, 19.22 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively) among fractions, but due to its cytotoxicity (CC50= 20.22 µg/ml), the ethyl acetate fraction, which had acceptable effectiveness (IC50= 28.16, 28.24, 25.21 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively) and very low cytotoxicity (CC50 =138.6 µg/ml), was selected for the phytochemical investigations. Apigenin and luteolin-7-O-glucoside were major phytochemicals of ethyl acetate fraction. Also, carvacrol and thymol were abundant compounds of Z. multiflora essential oil.
Conclusion: The results of the present research suggested Z. multiflora fractions as potent antileishmanial candidate and it was suggested for further experiments on amastigotes and animals.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-026-05517-w.
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BibTeX
@article{hesari2026antileishmanial,
title = {{Antileishmanial effects of extract, fractions and essential oil from aerial parts of Zataria multiflora Boiss}},
author = {Narges Ghorbani Hesari and Duaa Khadear and Mostafa Pirali Hamedani and Saied Goodarzi and Behnaz Akhoundi and Mahdi Mohebali and Elham Kazemirad and Abbas Hadjiakhoondi and Zahra Tofighi},
journal = {BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1186/s12906-026-05517-w},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-026-05517-w},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Antileishmanial effects of extract, fractions and essential oil from aerial parts of Zataria multiflora Boiss
AU - Narges Ghorbani Hesari
AU - Duaa Khadear
AU - Mostafa Pirali Hamedani
AU - Saied Goodarzi
AU - Behnaz Akhoundi
AU - Mahdi Mohebali
AU - Elham Kazemirad
AU - Abbas Hadjiakhoondi
AU - Zahra Tofighi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/10
JO - BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
DO - 10.1186/s12906-026-05517-w
UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-026-05517-w
AB - Background: Leishmaniasis, an endemic disease in approximately 100 countries, has different manifestations from skin lesions to visceral infections leading to death. There is currently no effective vaccine for leishmaniasis and the common drugs are expensive and have adverse side effects; also, the frequency of resistant infections are increased. Zataria multiflora Boiss. is a species from Lamiaceae family, showed favorable antileishmanial activity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate antileishmanial activities of crude extract, different fractions and the essential oil of Z. multiflora on promastigotes of Leishmania major, and in the next step to separate, purify and identify the active compounds of the most effective and less toxic fraction. Methods: The essential oil of Z. multiflora aerial parts was prepared by hydro-distillation, also the crude extract was obtained by maceration with methanol 80% and fractionated to hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol fractions. The antileishmanial effects of Z. multiflora essential oil and fractions were determined by counting the number of live promastigotes after treatment, and cytotoxicity of samples against fibroblast were evaluated by MTT assay. The components of essential oil were identified and determined by GC/MS and abundant phytochemical of the most effective fraction was elucidated with different chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. Results: The research results showed that the essential oil of Z. multiflora had the best activity against promastigotes of L. major parasite (IC50= 0.26, 0.33 and 0.35 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively), even in comparison with Amphotericin B (IC50= 2.00, 2.70 and 3.99 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively)) (P > 0.05), but it was toxic for fibroblast cells (CC50 =3.28 µg/ml after 48 h). The chloroform fraction had the best antileishmanial activity (IC50= 24.11, 22.41, 19.22 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively) among fractions, but due to its cytotoxicity (CC50= 20.22 µg/ml), the ethyl acetate fraction, which had acceptable effectiveness (IC50= 28.16, 28.24, 25.21 µg/ml after 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively) and very low cytotoxicity (CC50 =138.6 µg/ml), was selected for the phytochemical investigations. Apigenin and luteolin-7-O-glucoside were major phytochemicals of ethyl acetate fraction. Also, carvacrol and thymol were abundant compounds of Z. multiflora essential oil. Conclusion: The results of the present research suggested Z. multiflora fractions as potent antileishmanial candidate and it was suggested for further experiments on amastigotes and animals. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-026-05517-w.
SN - 2662-7671
ER -