Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the antigiardial activities of Citrullus lanatusvar. citroides (wild watermelon) fruits, petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, butanol crude extracts as well as Cucurbitacin E and Cucurbitacin L 2-O-β-glucoside pure isolated compounds from C. lanatus var. citroides. Cucurbitacin E and Cucurbitacin L 2-O-β-glucoside were revealed to have strong potent antigiardial activity against Giardia lamlia in vitro with IC₅₀= 2 and 5 ng/ml after 5 days respectively. The ethyleacetate extract was the best among all examined extracts followed by petroleum ether and butanol with IC₅₀ 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5 µg/ml, respectively. The results suggest that all the crude extracts and isolated compounds were active against G. lamblia, hence C. lanatus var. citroides may be recommended as new source for the treatment of giardiasis.

Key words: Citrullus lanatus var. citroides, Giardia lamlia, Cucurbitacin E, Cucurbitacin L 2-O-β-glucoside.