Antibacterial activity ofHybanthus enneaspermusagainst selected urinary tract pathogens

Bacteriospermia and Male Infertility: Role of Oxidative Stress

Male infertility is one of the major challenging and prevalent diseases having diverse etiologies of which bacteriospermia play a significant role. It has been estimated that approximately 15% of all infertility cases are due to infections caused by uropathogens and in most of the cases bacteria are involved in infection and inflammation leading to the development of bacteriospermia. In response to bacterial load, excess infiltration of leukocytes in the urogenital tract occurs and concomitantly generates oxidative stress (OS). Bacteria may induce infertility either by directly interacting with sperm or by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and impair sperm parameters such as motility, volume, capacitation, hyperactivation. They may also induce apoptosis leading to sperm death. Acute bacteriospermia is related with another clinical condition called leukocytospermia and both compromise male fertility potential by OS-mediated damage to sperm leading to male infertility. However, bacteriospermia as a clinical condition as well as the mechanism of action remains poorly understood, necessitating further research in order to understand the role of individual bacterial species and their impact in male infertility.

Therapeutic potential of medicinal plants for the management of urinary tract infection: A systematic review

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most severe public health problem affecting both sexes but females are more susceptible due to the differences in urogenital and reproductive anatomy, physiology and lifestyle. As in UTI, different parts of the urinary tract are affected and morbidity due to UTI is more common in women of all ages and older men. Due to multi-drug resistant strains and high recurrence rate, UTI has become a major socioeconomic burden. The current review article was aimed to describe the natural therapeutic strategies to manage and cure the UTI. For this purpose, different databases including Google Scholar, Cochrane database, and PubMed etc. were explored. Inclusion criteria were any research article investigating the current therapy of UTI. It was found that microbial infections including Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Klebsiella species are the major causes of UTI with different signs and symptoms including painful urination or dysuria, hematuria, urinary urgency, burning micturition, frequent urination, nausea, and vomiting. Antibiotics like trimethoprim, sulfamethoxazole, quinolone etc. as the first choice of the drug are used worldwide. However, due to microbial resistance, several life-threatening side effects, repeated high doses, high cost and low efficacy of these antibiotics motivated the researchers to explore natural remedies for the treatment of UTI. Herbal medicines are effective to combat bacterial resistance with high efficacy, and easy availability with minimal or no side effects. For these reasons it has attained the attention of researchers wanting to explore the herbal treatment of UTI. Vaccinium macrocarpon, Tribulus terrestris, Trachyspermum copticum, Cinnamomum verum and Hybanthusenn easpermus are some common medicinal plants reported to have therapeutic potential for the management and cure of the UTI. Although herbal medicines have more potential over conventional medicine but more discoveries are required to explore the phytoconstituents and their mechanism of action responsible for the management and cure of UTI.

L-Dopa production and antioxidant activity in Hybanthus enneaspermus (L.) F. Muell regeneration

Hybanthus enneaspermus is an ethanobotanical plant extensively used in Indian traditional medicine. Quick and efficient in vitro mass propagation of this plant species was established for commercial utilization from leaf and node explants using various concentrations and combinations of plant growth regulators and polyamines. The maximum number of multiple shoots per leaf explant (40 shoots) was achieved on MS medium supplemented with 20 mg/l spermidine in combination with 4 mg/l BA+1.5 mg/l IAA after 8 weeks of culture. The elongated shoots were rooted (16 roots/shoot) on MS medium with the best concentration of IBA (1.5 mg/l) and in combination with 20 mg/l putrescine after 5 weeks of culture. The plants were successfully acclimatized (98 %) in the sand: soil: vermiculite mixture (1:1:1 v/v/v) in the greenhouse. An increased antioxidant activity was recorded in vitro regenerated shoots when compared to in vitro-induced roots. L-Dopa content was recorded higher in leaves (8.31 mg/g DW) followed by stem (6.22 mg/g DW) and root (3.22 mg/g DW) of leaf-derived plants than the field-grown parent plant after 5 weeks. By adopting this protocol, the regenerated-plants could be used for drug production and pharmacology work with as an alternative to field-grown plants.

Hybanthus enneaspermus (L.) F. Muell: a concise report on its phytopharmacological aspects

Hybanthus enneaspermus (L.) F. Muell belonging to the family Violaceae, popularly known as Ratanpurus (Hindi) is a herb or a shrub distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. In the Ayurvedic literature, the plant is reported to cure conditions of "Kapha" and "Pitta", urinary calculi, strangury, painful dysentery, vomiting, burning sensation, wandering of the mind, urethral discharge, blood trouble, asthma, epilepsy, cough, and to give tone to the breasts. Phytochemically, the plant contains a considerable amount of dipeptide alkaloids, aurantiamide acetate, isoarborinol, and β-sitosterol, sugars, flavonoids, steroids, triterpenes, phenols, flavones, catachins, tannins, anthraquinones and amino acids. Pharmacologically, the plant is reported to possess antidiabetic, antiplasmodial, antimicrobial, anticonvulsant, nephroprotective, aphrodisiac, hepatoprotective, antiinflammatory, aldose reductase inhibitory and free radical scavenging activities. The information provided in this review will be worthwhile to know the applicability of H. enneaspermus for the treatment of various acute or chronic diseases with a diverse nature of phytoconstituents. The overall data in this review article were collected from various scientific sources on the research of H. enneaspermus.

Eleucine indica Possesses Antioxidant, Antibacterial and Cytotoxic Properties

The use of evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine is increasing rapidly. Eleucine indica (EI) is traditionally used in ailments associated with liver and kidneys. The therapeutic benefit of the medicinal plants is often attributed to their antioxidant properties. Therefore, the aim of this study was to screen the hexane, dicholoromethane, ethyl acetate (EA) and methanol extracts (MeTH) of EI for their antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-cancer effects using total phenolic contents (TPCs) and DPPH, disc diffusion method and MTT cytotoxicity assays, respectively. The MeTH was showed to have the highest TPC and scavenging activity (77.7%) on DPPH assay, followed by EA (64.5%), hexane (47.19%) and DCM (40.83%) extracts, whereas the MeTH showed no inhibitory effect on all tested bacteria strains. However, the EA extract exhibited a broad spectrum antibacterial activity against all tested bacteria except Bacillus subtilis, in which this bacterium was found to be resistant to all EI extracts. Meanwhile, hexane extract was demonstrated to have a remarkable antibacterial activity against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while the dicholoromethane extract did not exhibit significant activity against P. aeruginosa. None of the extracts showed significant cytotoxic activity towards MCF-7, HT-29 and CEM-SS human cancer cell lines after 72 h incubation time (IC(50) > 30 μg/ml). These results demonstrate that the extract prepared from the EI possesses antioxidant activity in vitro in addition to antibacterial properties. Further investigations are needed to verify the antioxidant effects in vitro and in vivo.

Antibacterial activity and phytochemical study of six medicinal plants used in Benin

The ethanol extracts obtained from Psidium guajava, Flacourtia flavescens Boswellia dalzielii, Ficus exasperata, Pavetta corymbosa and Hybanthus enneaspermus, six species traditionally used in Benin to treat several infectious diseases, were evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Enteroccocus feacalis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The minimum inhibitory concentration of extracts was determinate using the microplate dilution method. The presence of major phytoconstituents was detected qualitatively. The diphenylpicrylhydrazine radical scavenging activity was also performed. The extracts exhibited antibacterial activities against the tested bacteria. Boswellia dalzielii, Psidium guayava, Pavetta corymbosa and Flacourtia flavescens exibited the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration values (0.313-2.5 mg mL(-1)). Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the lest sensitive microorganism with MIC values higher than 10 mg mL(-1). In antioxidant assay the crude extracts of B. dalzielii and P. corymbosa appeared to be as potent as quercetol with an inhibition percentage of 83 and 75.3% at 10 microg mL(-1) which is comparable to 75.9% for quercetol at the same concentration.

Chemical composition, antioxidant and antibacterial properties of the essential oils of Etlingera elatior and Cinnamomum pubescens Kochummen

BACKGROUND

Plant essential oils are widely used as fragrances and flavours. Therefore, the essential oils from the leaves of Cinnamomum pubescens Kochummen (CP) and the whole plant of Etlingera elatior (EE) were investigated for their antioxidant, antibacterial and phytochemical properties.

RESULTS

CP and EE were found to contain appreciable levels of total phenolic contents (50.6 and 33.41 g kg(-1) as gallic acid equivalent) and total flavonoid contents (205.6 and 244.8 g kg(-1) as rutin equivalent), respectively. DPPH free radical scavenging activity of CP is superior to EE (P < 0.05) showing IC(50) of 77.2 and 995.1 µg mL(-1), respectively. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella choleraesuis were tested against CP and EE. Only MRSA was the most susceptible bacteria to CP. GC/MS studies resulted in the identification of 79 and 73 compounds in CP and EE, respectively. The most abundant components of EE included β-pinene (24.92%) and 1-dodecene (24.31%). While the major compound in CP were 1,6-octadien-3-ol,3,7-dimethyl (11.55%), cinnamaldehyde (56.15%) and 1-phenyl-propane-2,2-diol diethanoate (11.38%).

CONCLUSION

This study suggests that the essential oils from Cinnamomum pubescens Kochummen and Etlingera elatior could be potentially used as a new source of natural antioxidant and antibacterial in the food and pharmaceutical industries.