antileishmanial activity of carum copticum essential oil against leishmania major [mrho/ir/75/er]: an in vitro study

Background and aims: because of the toxicity and side-effects of synthetic drugs, there is a growing interest in biomedical plants. the aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro antileishmanial activity of carum copticum essential oil against leishmania (l) major. materials and methods: nineteen experimental groups were designed to determine the effect of carum copticum essential oil against l. major and compare it with meglumine antimonite. group 1 was the control group and included 200 μl of rpmi 1640 plus 2×10^5 cells/ml promastigotes. groups 2-10 included the aforementioned substances plus 10 μl of 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 μg/ml of carum copticum essential oil respectively. groups 11-19 were similar to groups 2-10 but meglumine antimonite (0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 μg/ml) was used instead of carum copticum essential oil. all the experiments were repeated five times. after 8 hours, the antileishmanial activities of studied substances were determined. results: up to concentration of 0.5 μg/ml, no effect was observed with both substances. in comparison to control group, at 1 and 2 μg/ml, meglumine antimonite had no effect on leishmaniasis (p>0.05) while carum copticum essential oil significantly decreased leishmaniasis viability (p<0.05). moreover, at 3 μg/ml, both compounds significantly decreased leishmaniasis viability (p<0.05). however, carum copticum essential oil had substantially better antileishmanial activity than the other. conclusions: these results suggest that comparable concentrations, in vitro antileishmanial activity of carum copticum essential oil is better than meglumine antimonite.