in vitro effect of some medicinal plants on leishmania major strain mrho/ir/75/er

Background and objectives: leishmaniasis is a tropicaldisease caused by protozoan parasites from the genusleishmania. in this study, we aimed at investigating the invitro anti-leishmanial effect of essential oils of rosmarinusofficinalis, mentha pulegium, foeniculum vulgare, lippiacitriodora and pelargonium graveolens.methods: the essential oils were prepared from freshlydried and powdered plants with steam-distilled water. iranianstrain of leishmania promastigotes was cultured in rpmimedium and the inhibitory effects of different concentrations(25, 32, 62.5, 125, 250, 500 and 1000 μg/ml) of the essential oilswere investigated at 24, 48 and 72 hours. the number of liveparasites before and after treatment with the essential oils wascounted by trypan blue 10% staining and using neobar lam.results: the essential oils significantly decreased thenumber of promastigotes in a dose-dependent manner(p<0.05). however, the inhibitory effects of f. vulgare and r.officinalis essential oils were more profound compared to otheressential oils. moreover, concentrations of 500 and 1000 μg/mlof these two essential oils exerted equal and more antileishmanialpotency compared to glucantime, the first-linedrug used for treatment of leishmaniasis.conclusion: based on the results, it is recommended toevaluate the in vivo anti-leishmanial effects of the testedessential oils, particularly f. vulgare and r. officinalis.