Abstract

The leishmaniasis caused by 17 species of protozoan parasite Leishmania, is a major infectious disease in many parts of the world including Asia, Africa, Southern Europe and South and Central America. Nearly two million people are affected annually by this parasite and 350 million are vulnerable to attack by the pathogen . Visceral leishmaniasis is one of the four major clinical forms of leishmaniasis which frequently assumes epidemic proportion resulting in high mortality rate. India is also a major hot spot of visceral leishmaniasis called Kala-azar caused by Leishmania donovani .The parasite exists as flagellated promastigote in the female sandfly vector and as amastigote in the mammalian host. In the present paper, we report the efficacy of crude soluble extract (CSE) prepared from the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense for its leishmanicidal (promastigote stage) activity. The CSE (crude soluble extract) of F. oxysporum f.sp. cubense isolated from rhizosphere of banana var. Malbhog, has been evaluated as an anti-leishmanial agent on promastigotes of L. donovani and compared with leishmanicidal effect of two well known anti-leishmanial drug SAG (Sodium Antimony Gluconate ) and Amphotericin B. L. donovani promastigotes were cultured (2 x 106 p/mL) in presence of fungal CSE as well as SAG and Amphotericin-B individually. Significantly, CSE (0.5 mg/ml) of F. oxysporum showed 100% inhibition of Leishmania promastigote proliferation in 48 hours while Amphotericin-B and SAG showed 100% and 44% parasite inhibition respectively.

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