EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT OF CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS WITH ARGENTILACTONEISOLATED FROM ANNONA-HAEMATANTHA

From the hexanic extract of roots of Annona haematantha an alpha,beta- unsaturated delta-lactone was isolated and identified as argentilacton e. This compound exhibited in vitro activity against various strains o f Leishmania ssp. at 10 mu g/ml. BALB/c mice infected with Leishmania amazonensis were treated four weeks after infection with argentilacton e by oral or subcutaneous routes for 14 days at 25 mg/kg daily. The re ference drug, N-methylglucamine antimonate, was administered by subcut aneous injections at 100 mg/kg for 14 days. In these conditions, argen tilactone showed the same efficacy as the reference drug, reducing by 96% the parasite loads in the lesion and by 50% the parasite burden in spleen.