Antileishmanial and cytotoxic activity of secondary metabolites from and two species.

In this study, the antileishmanial and cytotoxic activities of secondary metabolites isolated from Hochst. ex A. DC., Reynolds, and var. Reynolds were investigated. Overall, nineteen known compounds were isolated from the three plant species. The compounds were characterized based on their spectroscopic data. Voacristine and aloenin were the most active compounds against promastigotes of antimony-sensitive (IC 11 ± 5.2 μM and 26 ± 6.5 µM, respectively) with low toxicity against RAW264.7, murine monocyte/macrophage-like cells. The in silico docking evaluation and NO generation assay also substantially support the antileishmanial effects of these compounds. In a cytotoxicity assay against cancer and normal cell lines, ursolic acid highly inhibited proliferation of lung cancer cells, A549 (IC 6.61 ± 0.7 μM) while voacristine was moderately active against human liver cancer cells, HepG2 (IC 23.0 ± 0.0 μM). All other compounds were inactive against the test parasites and cell lines. [Formula: see text].