The trypanocidal action of natural compounds and crude extracts obtained from plants of Cuyo

COZZARI J; FERESIN G; TAPIA A; SOSA MA; BARRERA P

Mendoza

Congreso; Cuyo Biology Society. XXVIII Annual Scientific Meeting; 2010

Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative agent of Chagas disease that affects millions of people in Latin America. For decades, the search for new drugs to cure this disease has been intense. Recently, compounds obtained from plants of the Andes have shown important biological activities. For information, embelina is an alkyl phenol obtained from Oxalis erythrorhiza with potent antimicrobial activity. This study aimed to evaluate the possible trypanocidal action of this compound and its derivatives, and expand the search to new extracts from other plants in the area. T. cruzi epimastigotes (strain Tulahuen) were cultured in liquid medium of Diamond, in the presence or absence of embelina or different plant extracts. Aliquots of the cultures were collected every 24 hours, fixed with PAF and counted in a Neubauer hemocytometer. The viability of parasites was evaluated by dye exclusion. Extracts from; Chuquiraga erinacea, Chuquiraga ruscifolia, Chuquiraga echegaragii, Junellia hystrix, had no trypanocidal activity, while hexanoic fractions from Azorella showed intense trypanocidal activity from concentrations of 15 ug/ml, and in an irreversible and dose-dependent way. In turn, subfractions from the fraction 4 of Azorella strongly inhibited the growth of parasites. Meanwhile, embelina (15-50 ug/ml) and a mono-methoxylated derivative affected the growth of parasites.  We conclude that some native plants from Cuyo may contain significant amounts of compounds with trypanocidal activity and could be considered for future therapeutic uses.