Antileishmanial activity of 12-methoxycarnosic acid from Salvia repens Burch. ex Benth. (Lamiaceae)

In South Africa, Salvia repens is used traditionally to treat sores, stomach ache and diarrhoea. The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based activity profiling of S. repens whole plant extract showed an active abietane diterpene, identified as 12-methoxycarnosic acid (1) which showed antiprotozoal activity against axenically grown Leishmania donovani amastigotes with an IC50 of 0.75μM with marginal cytotoxicity against the L6-cells (IC50, 17.3μM). •HPLC-based antileishmanial activity profiling of Salvia repens whole plant extract was carried out.•The active antileishmanial component of Salvia repens was isolated and identified to be 12-methoxycarnosic acid.•12-Methoxycarnosic acid was active against L. donovani amastigotes with an IC50 of 0.75μM.•12-Methoxycarnosic acid showed marginal cytotoxicity against the L6-cells (IC50, 17.3μM).