Metabolomics Based Study of the Antileishmanial Activity of Xanthium strumarium Leaf Extract on Promastigotes Phases of Leishmania major by Proton NMR Spectroscopy

BACKGROUND: Xanthium strumarium L. is extensively used as a traditional herb to treat many diseases and is also known as a source of phytochemicals. It has been used traditionally to treat trypanosomiasis, malaria fever, eczema, cancer, ulcer, fever, herpes headache, and skin lesion such as leishmaniasis. In this preliminary study, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-metabolomics approaches was used to evaluate the inhibitory effects and metabolic alterations caused by leaf extract of X. strumarium on the stationary phases of promastigotes in Leishmania major. METHODS: The promastigotes were cultured in Biochemistry Laboratory at Pasteur Institute of Iran in 2017, stationary phases were obtained from 5 to 6 day-old cultures and treated with different concentrations of the plant’s extract. Antileishmanial activity was assayed by MTT method and cell metabolites were extracted. (1)H NMR spectroscopy was applied, and outliers were separated using multivariate statistical analysis. RESULTS: The most affected metabolic pathways in the experimental groups were limited to amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, cyanoamino acid metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, butanoate metabolism, and galactose metabolism. CONCLUSION: The ethanolic leaf extract of X. strumarium is a potent growth inhibitor of Leishmania major and can affect vital metabolic pathways of Leishmania promastigotes. The assay provided new perspectives on the development of novel treatment strategies for leishmanial activity derived from natural products.