%0 Journal Article
%T Antifungal, Antileishmanial, and Cytotoxicity Activities of Various Extracts of Berberis vulgaris (Berberidaceae) and Its Active Principle Berberine
%A Hossein Mahmoudvand
%A Seyyed Amin Ayatollahi Mousavi
%A Asghar Sepahvand
%A Fariba Sharififar
%A Behrouz Ezatpour
%A Fatemeh Gorohi
%A Ebrahim Saedi Dezaki
%A Sareh Jahanbakhsh
%J ISRN Pharmacology
%D 2014
%R 10.1155/2014/602436
%X In this study, in vitro antidermatophytic activity against Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Trichophyton rubrum, Microsporum canis, and Microsporum gypseum was studied by disk diffusion test and assessment of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) using CLSI broth macrodilution method (M38-A2). Moreover, antileishmanial and cytotoxicity activity of B. vulgaris and berberine against promastigotes of Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica were evaluated by colorimetric MTT assay. The findings indicated that the various extracts of B. vulgaris particularly berberine showed high potential antidermatophytic against pathogenic dermatophytes tested with MIC values varying from 0.125 to >4£¿mg/mL. The results revealed that B. vulgaris extracts as well as berberine were effective in inhibiting L. major and L. tropica promastigotes growth in a dose-dependent manner with IC50 (50% inhibitory concentration) values varying from 2.1 to 26.6£¿¦Ìg/mL. Moreover, it could be observed that berberine as compared with B. vulgaris exhibited more cytotoxicity against murine macrophages with CC50 (cytotoxicity concentration for 50% of cells) values varying from 27.3 to 362.6£¿¦Ìg/mL. Results of this investigation were the first step in the search for new antidermatophytic and antileishmanial drugs. However, further works are required to evaluate exact effect of these extracts in animal models as well as volunteer human subjects. 1. Introduction Dermatophytosis is a common contagious disease caused by a fungus known as dermatophytes. Dermatophytes belong to three genera of Trichophyton, Microsporum, and Epidermophyton, which are able to break down keratin in tissues such as epidermis, hair, nails, feathers, horns, and hooves. There are various forms of this disease including tinea corporis, tinea pedis, tinea capitis, tinea barbae, tinea cruris, tinea manuum, and onychomycosis [1]. At present, there are several antidermatophyte drugs such as imidazoles and terbinafine for topical treatment and triazoles, griseofulvin, and terbinafine as oral antifungal for systemic treatment of dermatophytosis which have shown some problems including high toxicity, fungal resistance, and prolonged systemic therapy [1¨C3]. These factors express urgent needs for development of new effective treatment alternatives. Leishmaniasis is caused by parasitic protozoa of the genus of Leishmania transmitted by bites of phlebotomine sand flies [4]. It is still considered a major health problem in tropical and subtropical countries worldwide and its clinical symptoms are varied, ranging from simple cutaneous lesion
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.pharmacology/2014/602436/