Schistosomicidal Effects of the Essential Oils of Citrus limonia and Citrus reticulata Against Schistosoma mansoni

Abstract

We report the in vitro schistosomicidal effects of the essential oil obtained from Citrus limonia leaves (CL-EO) and C. reticulata fruit peels (CR-EO), cultivated in Brazil, against Schistosoma mansoni worms. Limonene (29.9%), β-pinene (12.0%), sabinene (9.0%), citronellal (9.0%), and citronellol (5.8%) are the major constituents of CL-EO; limonene (26.5%), γ-terpinene (17.2%), linalool (11.1%), octanal (8.0%), myrcene (6.2%), and capraldehyde (3.9%) predominate in CR-EO. CL-EO displayed moderate lethal concentration 50% (LC ) of 81.7 and 38.9 μg/ml against male and female worms at 24 and 72 h, respectively. At concentrations of 25 and 100 μg/ml, CL-EO separated between 50 and 75% of the coupled worm pairs during the evaluated period. CR-EO presented moderate LC of 81.7 μg/ml against male and female worms at 24 and 72 h. However, this oil separated coupled worm pairs more effectively than CL-EO and displayed lower cytotoxicity to GM07492-A cells (IC = 987.7 ± 88.9 μg/ml) as compared to CL-EO (IC = 187.8 ± 2.9 μg/ml). The enantiomers (+)-(R)-limonene and (-)-(S)-limonene did not affect S. mansoni adult worm pairs significantly. Taken together, these data indicate that CL-EO and CR-EO exhibit moderate in vitro schistosomicidal activity against adult S. mansoni worms.

Chemical Composition, Antibacterial, Schistosomicidal, and Cytotoxic Activities of the Essential Oil of Dysphania ambrosioides (L.) Mosyakin & Clemants (Chenopodiaceae)

“…In this study, DA‐EO displays very promising schistosomicidal activity against Schistosoma mansoni adult worms in vitro , with LC 50 values of 6.50 ± 0.38, 3.66 ± 1.06, and 3.65 ± 0.76 μg/ml at 24, 48, and 72 h, respectively. Moreover, DA‐EO was much more active than other essential oils previously investigated by our research group, which only presented significant activity only at concentrations equal to or higher than 100 μg/ml . Monzote and co‐workers reported that the monoterpene ascaridole accounted for the antileishmanial effect of DA‐EO collected in Cuba, with a LC 50 = 0.1 ± 0.01 μg/ml.…”

Chemical composition, in vitro larvicidal and antileishmanial activities of the essential oil from Citrus reticulata Blanco fruit peel

“…Previous reports of EOs from fruit peel from other C. reticulata specimens showed that terpenes limonene, sabinene, linalool, ɣ-terpinene, octanal and capraldehyde were its major constituents (Hamdan et al, 2016;Martins et al, 2017). EOs from different Citrus species are chemically similar with the predominance of the monoterpene limonene, characteristics that are pointed out by Bozkurt et al (2017).…”

Antischistosomal Activity of Essential Oils: An Updated Review

“…For example, at a concentration of 100 μg mL À 1 , the essential oil from Citrus limonia caused 100 % mortality of adult S. mansoni worms after 24 h (LC 50 = 38.9 μg mL À 1 ). [19] On the other hand, at a concentration of 50 μg mL À 1 , the EOs from C. limonia [19] and Piper marginatum [20] caused 100 % mortality of adult S. mansoni worms only after 72 h (LC 50 = 81.7 μm L À 1 for C. limonia at 24 h). Thus, comparison between the efficacies of different EOs must consider not only the concentration, but also the time needed for causing the adult worm death.…”