The Effect of Vitis vinifera L. Leaves Extract on Leishmania infantum In-vitro. 

Vitis vinifera L.is a traditional Asian herb widely used for different health problems. In thepresent research, the ethanolic and the aqueous extracts of Vitis vinifera L. leaves collected fromshrub, grown in Tunisia, were prepared and evaluated for the antileishmanial activity againstLeishmani ainfantum promastigotes. The inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50) was determined andthe results showed that the etahnolic extract is more active than the aqueous one (IC50= 0.108mg/mL). Microscopic observations showed that the ethanolic extract promoted the destructionof cytoplasmic and nuclear membranes of Leishmani ainfantum promastigotes and altered theoverall shape of the cell. In order to explain the difference of antileishmanial activity betweenethanolic and aqueous extracts, anthocyanins amount was determined by spectrophotometry. Itwas found that the ethanolic extract is richer in anthocyanins than the aqueous one which canexplain the higher antileishmanial activity of the ethanolic extract.