IN VITRO ACTIVITY OF CAMELLIA SINENSIS EXTRACTS AGAINST L.MAJOR AND L.INFANTUM PROMASTIGOTES USING THE COLOROMETRIC MTT ASSAY

Plant extracts and plant-derived compounds are unlimited sources of chemical
diversity for identification of new medicinal agents that are commonly used to treat infectious
diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the in vitro antileishmanial activity of camellia
sinensis extracts against L. infantum and L. major promastigotes by using colorimetric MTT assay as
compared to the pentavalent antimonial compound (meglumine antimonite).
Materials & Methods: The extract was dried and dissolved in DMSO 1% solvent and further dilutions
were obtained with RPMI 1640. Promastigotes of L. major and L. infantum were kept in RPMI 1640
medium with 10% of FCS. 100 μl of leishmania major or leishmania infantum promastigotes (1x106
cells/100μl) at logarithmic phase of treated with different concentrations of extract in two fold serial
dilutions and after incubation time, MTT solution was added to each well in 96 well plate, then
absorbance was read with ELISA reader in 570 nm.
Results: Daccordingly the data showed that camellia sinensis have leishmanicidal activity against
L.major and L.infantum promastigotes. C. sinensis had IC50 of 19 μg/ml for L.major promastigotes
whereas for L.infantum with IC50 of 12μg/ml after 72 h of incubation. Glucantime had IC50s of 21.8
μg/ml, and 10.16 μg/ml for both strains, respectively.
Conclusion: This study revealed a new antileishmanial compound against promastigotes of L. major
and L. infantum and proposes that C. sinensis has the capablity of being used in leishmaniasis but
further studies are required to find out its activity against intra-cellular form of leishmania
(amastigote)