Asteraceae <i>Artemisia campestris</i> and <i>Artemisia herba-alba</i> Essential Oils Trigger Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in <i>Leishmania infantum</i> Promastigotes

Abstract

We report the chemical composition and anti-<i>Leishmania</i> and antioxidant activity of <i>Artemisia campestris</i> L. and <i>Artemisia herba</i>-<i>alba</i> Asso. essential oils (EOs). Our results showed that these extracts exhibit different antioxidant activities according to the used assay. The radical scavenging effects determined by DPPH assay were of IC₅₀ = 3.3 mg/mL and IC₅₀ = 9.1 mg/mL for <i>Artemisia campestris</i> and <i>Artemisia herba</i>-<i>alba</i> essential oils, respectively. However, antioxidant effects of both essential oils, determined by ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, were in the same range (2.3 and 2.97 mg eq EDTA/g EO, resp.), while the <i>Artemisia herba</i>-<i>alba</i> essential oil showed highest chelating activity of Fe²⁺ ions (27.48 mM Fe²⁺). Interestingly, we showed that both EOs possess dose-dependent activity against <i>Leishmania infantum</i> promastigotes with IC₅₀ values of 68 <i>μ</i>g/mL and 44 <i>μ</i>g/mL for <i>A. herba</i>-<i>alba</i> and <i>A. campestris</i>, respectively. We reported, for the first time, that antileishmanial activity of both EOs was mediated by cell apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest at the sub-G0/G1 phase. All our results showed that EOs from <i>A. herba</i>-<i>alba</i> and <i>A. campestris</i> plants are promising candidates as anti-<i>Leishmania</i> medicinal products.