Trypanocide, cytotoxic, and anti-Candida activities of natural products: Hyptis martiusii Benth

Introduction: Chagas disease is considered a public health problem. Nowadays, chemotherapy is the only available treatment for this disease, and the drugs currently used present high toxicity levels. An alternative for replacing these drugs are natural extracts from Hyptis martiusii, a plant used in traditional medicine due to its antimicrobial and biological activities. The objective of this work was to evaluate the trypanocide, anti-Candida and cytotoxic activities of H. martiusii. Methods: An ethanolic extract of H. martiusii was prepared. To research in vitro antiepimastigote activity, Trypanosoma cruzi CL-B5 clone was used. Epimastigotes were inoculated at a 1 x 10(5) mL(-1) concentration in 200 mu L triptose-liver infusion. For the cytotoxicity assay J774 macrophages were used. For the antifungal activity, Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis and Candida krusei were used. Results: This is the first record of trypanocide activity for H. martiusii. Effective concentration capable of killing 50% of parasites (IC50) was 4606 mu g/mL. The antifungal minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was <= 1024 mu g/mL. Metronidazole showed a potentiation of its antifungal effect when combined with ethanol extract of H. martiusii. Conclusion: Our results indicate that H. martiusii could be a source of a plant-derived natural product with antiepimastigote and antifungal modifying activity with moderate toxicity. (C) 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.