Chemical composition, antileishmanial, and antifungal activi-ties of essential oils from Cinnamomum cassia bark, Schinus molle dried leaves and their blends

Abstract

This study reports on the chemical composition and antileishmanial and anticandidal activities of essential oils (EOs) distilled from Schinus molle dried leaves (SM-EO), Cinnamomum cassia branch bark (CC-EO) and their blends against promastigote forms of Leishmania (Leishmania) ama-zonensis and nine Candida strains. Major constituents of SM-EO were spathulenol (26.93%), β-caryophyllene (19.90%), and caryophyllene oxide (12.69%), whereas cinnamaldehyde (60.11%), cinnamyl acetate (20.90%) and (E)-cis-2-methoxycinnamic acid (10.37%) were predominant in CC-EO. SM-EO (IC50 = 21.45 µg/mL) and CC-EO (IC50 = 23.27 µg/mL) displayed good activity against L. amazonensis. SM-EO and CC-EO also proved to be good or moderate activity against nine Can-dida strains, with Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values ranging from 31.25 to 250 µg/mL. While the three SM-EO and CC-EO blends were not more active than the EOs tested in-dividually, they exhibited remarkably high antileishmanial activity, with IC50 values ranging between 3.12 and 7.04 µg/mL, which is very similar to the IC50 of amphotericin B (positive con-trol). These results show that SM-EO, CC-EO, and their blends may be considered to participate in the formulation of drugs with antileishmanial and antifungal activities.