in vitro inhibitory effect of berberis vulgaris (berberidaceae) and its main component, berberine against different leishmania species.

background: leishmaniasis has been identified as a major public health problem in tropical and sub-tropical countries. the present study was aimed to investigate antileishmanial effects of various extracts of berberis vulgaris also its active com-poenent, berberine against leishmania tropica and l. infantum species on in vitro ex-periments. methods : in this study in vitro antileishmanial activity of various extracts of b. vul-garis also its active compoenent, berberine against promastigote and amastigote stages of l. tropica and l. infantum was evaluated, using mtt assay and in a macro-phage model, respectively. furthermore, infectivity rate and cytotoxicity effects of b. vulgaris and berberine in murine macrophage cells were investigated. results : the findings of optical density (od) and ic 50 indicated that b. vulgaris particulary berberine significantly ( p <0.05) inhibited the growth rate of pro-mastigote stage of l.tropica and l.infantum in comparison to meglumine antimoniate (ma). in addition, b. vulgaris and berberine significantly ( p <0.05) decreased the mean number of amastigotes in each macrophage as compared with positive con-trol. in the evaluation of cytotoxicity effects, it could be observed that berberine as compared with b. vulgaris exhibited more cytotoxicity against murine macrophages. results also showed that when parasites were pre-incubated with b. vulgaris their ability to infect murine macrophages was significantly decreased. conclusion : b.vulgaris particularly berberine exhibited potent in vitro leishmanicid-al effects against l. tropica and l.infantum . further works are required to evaluate the antileishmanial effects of b.vulgaris on leishmania species using clinical settings.