Veterinary Parasitology 187 (2012) 79–84 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Veterinary Parasitology jo u rn al hom epa ge : www.elsevier.com/locate/vetpar Leishmanicidal activity in vitro of Musa paradisiaca L. and Spondias mombin L. fractions Marina Parissi Accioly a , Claudia Maria Leal Bevilaqua a,∗ , Fernanda C.M. Rondon a , Selene Maia de Morais a , Lyeghyna K.A. Machado a , Camila A. Almeida a , Heitor Franco de Andrade Jr. b , Roselaine P.A. Cardoso b a Programa de Pós-graduac ¸ ão em Ciências Veterinárias/Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Brazil b Laboratório de Protozoologia/Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 27 June 2011 Received in revised form 12 October 2011 Accepted 21 December 2011 Keywords: Visceral leishmaniasis Secondary metabolites Banana tree Cajazeira a b s t r a c t Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a zoonotic disease characterized by infection of mononuclear phagocytes by Leishmania chagasi. The primary vector is Lutzomyia longipalpis and the dog is the main domestic reservoir. The control and current treatment of dogs using synthetic drugs have not shown effectiveness in reducing the incidence of disease in man. In attempt to find new compounds with leishmanicidal action, plant secondary metabolites have been studied in search of treatments of VL. This study aimed to evaluate the leishmanicidal activity of Musa paradisiaca (banana tree) and Spondias mombin (cajazeira) chemical con- stituents on promastigotes and amastigotes of L. chagasi. Phytochemical analysis by column chromatography was performed on ethanol extracts of two plants and fractions were iso- lated. Thin layer chromatography was used to compare the fractions and for isolation the substances to be used in vitro tests. The in vitro tests on promastigotes of L. chagasi used the MTT colorimetric method and the method of ELISA in situ was used against amastigotes besides the cytotoxicity in RAW 264.7 cells. Of the eight fractions tested, Sm1 and Sm2 from S. mombin had no action against promastigotes, but had good activity against amastigotes. The fractions Mp1 e Mp4 of M. paradisiaca were very cytotoxic to RAW 264.7 cells. The best result was obtained with the fraction Sm3 from S. mombin with IC 50 of 11.26 g/ml against promastigotes and amastigotes of 0.27 g/ml. The fraction Sm3 characterized as tannic acid showed the best results against both forms of Leishmania being a good candidate for evaluation in in vivo tests. © 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1. Introduction Leishmaniasis is a zoonotic disease with worldwide distribution and is considered by the World Health Orga- nization (WHO) one of the six most important tropical diseases. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is caused by the sub- genus Leishmania leishmania, Leishmania donovani complex ∗ Corresponding author at: Av. Dede Brasil, 1700, 60740-913 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. Tel.: +55 85 31019853; fax: +55 85 31019840. E-mail address: claudia.bevilaqua@pq.cnpq.br (C.M.L. Bevilaqua). (Gontijo and Melo, 2004; Rath et al., 2003). It is considered endemic in the Mediterranean and extends to Latin Amer- ica from Mexico to Argentina (Lainson and Rangel, 2005). Although several animal species may become infected (Luppi et al., 2008), the main domestic reservoir of this disease is the dog (Diniz et al., 2008) and Lutzomyia longi- palpis is the primary sand fly vector (Wood et al., 2003). As recommended by the WHO, the control of LV is high- lighted by the serological survey of dogs and euthanasia in cases in which they are positive, diagnosis and treatment of human cases and residual insecticide application based on pyrethroid (Melo, 2004). Treatment of dogs with drugs 0304-4017/$ – see front matter © 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.vetpar.2011.12.029