Evaluation of antimicrobial activity and bronchodialator effect of a polyherbal drug-Shrishadi

Comparative Analysis of Complete Chloroplast Genomes of Nine Species of Litsea (Lauraceae): Hypervariable Regions, Positive Selection, and Phylogenetic Relationships

Litsea is a group of evergreen trees or shrubs in the laurel family, Lauraceae. Species of the genus are widely used for a wide range of medicinal and industrial aspects. At present, most studies related to the gene resources of Litsea are restricted to morphological analyses or features of individual genomes, and currently available studies of select molecular markers are insufficient. In this study, we assembled and annotated the complete chloroplast genomes of nine species in Litsea, carried out a series of comparative analyses, and reconstructed phylogenetic relationships within the genus. The genome length ranged from 152,051 to 152,747 bp and a total of 128 genes were identified. High consistency patterns of codon bias, repeats, divergent analysis, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and insertions and deletions (InDels) were discovered across the genus. Variations in gene length and the presence of the pseudogene ycf1^Ψ, resulting from IR contraction and expansion, are reported. The hyper-variable gene rpl16 was identified for its exceptionally high Ka/Ks and Pi values, implying that those frequent mutations occurred as a result of positive selection. Phylogenetic relationships were recovered for the genus based on analyses of full chloroplast genomes and protein-coding genes. Overall, both genome sequences and potential molecular markers provided in this study enrich the available genomic resources for species of Litsea. Valuable genomic resources and divergent analysis are also provided for further research of the evolutionary patterns, molecular markers, and deeper phylogenetic relationships of Litsea.

The Genus Solanum: An Ethnopharmacological, Phytochemical and Biological Properties Review

Over the past 30 years, the genus Solanum has received considerable attention in chemical and biological studies. Solanum is the largest genus in the family Solanaceae, comprising of about 2000 species distributed in the subtropical and tropical regions of Africa, Australia, and parts of Asia, e.g., China, India and Japan. Many of them are economically significant species. Previous phytochemical investigations on Solanum species led to the identification of steroidal saponins, steroidal alkaloids, terpenes, flavonoids, lignans, sterols, phenolic comopunds, coumarins, amongst other compounds. Many species belonging to this genus present huge range of pharmacological activities such as cytotoxicity to different tumors as breast cancer (4T1 and EMT), colorectal cancer (HCT116, HT29, and SW480), and prostate cancer (DU145) cell lines. The biological activities have been attributed to a number of steroidal saponins, steroidal alkaloids and phenols. This review features 65 phytochemically studied species of Solanum between 1990 and 2018, fetched from SciFinder, Pubmed, ScienceDirect, Wikipedia and Baidu, using "Solanum" and the species' names as search terms ("all fields").

Evaluation of antimicrobial properties of Solanum xanthocarpum and Pistacia lentiscus extracts on Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacillus species and Actinomyces viscosus: An in vitro study

Introduction

The Ayurvedic system of medicine is popular in India and has gone through various change and remains as the mainstay of medical relief to a large population. Dental caries is the one of the major issue in the recent time, and there is no definite caries prevention method so far apart from Topical fluoride application, regular oral hygiene measures, pit and fissure sealants and diet measure. In spite of the above mentioned preventive measures the people are still prone to dental caries. In order to find a better solution the present study evaluates the antimicrobial properties widely available and cost effective herbal extracts of Solanum xanthocarpum and Pistacia lentiscus extract on cariogenic oral microbial flora.

Aim

To Evaluate the Antimicrobial properties of Solanum xanthocarpum and Pistacia lentiscus extracts on cariogenic oral microbial flora.

Methodology

The antimicrobial properties of Solanum xanthocarpum and Pistacia lentiscus extracts on cariogenic oral microbial flora (streptococcus mutans, lactobacillus, actinomyces viscosus) by different culture techniques to estimate the zone of inhibition (well diffusion method) and minimum inhibitory concentration (tube dilution method).

Results

The antimicrobial efficacy of Solanum xanthocarpum and Pistacia lentiscus on test bacteria were analysed using kurskal wallis test and values of 0.003 and 0.002 were obtained respectively, since the p values were less than 0.005, indicating that both herbal products possess statistically significant antimicrobial properties.

Conclusion

The antimicrobial effects of the herbal extracts were almost on par with commercially available allopathic agents like chlorhexidine on oral cariogenic microbes. The efficacy should be further validated in a large scale studies and can be utilized for caries prevention in the form of mouth rinses, dentifrices and topical application in the future.

Traditional medicinal plants used for respiratory disorders in Pakistan: a review of the ethno-medicinal and pharmacological evidence

Respiratory disorders are a common cause of malady and demise in Pakistan due to its remoteness, cold and harsh climatic conditions as well as scarce health care facilities. The people rely upon the indigenous plant resources to cure various respiratory disorders. The primary objective of this review was to assemble all available ethno-medicinal data of plants used for respiratory disorders in Pakistan. Pharmacological activity of these plants (based upon published scientific research), distribution, diversity, use, preparation methods, economical value, conservation status and various available herbal products of some plants have also been explored. This study scrutinized various electronic databases for the literature on medicinal plants used in Pakistan to treat respiratory disorders. A total of 384 species belonging to 85 families used to treat respiratory disorders in Pakistan has been documented. Cough was the disorder treated by the highest number of species (214) followed by asthma (150), cold (57) and bronchitis (56). Most of the plants belongs to Asteraceae (32) and Solanaceae family (32) followed by moraceae (17), Poaceae (13), and Amaranthaceae (13) with their habit mostly of herb (219) followed by Shrub (112) and tree (69). Traditional healers in the region mostly prepare ethno medicinal recipes from leaves (24%) and roots (11%) in the form of decoction. Among the reported conservation status of 51 plant species, 5 were endangered, 1 critically endangered, 11 vulnerable, 14 rare, 16 least concern, 3 infrequent and 1 near threatened. We found only 53 plants on which pharmacological studies were conducted and 17 plants being used in herbal products available commercially for respiratory disorders. We showed the diversity and importance of medicinal plants used to treat respiratory disorders in the traditional health care system of Pakistan. As such disorders are still causing several deaths each year, it is of the utmost importance to conduct phytochemical and pharmacological studies on the most promising species. It is also crucial to increase access to traditional medicine, especially in rural areas. Threatened species need special attention for traditional herbal medicine to be exploited sustainably.

Review: DNA Barcoding and Chromatography Fingerprints for the Authentication of Botanicals in Herbal Medicinal Products

In the last two decades, there has been a tremendous increase in the global use of herbal medicinal products (HMPs) due to their claimed health benefits. This has led to increase in their demand and consequently, also, resulted in massive adulteration. This is due to the fact that most of the traditional methods cannot identify closely related species in a process product form. Therefore the urgent need for simple and rapid identification methods resulted in the discovery of a novel technique. DNA barcoding is a process that uses short DNA sequence from the standard genome for species identification. This technique is reliable and is not affected by external factors such as climates, age, or plant part. The difficulties in isolation of DNA of high quality in addition to other factors are among the challenges encountered using the DNA barcoding in the authentication of HMP. These limitations indicated that using DNA barcoding alone may ineffectively authenticate the HMP. Therefore, the combination of DNA barcoding with chromatographic fingerprint, a popular and generally accepted technique for the assessment and quality control of HMP, will offer an efficient solution to effectively evaluate the authenticity and quality consistency of HMP. Detailed and quality information about the main composition of the HMPs will help to ascertain their efficacy and safety as these are very important for quality control.

Phytochemical characterization, antimicrobial activity and reducing potential of seed oil, latex, machine oil and presscake of Jatropha curcas

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to evaluate the antimicrobial activity, phytochemical studies and thin layer chromatography analysis of machine oil, hexane extract of seed oil and methanol extract of presscake & latex of Jatropha curcas Linn (family Euphorbiaceae).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

J. curcas extracts were subjected to preliminary qualitative phytochemical screening to detect the major phytochemicals followed by its reducing power and content of phenol and flavonoids in different fractions. Thin layer chromatography was also performed using different solvent systems for the analysis of a number of constituents in the plant extracts. Antimicrobial activity was evaluated by the disc diffusion method, while the minimum inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal concentration and minimum fungicidal concentration were calculated by micro dilution method.

RESULTS

The methanolic fraction of latex and cake exhibited marked antifungal and antibacterial activities against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, tannins, terpenoids, steroids, glycosides, phenols and flavonoids. Reducing power showed dose dependent increase in concentration compared to standard Quercetin. Furthermore, this study recommended the isolation and separation of bioactive compounds responsible for the antibacterial activity which would be done by using different chromatographic methods such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), GC-MS etc.

CONCLUSION

The results of the above study suggest that all parts of the plants possess potent antibacterial activity. Hence, it is important to isolate the active principles for further testing of antimicrobial and other biological efficacy.

In-vitro α amylase and glycosidase inhibitory effect of ethanolic extract of antiasthmatic drug - Shirishadi

Asthma and diabetes have strong relationship; both are cause and effect of each other. Oxidative stress due to bronchial asthma may cause insulin resistance whereas lack of proper insulin can cause defective smooth muscle relaxant. There is no single medicine available that can manage both diseases, rather the mainstay treatment of bronchial asthma causes hyperglycemia. Keeping this problem in focus, in this study the hypoglycemic effect of an indigenous antiasthmatic Ayurvedic drug Shirishadi was evaluated. Pancreatic alpha amylase and glucosidase inhibitors offer an effective strategy to lower the level of post prandial hyperglycemia via control of starch breakdown. For evaluation of hypoglycemic activity of drug, in-vitro alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase enzyme inhibition was calculated. Ethanolic extract of compound showed 76.40% + 0.88% reduction in alpha amylase activity and 63.85% + 0.36% in alpha glucosidase activity with IC50 0.68 mg/ml and 2.89 mg/ml, respectively. This study suggests that the ethanolic extract of Shirishadi polyherbal compound effectively acts as alpha amylase and glucosidase inhibitor leading to a reduction in starch hydrolysis and hence acts as antiasthmatic as well as hypoglycemic drug.