Antileishmanial activity in vitro and in vivo of constituents of sea cucumber Actinopyga lecanora.

In the search of new antileishmanial drugs from marine resources, we have investigated Actinopyga lecanora, a coral reef sea cucumber, for its in vitro and in vivo activities. Methanol extract and n-butanol fraction of A. lecanora exhibited excellent Leishmania donovani inhibition. Among the two glycosides isolated from n-butanol fraction, holothurin B (2) displayed excellent in vitro and moderate in vivo leishmanicidal activity, whereas holothurin A (1) revealed only moderate action. These findings provide an important marine lead toward the development of new antileishmanial drugs and necessitate the further exploration of rich and diverse marine resources for more potent bioactive molecules.