The anthelmintic effect of plumbagin on Schistosoma mansoni

Identification of plumbagin and sanguinarine as effective chemotherapeutic agents for treatment of schistosomiasis

“…During the process of submission of our manuscript, we noted that a paper describing the antischistosomal role of plumbagin was published (Lorsuwannarat et al, 2012). Although the effect of plumbagin on mortality of larvae (cercariae) and the morphology of adult worms was not described in the paper, the published paper and ours provide independent evidence supporting an antischistosomal role of plumbagin on adult worms.…”

Natural Products with Antischistosomal Activity

“…Quinones, flavonoids, neolignans and other phenolic derivatives have anthelmintic activities against schistosomes. The phenolic compounds with antischistosomal activity are: plumbagin [64,65], β-lapachone [53,54], quercetin 3-O-β-d-glucoside, quercetin 3-O-β-drhamnoside [37], kaempferol [52], sativan [67], hesperidin [50,51], (±)-licarin A and its enantiomer [55], curcumin [40][41][42][43][44] and some phloroglucinol derivatives such as aspidin, flavaspidic acid, methylene-bis-aspidinol and desaspidin (Figure 3) [35].…”

“…They are ubiquitous in nature and are characteristically highly reactive. Two naphthoquinones have been described with antiparasitic activity: plumbagin [64,65] and β-lapachone [53,54].…”

Chemoprevention of Schistosomiasis: In vitro Antiparasitic Activity of Nineteen Plant-derived and Synthetic Simple Naphthoquinones and Naphthols against Schistosoma Mansoni Adult Worms

“…Among the above four active compounds, menadione (NAP-6) is vitamin K3 which is a metabolite of orally ingested vitamin K [41] and found to be the third most active compound among the lead candidates that met WHO/TDR in vitro antiparasitic criteria against S. mansoni adult worms. It is noteworthy that in a recent study, the plant-derived plumbagin (Figure 1) has also met the above WHO/TDR criterion at 4.70 µg/mL concentration when incubated for 48 h [30] and it is reported to be more active than the currently used antischistosomal drug PZQ under the in vitro experimental conditions employed [29].…”

“…Earlier studies have shown antiparasitic effect of synthetic NAPQs, such as menadione on S. mansoni [27] and blockage of cercarial skin penetration by NAPQ derivatives [28]. Recently, in vitro anthelmintic effect of plant-derived NAPQs, plumbagin against S. mansoni adult worms [29,30] and lapachol potassium salt against S. mansoni cercariae [31] have been reported.…”