Research Article Flavonoids and Sesquiterpene Lactones from Artemisia absinthium and Tanacetum parthenium against Schistosoma mansoni Worms Luísa Maria Silveira de Almeida, 1 Lara Soares Aleixo de Carvalho, 1 Matheus Coutinho Gazolla, 1 Pedro Luiz Silva Pinto, 2 Marcos Paulo Nascimento da Silva, 3 Josué de Moraes, 3 and Ademar A. Da Silva Filho 1 1 Faculdade de Farm´ acia, Departamento de Ciˆ encias Farmacˆ euticas, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, 36036-900 Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil 2 N´ ucleo de Enteroparasitas, Instituto Adolfo Lutz, 01246-902 S˜ ao Paulo, SP, Brazil 3 N´ ucleo de Pesquisa em Doenc ¸as Negligenciadas, Universidade Guarulhos, 07025-000 Guarulhos, SP, Brazil Correspondence should be addressed to Ademar A. Da Silva Filho; ademar.alves@uff.edu.br Received 4 August 2016; Revised 30 September 2016; Accepted 16 October 2016 Academic Editor: Andrea Maxia Copyright © 2016 Lu´ ısa Maria Silveira de Almeida et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Human schistosomiasis, caused by trematode worms of the genus Schistosoma, is one of the most signifcant neglected tropical diseases, afecting more than 200 million individuals worldwide and praziquantel is the only available drug to treat this disease. Artemisia absinthium L. and Tanacetum parthenium L. are species popularly used as anthelmintics. We investigated the in vitro schistosomicidal activity of crude extracts of A. absinthium (AA) and T. parthenium (TP) and their isolated compounds. AA and TP, at 200 g/mL, were active, causing 100% mortality of all adult worms. Chromatographic fractionation of AA leads to isolation of artemetin and hydroxypelenolide, while santin, apigenin, and parthenolide were isolated from TP. Artemetin, hydroxypelenolide, santin, and apigenin, at 100 M, were inactive against adult worms. Parthenolide (12.5 to 100 M) caused 100% mortality, tegumental alterations, and reduction of motor activity of all adult worms of S. mansoni, without afecting mammalian cells. Confocal laser scanning microscopy showed tegumental morphological alterations and changes on the numbers of tubercles of S. mansoni worms. Tis report provides the frst evidence for the in vitro activity of parthenolide against adult worms of S. mansoni, opening the route to further schistosomicidal studies with this compound. 1. Introduction Human schistosomiasis, caused by trematode worms of the genus Schistosoma, is one of the most signifcant neglected tropical diseases, afecting more than 200 million individuals worldwide [1]. According to World Health Organization, of the 78 countries considered endemic for schistosomiasis, only 52 countries have populations requiring preventive chemotherapy [1, 2]. In Brazil, eight million people, from endemic regions stretching from the north to the south-east of the country, mainly in the Minas Gerais State, are infected with this chronic debilitating disease [2, 3]. Although praziquantel (PZQ) is a highly efective drug for the treatment and control of schistosomiasis in mass drug administration programs, its most important limitation is the lack of activity against younger parasite stages [4, 5]. In addition, PZQ has only a limited efect on already developed liver and spleen lesions and there is a considerable concern about the development of PZQ resistance [4, 5]. Such facts have encouraged the scientifc community to develop novel and inexpensive drugs against schistosomiasis [6]. In this regard, the search for antiparasitic compounds from natural sources, especially medicinal plants, has inten- sifed [2, 7–9]. Several plants of the family Asteraceae have shown promising in vitro schistosomicidal activity [10, 11]. Among them, plants from the genus Artemisia are a rich source of bioactive sesquiterpene lactones and have a Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2016, Article ID 9521349, 9 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/9521349