Antiparasitic Activity and Essential Oil Chemical Analysis of the Piper Tuberculatum Jacq Fruit

With the increase of neglected diseases such as leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, there wasa need for the search for new therapeutic alternatives that reduce the harm caused by medicineavailable for treatment. Thus, this study was performed to investigate the antiparasitic activityof the essential oil from the fruits of Piper tuberculatum Jacq, against lines of Leishmaniabraziliensis (MHOM/CO/88/UA301), Leishmania infantum (MHOM/ES/92/BCN83) andTrypanosoma cruzi (LC-B5 clone). Before running protocols, an analysis of the chemicalcomposition of essential oil was conducted, which presented monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes.As major constituents, β-pinene and α-pinene were identified. Regarding to antiparasitic activity,the essential oil had an EC50 values of 133.97 μg/mL and 143.59 μg/mL against variationspromastigotes of L. infantum and L. braziliensis, respectively. As for trypanocidal activity, theoil showed EC50 value of 140.31 μg/mL against epimastigote form of T. cruzi. Moreover, itshowed moderate cytotoxicity in fibroblasts with LC50 value of 204.71 μg/mL. The observedeffect may be related to the presence of terpenes contained in the essential oil, since it has itsantiparasitic activity proven in the literature.