Activity, toxicity and analysis of resistance of essential oil from
Chenopodium ambrosioides after intraperitoneal, oral and
intralesional administration in BALB/c mice infected
with Leishmania amazonensis: A preliminary study
LIANET MONZOTE, ANA M. MONTALVO, RAMO´N SCULL, MIGDALIA MIRANDA, JUAN ABREU
Abstract
The World Health Organization has classified the leishmaniasis as a major tropical disease. Current therapy is toxic, expensive and cause several adverse effects. The majority of people in endemic areas of leishmaniasis depend of natural and traditional medicine. This study was developed to examine the activity of the essential oil from Chenopodium ambrosioides in BALB/c mice infected with Leishmania amazonensis.
The infected animals received two cycle of treatment by different routes (intraperitoneal, oral or intralesional route). The intraperitoneal administration of the essential oil at dose of 30 mg/Kg prevented lesion development and decrease the parasite burden. Oral administration retarded the infection in the experimental model compared with untreated mice, although it was less effective that the intraperitoneal route. The administration by intralesional route did not show activity. Intraperitoneal and oral treatment at 30 mg/Kg with the essential oil had better antileishmanial effect that treatment with the reference drug, amphotericin B at 1 mg/Kg. Preliminarily, we examined the toxicity and the resistance after treatment. Signs of toxicity were evident only in the animals treated by intraperitoneal route. No resistance was detected in L. amazonensis isolates obtained from treated mice. These data clearly demonstrated that this natural product could be an alternative for the development of a new drug against cutaneous leishmaniasis based in the ethnomedical information. _ 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Chenopodium ambrosioides; Leishmania amazonensis; Balb/c; Essential oil; Treatment.
Activity-toxicity-and-analysis-of-resistance-of-essential-oil-from-Chenopodium-ambrosioides.pdf
Ascaridole-less infusions of Chenopodium ambrosioides contain a
nematocide(s) that is(are) not toxic to mammalian smooth muscle
D. MACDONALDA, K. VANCREY, P. HARRISON, P.K. RANGACHARI,
J. ROSENFELD, C. WARREN, G. SORGER.
Abstract
Infusions of Chenopodium ambrosioides (L.) have been used for centuries in the Americas as a popular remedy against intestinal worm infections. The essential oil of Chenopodium ambrosioides contains high levels of ascaridole, which is a potent anthelmintic, but which has also been responsible for human fatalities, leading to its disuse. Almost90%of the nematocidal activity of Chenopodium ambrosioides infusionswas due to a hydrophilic component different from ascaridole. Synthetic ascaridole and the ascaridole from infusions, extracted into hexane, caused a reduction of carbachol-induced contractions in rat gastrointestinal smooth muscle at concentrations required to kill Caenorhabditis elegans (L.). The herbal infusion and the ascaridole-free hexane-extracted aqueous residue of the above infusion, at nematocidal concentractions, had no detectable effect on smooth muscle contraction in the above system. It would appear that the traditional form of useage of Chenopodium ambrosioides infusions as a vermifuge is safer than the use of the herb’s essential oil. © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Ascaridole; Nematocide; Medicinal plant; Chenopodium ambrosioides; Caenorhabditis elegans.
Evaluation of Chenopodium ambrosioides oil as a potential source
of antifungal, antiaflatoxigenic and antioxidant activity
RAJESH KUMAR, AJAY KUMAR MISHRA, N.K. DUBEY, Y.B. TRIPATHI
Abstract
Essential oil extracted from the leaves of Chenopodium ambrosioides Linn. (Chenopodiaceae) was tested against the aflatoxigenic strain of test fungus Aspergillus flavus Link. The oil completely inhibited the mycelial growth at 100 μg/ml. The oil exhibited broad fungitoxic spectrum against Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Botryodiplodia theobromae, Fusarium oxysporum, Sclerotium rolfsii, Macrophomina phaseolina, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Helminthosporium oryzae and Pythium debaryanum at 100 μg/ml. The oil showed significant efficacy in inhibiting the aflatoxin B1 production by the aflatoxigenic strain of A. flavus. During in vivo investigation it protected stored wheat from different storage fungi for one year. Chenopodium oil also exhibited potent antioxidant activity when tested by ABTS method. All these observations suggest the possible exploitation of the Chenopodium oil as potential botanical fungitoxicant in ecofriendly control of post harvest biodeterioration of food commodities from storage fungi. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: ABTS; A. flavus; Aflatoxin; Antioxidant; Antifungal; C. ambrosioides; Shelf life
In vitro genotoxic evaluation of the medicinal plant Chenopodium
ambrosioides L.
A. GADANO, A. GURNI , P. LÓPEZ, G. FERRARO, M. CARBALLO.
Abstract
Chenopodium ambrosioides (Chenopodiaceae) is an anthelmintic herb used in Latin-America’s folk medicine. The aim of this work is to evaluate genetic damage induced by decoction and infusion of this plant which were assayed in different concentrations (1, 10, 100, 1000 mg/ml), by addition of the extract to human lymphocyte cell cultures. The endpoints evaluated were chromosomal aberrations (CA), sister chromatid exchanges (SCE), cell proliferation kinetics (CPK) and mitotic indexes (MI). The repeated measure analysis of variance was used for statistic evaluation of the results. The results showed (a) a statistical increase in the percentage of cells with CA and in the frequency of SCE when cultures were exposed to both preparations of Paico, (b) a decrease in
MI of both preparations assayed, although no modification in the CPK values either in the infusion or in the decoction was observed. These results suggest a possible genotoxic effect of both preparations, probably due to different active principles. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Medicinal plants; Paico; Chenopodium ambrosioides ; Mitotic index; Genotoxicity
In-vitro-genotoxic-evaluation-of-the-medicinal-plant-Chenopodium-ambrosioides.pdf