In vitro antileishmanial activity of three saponins isolated from ivy, α‐hederin, β‐hederin and hederacolchiside A₁, in association with pentamidine and amphotericin B

Abstract

The in vitro antileishmanial activity of three saponins isolated from ivy, alpha-hederin, beta-hederin and hederacolchiside A(1), was investigated on parasites of the species Leishmania mexicana, in their promastigote and amastigote forms compared with their toxicity versus human monocytes. The results showed that saponins exhibited a strong antiproliferative activity on all stages of development of the parasite but demonstrated a strong toxicity versus human cells. Association of subtoxic concentrations of saponins with antileishmanial drugs such as pentamidine and amphotericin B demonstrated that saponins could enhance the efficiency of conventional drugs on both the promastigote and the amastigote stages of development of the parasite. The results demonstrated moreover that the action of saponins on promastigote membrane was cumulative with those of amphotericin B.

Triterpenoid Saponins from Leaves of Hedera pastuchowii

“…4) The antileishmanial activity of a-hederin, b-hederin and hederacolchiside A 1 in association with Pentamidine and Amphotericin B showed that subtoxic concentrations of these saponins enhance the efficiency of Pentamidine and Amphotericin B on the promastigote and the amastigote forms of the parasites. 5,6) Hederacolchiside A 1 was strongly cytotoxic against malignant melanoma M 4 Beu (IC 50 ϭ5 mM). 7) This saponin exhibits a preferential cytotoxicity on pigmented melanoma cells and interacts specifically with melanin.…”

In Vitro and In Vivo Activities of a Triterpenoid Saponin Extract (PX-6518) from the Plant Maesa balansae against Visceral Leishmania Species

“…Very little is known about the antileishmanial potential of saponins. In vitro activity against promastigotes and/or intracellular amastigotes was demonstrated for Hedera (9,31), Dracaena (26), and Yucca (29), but selectivity evaluations and in vivo confirmation studies with these extracts were unfortunately not performed. In the present study, extracts from different Maesa species were evaluated with the anticipation that they contain structural analogue saponins, as already documented for M. lanceolata (34) and Maesa japonica (19).…”

“…Saponins have been demonstrated in a large number of plant species, and very different biological activities have been described (16). Antileishmanial activity has been reported for Hedera (9,31), Dracaena (26), and Yucca (29) saponins, but their value as drug candidates cannot be fully assessed, since in vivo data from animal models were not generated.…”

α‐hederin potentiates 5‐FU antitumor activity in human colon adenocarcinoma cells

“…1) distributed in Hedera or Nigella species displays many biological activities such as hemolytic, antispasmodic (Trute et al, 1997), antiinflammatory (Choi et al, 2002a(Choi et al, , 2002bKim et al, 2002), antileishmanial (Delmas et al, 2000;Ridoux et al, 2001), molluscicidal and cytotoxic (Park et al, 2001), partially due to their interaction with the cell membrane (Chwalek et al, 2006). α-Hederin is increasingly investigated for its promising antitumor potential since it revealed cytotoxicity against various cancer cell lines (Quetin-Leclercq et al, 1992;Danloy et al, 1994;Rooney and Ryan, 2005a;Tian et al, 2006) and in vivo tumors (Kumara and Huat, 2001) with antimutagenic activity (Elias et al, 1990;Amara-Mokrane et al, 1996;Lee et al, 2000).…”