Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oils Isolated from Different Parts of Endemic PlantPortenschlagiella ramosissimaTutin

Liposomal and Liposomes-Film Systems as Carriers for Bioactives from Paeonia tenuifolia L. Petals: Physicochemical Characterization and Biological Potential

Paeonia tenuifolia L. (steppe peony) petal extract was proficiently encapsulated into liposomes and biopolymer films in the current work, both times utilizing a single-step procedure. The encapsulation efficiency, size of the particles, and index of polydispersity (PDI), as well as the ζ potential of the obtained liposomes were determined, whereas in the case of films, the test included moisture content and mechanical property assessment. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to evaluate the chemical composition and existence of numerous interactions in the systems. All the obtained encapsulates were subjected to antibacterial, antifungal and antibiofilm activity testing of the pathogens associated with human skin. The results indicated that the liposomes prepared using Phospholipon had the highest encapsulation efficiency (72.04%), making them the most favorable ones in the release study as well. The biological assays also revealed that Phospholipon was the most beneficial phospholipid mixture for the preparation of liposomes, whereas the film containing these liposomes did not have the ability to inhibit pathogen growth, making the double encapsulation of P. tenuifolia L. petal extract needless. These findings may be a first step toward the potential use of steppe peony extract-loaded films and liposomes in pharmaceutical and cosmetical industries.

Magnaporthe oryzae cell wall hydrolysate induces ROS and fungistatic VOCs in rice cell cultures

Plants react to microbial attack with a number of defense mechanisms, including the synthesis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These responses are triggered by elicitors derived from either the cell surface of pathogens or the incomplete hydrolysis of the plant cell wall. Here we show the response of rice (Oryza sativa L., cv Gigante Vercelli) cell cultures following treatment with cell wall hydrolysates prepared from the rice blast Magnaporthe oryzae. Elicitation prompted the production of several plant VOCs, which were analyzed by stir bar sorptive extraction from both the liquid and head-space phase (SBSE and HSSE, respectively) and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. VOCs included alkanes, alkenes and long-chain alcohols as well as cinnamyl alcohol, myristicin, a sesquiterpene alcohol (caryolan-1-ol), 1-butanamide and 2-pentylfuran. The major released compounds, 1-octanol and 1-decanol, were found to induce ROS production in both elicited and non-elicited rice cells and showed fungistatic activity against the pathogen M. oryzae. The possible role of induced VOCs and ROS production in the plant-pathogen interaction is discussed.

Essential Oil Composition of Wild Growing Apiaceae from Europe and the Mediterranean

In this overview, the essential oil composition of more than 150 species from about 50 genera of the Apiaceae is reviewed. Essential oil components encountered in Apiaceae proved to be very diverse; they include monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, rarely diterpenes, phenylpropanoids, phthalides, octanol and octyl esters, trimethylbenzaldehydes and aliphatic aldehydes. In assessing the data one has to keep in mind that the essential oil amount and composition is influenced by many factors, including geographic and genetic variation, physiological aspects and environmental conditions. In some species the occurrence of chemotypes could be demonstrated, but in many cases the data available do not allow the evaluation of infraspecific variability.