Investigating the antileishmanial effects of Prangos ferulacea and Ferula orientalis extracts collected from Şırnak province against Leishmania tropica isolated from Turkey

Purpose: Drug resistance has increased in recent years in the treatment of leishmaniasis, which develops approximately 12 million new cases each year. For this reason, the interest in plant-derived compounds has increased in recent years; and in vitro studies have been conducted to use such compounds as candidates of new antileishmanial agents. In this respect, studies aiming to determine new therapeutics against leishmaniasis become compulsory. In the present study, the purpose was to investigate the antileishmanial effects of Prangos ferulacea and Ferula orientalis plant extracts collected from the Şırnak countryside against Leishmania tropica. Method: The extracts of P. ferulaceae and F. orientalis plants were obtained; and cytotoxic activity tests of these extracts were carried out. Then, the L. tropica isolate that was obtained from Turkey and stored in liquid nitrogen, was reproduced in NNN and RPMI 1640 broth medium. The L. tropica isolate was evaluated in terms of its' antileishmanial efficacy against each extract obtained with the XTT Kit and Haemocytometer Method. In the study, the minimum inhibitory concentration values were determined to identify the agents that might be candidates as drugs. Results: In the present study, it was determined that the root and fruit chloroform extracts among the plant extracts below 1 mg/mL concentration inhibiting 100% of parasites, the root and fruit ethanol extracts of the P. ferulaceae plant, and the root and fruit ethanol extracts of the F. orientalis plant and ethanol extracts and the body and fruit chloroform extracts show antileishmanial activity; however, other extracts were evaluated to be weak in terms of antileishmanial activity. Conclusion: It was concluded that, among these six plants extracts we examined for antileishmanial activity, the two most effective drug candidates were might be P. ferulaceae root ethanol extract and fruit chloroform extract. In addition, it was also determined that only P. ferulaceae root ethanol extract showed cytotoxic activity in our study.