The Effects of Ethanol Extract of Propolis on Acute Toxoplasmosis in Mouse Model

Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most prevalent human parasites globally distributed with a wide range of hosts including humans and animal species. The available anti-toxoplasma treatments have faced several problems. To deal with these issues new drugs and compounds are required to be evaluated. This study was aimed to evaluate the inhibitory effect of ethanol extracts of propolis on acute toxoplasmosis in mouse model.

A total of 40 BALB/c mice with average weight of 20-25 gr, were divided into 8 groups of 5. Each mouse was inoculated intraperitoneally with parasitic suspension of approximately 10,000 tachyzoites. Two groups of mice, including a non-infected group and an infected but not treated group were used as control. Twenty-four hours after the infection, treatment was initiated for six groups, inoculating 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 300 mg/kg of propolis extracts orally for 7 days.

The average survival time was 6.4 to 7.2 days in the propolis treated groups of mice and 4.6 days in the control group, that was significantly different. The number of Toxoplasma tachyzoites in the test groups was significantly lower than the control group (P< 0.05). It was 10×104 in the group of 300mg and 20.4×104 in the control group with minimum and maximum parasite numbers, respectively. The most effective dose of propolis extract on survival time of the infected mice was 150 mg/kg.

The results indicated that the propolis ethanol extracts can relatively inhibit Toxoplasma infection development in mouse model.