Traditional medicine has provided a number of therapeutic solutions for the control of infectious agents, cancers, and other diseases. After screening a wide variety of Colombian plant extracts, we have identified promising antileishmanial activity in ethanol extracts from Ocotea macrophylla (Lauraceae) and Zanthoxyllum monophyllum (Rutaceae). In this study, we evaluated the in vitro activity of two ethanol extracts, one from Ocotea macrophylla and the other from Zanthoxyllum monophyllum and one alkaloid fraction of ethanol extract of Zanthoxyllum monophyllum, on peritoneal macrophages isolated from golden Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) infected with Leishmania panamensis and Leishmania major promastigotes. All of the extracts studied displayed promising (≥2) selectivity indices (S/I), the most significant of which were for ethanol extract of Zanthoxyllum monophyllum against Leishmania panamensis (S/I=12) and alkaloid fraction of ethanol extract of Zanthoxyllum monophyllum against Leishmania major (S/I=11). These results support the use of ethanol extracts and alkaloid fractions isolated from Ocotea macrophylla and Zanthoxyllum monophyllum, respectively; as therapeutic options for cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Keywords: Lauraceae; Leishmaniasis; Rutaceae; hamster macrophages; natural products.