en انگل شناسی Parasitology پژوهشي Research <div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background and Aims:</strong> Because of the toxicity and side-effects of synthetic drugs, there is a growing interest in biomedical plants. The aim of this study was to evaluate <em>in vitro</em> antileishmanial activity of <em>Carum copticum </em>essential oil against <em>Leishmania (L) major</em>.<br> <strong>Materials and Methods:</strong> Nineteen experimental groups were designed to determine the effect of <em>Carum copticum </em>essential oil against <em>L.&nbsp;major</em> and compare it with Meglumine antimonite. Group 1 was the control group and included 200 &micro;l of RPMI 1640 plus 2&times;10⁵ cells/ml promastigotes. Groups 2-10 included the aforementioned substances plus 10 &micro;l of 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 &micro;g/ml of<em> Carum copticum </em>essential oil respectively. Groups 11-19 were similar to groups 2-10 but Meglumine antimonite (0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 &micro;g/ml) was used instead of <em>Carum copticum </em>essential oil. All the experiments were repeated five times. After 8 hours, the antileishmanial activities of studied substances were determined.<br> <strong>Results:</strong> Up to concentration of 0.5 &micro;g/ml, no effect was observed with both substances. In comparison to control group, at 1 and 2 &micro;g/ml, Meglumine antimonite had no effect on Leishmaniasis (p>0.05) while <em>Carum copticum </em>essential oil significantly decreased Leishmaniasis viability (p<0.05). Moreover, at 3 &micro;g/ml, both compounds significantly decreased Leishmaniasis viability (p<0.05). However, <em>Carum copticum </em>essential oil had substantially better Antileishmanial activity than the other.<strong> &nbsp;</strong><br> <strong>Conclusions:</strong> These results suggest that comparable concentrations, <em>in vitro</em> antileishmanial activity of<em> Carum copticum </em>essential oil is better than Meglumine antimonite.</div> Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, Carum copticum, Anti Leishmanial activity, Leishmania major , Promastigote Carum, Leishmania major, Leishmaniasis, Promastigotes 131 137 http://ijml.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-272-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Ali Fattahi Bafghi علی فتاحی بافقی afbafghi@ssu.ac.ir 0000-0001-8469-2187 No Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Moneyreh Modares Mosadegh منیره مدرس مصدق mo_modares@yahoo.com 0000-0002-8080-4118 Yes Department of pharmacology, Faculty of pharmacy, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Department of pharmacology, Faculty of pharmacy, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Mehrdad Ghaemi مهرداد قایمی mehrdad_gh7463@yahoo.com 0000-0001-6200-6035 No Department of pharmacology, Faculty of pharmacy, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Department of pharmacology, Faculty of pharmacy, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. seyed Hassan Hejazian سید حسن حجازیان hejaziansh@yahoo.com 0000-0002-4390-2982 No Department of physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Department of physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.