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Background and Aim: Acanthamoeba is an opportunistic pathogen that may cause fatal granulomatous encephalitis and ocular keratitis in humans and animals. Increasing number of contact lens wearers can lead to increased frequency of amoebic keratitis and due to lack of effective drugs treatment of this disease is difficult. This study aimed to investigate the effect of ethanolic extract of Chaerophyllum macropodum on Acanthamoeba genotype T4. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, samples taken from the patients with keratitis were cultured on 1.5% non-nutrient agar medium. Different concentrations of the ethanolic extract (1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 mg/ml) were tested three times (24, 48, and 72 h) on trophozoites and cysts of Acanthamoeba in vitro. The number of live and dead parasites were counted by using trypan blue staining and neobar lam. Also, the percentage of cysts apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry. Results: In the presence of 10 mg/ml ethanolic extract in the culture medium, the percentages of live trophozoites after 24, 48, and 72 h were 53.6, 15.11, and 0 percent, respectively. In the case of cysts, after 24, 48, and 72 h, 65.31, 43.31, and 0 percent of the cysts were alive, respectively. The results of flow cytometry showed that the apoptosis rate was 0.09% in the sample treated with extract after 72 h. Conclusion: Ethanolic extract of Chirophyllum macropodium can be a promising candidate for the development of anti-Acanthamoeba drugs due to its high toxic effects on the cysts. However, since the crude extract of Chaerophyllum macropodum was used in this study, further investigations are needed to find the effective fractions of the plant and determine their mechanisms of action. It can also be tested in vivo or even against other parasites

Background and Objectives: Many plant extracts have antiparasitic properties and even some of them are effective for in vivo treatment. One of the medicinal plants is Peganum harmala, which can grow from 30 to 100 cm. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of aqueous extract of Peganum harmala on trophozoites and cysts of Acanthamoeba in vitro. Methods: In this experimental study, a sample from a patient with amoebic keratitis, was cultured with Escherichia coli bacterium in non-nutrient agar medium (NNA) 1.5%. Then, the aqueous extract of Peganum harmala was prepared. The extract was affected on trophozoites and cysts of Acanthamoeba at three times (24, 48, and 72h) in various concentrations (1.25, 2.5, 5, and 10mg/ml). The percentage of live parasites, was evaluated using homocytometer lamel, MTT assay [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide], and flow cytometry method. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA, one sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and repeated measures test The significance level was considered to be p