Asteraceae Artemisia campestris and Artemisia herba-alba Essential Oils Trigger Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in Leishmania infantum Promastigotes

We report the chemical composition and anti-Leishmania and antioxidant activity of Artemisia campestris L. and Artemisia herba-alba Asso. essential oils ( EOs). Our results showed that these extracts exhibit different antioxidant activities according to the used assay. The radical scavenging effects determined by DPPH assay were of IC50 = 3.3mg/mL and IC50 = 9.1mg/mL for Artemisia campestris and Artemisia herba-alba essential oils, respectively. However, antioxidant effects of both essential oils, determined by ferric-reducing antioxidant power ( FRAP) assay, were in the same range ( 2.3 and 2.97 mg eq EDTA/g EO, resp.), while the Artemisia herba-alba essential oil showed highest chelating activity of Fe2+ ions ( 27.48mM Fe2+). Interestingly, we showed that both EOs possess dose-dependent activity against Leishmania infantum promastigotes with IC50 values of 68 mu g/mL and 44 mu g/mL for A. herba-alba and A. campestris, respectively. We reported, for the first time, that antileishmanial activity of both EOs was mediated by cell apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest at the sub-G0/G1 phase. All our results showed that EOs from A. herba-alba and A. campestris plants are promising candidates as anti-Leishmania medicinal products.