Pomegranate (Punica granatum) Peel Inhibits the In Vitro and In Vivo Growth of Piroplasm Parasites

Rasha Eltaysh; Mohamed Abdo Rizk; Bassem Elmishmishy; Shimaa Abd El-Salam El-Sayed; Khaled Abouelnasr; Ikuo Igarashi

doi:10.1155/2022/8574541

Pomegranate (Punica granatum) Peel Inhibits the In Vitro and In Vivo Growth of Piroplasm Parasites

J Parasitol Res. 2022 Jun 20:2022:8574541. doi: 10.1155/2022/8574541. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Rasha Eltaysh^{1

2}, Mohamed Abdo Rizk^{1

3}, Bassem Elmishmishy⁴, Shimaa Abd El-Salam El-Sayed^{1

5}, Khaled Abouelnasr⁶, Ikuo Igarashi¹

Affiliations

¹ National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-Cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555, Japan.
² Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Dakahlia, Egypt.
³ Department of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry of Nutrition, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
⁶ Department of Surgery, Anesthesiology and Radiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.

Abstract

Pomegranate (Punica granatum) peel has seen a rapid surge in attention as a medical and nutritional product over the last decade. The impact of pomegranate peel methanolic extract monotherapy and combination therapy on the in vitro growth of Babesia (B.) bovis, B. bigemina, B. divergens, B. caballi, and Theileria (T.) equi, as well as B. microti in mice, was investigated in this work. Fluorescence-based SYBR green I assay was used for evaluating the inhibitory antibabesial efficacy of pomegranate (Punica granatum) peel against the growth of several piroplasm parasites in vitro and in vivo. Celltac α MEK-6450 computerized haematology analyzer was used for monitoring the haematological parameters of treated mice every 4 days. Pomegranate peel inhibited the in vitro growth of B. bovis, B. bigemina, B. divergens, T. equi, and B. caballi in a dose-dependent manner, with IC₅₀ values of 154.45 ± 23.11, 40.90 ± 9.35, 72.71 ± 14.77, 100 ± 16.20, and 77.27 ± 16.94 μg/ml, respectively. On a B. bovis culture, the in vitro inhibitory effect of pomegranate peel was amplified when it was combined with diminazene aceturate (DA). Combination therapy of pomegranate peel and a low dose of DA (15 mg kg^-1) inhibited B. microti growth significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the treatment with the full dose of DA (25 mg kg^-1) in B. microti-infected mice. These findings suggest that pomegranate peel might be a potential medicinal plant for babesiosis treatment, especially when combined with a low dosage of DA.