Coriandrum sativum L. leaves are used by many countries in the preparation of food and in folk medicine. The essential oil from its leaves has the potential for use in the food industry as an antimicrobial agent and as a condiment. Since cilantro (C. sativum) is highly consumed in countries with high incidences of Leishmaniasis, we investigated the antileishmanial activity of cilantro essential oil and some of its main components: (E)-2-decenal and (E)-2-dodecenal. The essential oil of C. sativum leaves inhibits growth of Leishmani donovani promastigotes in culture with an IC50 of 26.58 ± 6.11 µg/mL. The aliphatic aldehydes (E)-2-decenal and (E)-2-dodecenal also are effective inhibitors of in vitro cultures of L. donovani promastigotes (IC50 7.85 ± 0.28 µg/mL and 4.35 ± 0.15 µg/mL, respectively). For axenic amastigotes, (E)-2-decenal and (E)-2-dodecenal were evaluated and IC50 values were determined to be 2.47 ± 0.25 µg/mL and 4.78 ± 1.12 µg/mL, respectively. From these results, another trial was conducted with the objective to evaluate the yield of the major compounds in the essential oil of five genotypes of C. sativum L. The treatments were composed of four accessions provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture germplasm: (“AMES 18596”; “PI 171592”; “AMES 4998” and “PI 193770”) and cultivar (Santo). Accessions AMES 18596 and PI 193770 produced 7.34 g/plant of fresh weight of shoots. Accession PI 171592 produced slightly higher yields (6.23 g/plant) than the cultivar Santo and AMES 4998 (4.75 g/plant). (E)-2-decenal concentration ranged from 5.75 to 58.75 µg/g fresh weight, (E)-2-Dodecenal concentration ranged from 14.50 to 40.43 µg/g fresh weight, (Figure 1). These differences among genotypes are important because it may offer the opportunity for production of cilantro to meet the food and pharmaceutical industry requirements.

Cilantro essential oil and its major constituents as a source of new drugs against Leishmaniasis

249th National Meeting (2015)

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