the effect of alkanna tincturia and peganum harmala extracts on leishmania major (mrho/ir/75/er) in vitro

background: cutaneous leishmaniasis is an important health problem caused by leishmania spp . as there is no vaccine, drug treatment is the only way to tackle leishmaniasis. in the present study, inhibitory and kill­ing effects of peganum harmala and alkana tinctoria extracts on amastigotes and promastigotes forms of leishmania were evaluated in-vitro. methods: the seeds of peganum harmala, stems and roots of alkanna tictoria were collected and crude extrac­tion carried out. in this experimental study,  leishmania major promastigotes were cultured in rpmi-1640 with 10% fbs at 22-26°c, and infected macrophages with amastigotes   were cultured in rpmi-1640 with 10% fbs at 37°c in 5% co2. then the extracts of each plant were added to cultivated parasites and incubated for 3 days. promastigote and amastigote assay was carried out using   counting assay based on growth inhibition. results: the results indicated that both extractions can inhibit the growth of promastigotes, and in concentra­tions of 40µg/ml of p. harmala , 200µg/ml of a. tincturia, and 20 µg/ml of equal combination of p. hamala and a. tincturia are inhibitory concentration (ic 50 ) for parasites growth. by adding these concentra­tions of the extracts to the infected macrophages in the culture, their effects were separately eva­lu­ated. the mean of amastigotes number in macrophages in the culture with p. harmala, a. ticturia , combina­tion and control groups were 0.7, 0.7, 0.6, 2.3 amastigotes per macrophage, respectively. conclusion: by this method, inhibition of intracellular and extracellular growth of l. major was demon­strated suggesting that, plant drugs with efficacy and safe products can be applied as new treatment for cutane­ous leishmaniasis.