Apigenin effect against Leishmania tropica amastigotes in vitro

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis is a current public health problem in Syria. It causes different skin lesions that vary in their severity from spontaneously heal lesions to permanent deformity ones. However, the used treatments have many disadvantages as their high toxicity and many side effects. Flavonoids including Apigenin reported to have many anti parasitic properties. As well as their preference as potential therapeutic alternatives in the treatment of Leishmaniasis due to its low side effects and toxicity. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of Apigenin against L.tropica amastigotes in vitro using Leishmania-Macrophage Interaction Assay. Our study demonstrated the possibility of efficacy of Apigenin against L.tropica amastigotes since Apigenin reduced the infection index at IC₅₀ 60.44 µM and this requires subsequent studies in humans and using Apigenin as a candidate for the chemotherapeutic treatment against Leishmaniasis.