Embryos extract from germinated yellow soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill) inhibits promastigotes form of Leishmania amazonensis.

We investigated the effect of extracts of the germinated seeds of yellow soybean cultivar BRS 258 (Glycine max [L.] Merrill) against Leishmania amazonensis promastigotes. The yellow soybean embryos extract (YSEE) was fractionated on a Sephacryl S-100 gel filtration column coupled to AKTA. Then, the fractions were applied on a 1D SDS-PAGE gels and analyzed using a Micromass ESI-Q-ToF mass spectrometer coupled to a NanoUPLC. The anti-Leishmania properties of the soybean and the Jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis) urease were evaluated by measuring promastigotes mitochondrial activity using the MTT method. The YSEE reduced significantly L. amazonensis promastigotes cell viability (94.9%) and this inhibition can be related to an embryo-specific urease. We suggest that this enzyme was able to reduce the cell viability of L. amazonensis, since an anti-Leishmania activity was confirmed with an isolated urease of the legume Jack bean. The results suggest a possible relationship of soybean embryos with urease and leishmanicidal activities. Up to now, no data were found in the literature that demonstrates an anti-Leishmaniaactivity from an embryo-specific urease of soybean.