History and Objectives: Visceral Leishmania outbreak and its resistance to synthetic drug have led to the in vitro analysis of various concentrations of glucantime and Hedera helix plant extract on Leishmania infantum promastigote.

Materials and Methods: An experimental investigation was conducted on 210000 L.infantum promastigotes (MHOM/SI/68/ER.L1, WHO confirmed samples), glucontime (Specia, France) and H.helix (Obtained from Isfahan Bureau of Animal Husbandry and Natural Resources). In fourteen rows of 10 culture tubes containing specific culture media for L.infantum (N.N.N), 1500 L.infantum were inoculated. In 6 rows of 10 tubes various concentrations of the glucantime (100, 50, 25, 10, 5, 1 mg/ml) and in 6 series of 10 tubes similar concentration of H.helix cell extract and in 2 series of 10 tubes, saline solution (As control) was applied. All tubes were incubated at 26°C and samples were taken every day for total 10 day. Samples were transferred to Neubar microscopic slide and the number of the live parasites was recorded.

Results: Live parasites were present in all control tubes, however the percentage of live parasites and duration of their existence were variable in various concentration of glucantime. At 50 mg/ml concentration of glucantime after one day, only 2.5% of cell were killed whereas at 25 mg/ml of H.helix extract, all cells were killed. At similar concentrations, H.helix extract had significantly higher rate of antiparasitic activity (P<0.05).

Conclusion: In high of effective antiparasitic activity of the H.helix extract in vitro studies compared to glucantime on visceral Leishmaniosis and because of possible side effects of the synthetic drugs, it is recommended that therapeutically potent fraction of the H.helix ought to be separated and prepared for animal clinical trial. Human clinical trails may be considered if persistent animal studies pointed to the effectivity and absence of the adverse side effects.