Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2014 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 7 Articles
We investigated the effects of methanol extract of Artocarpus altilis (AA) on atherogenic indices and redox status of cellular system\r\nof rats fed with dietary cholesterol while Questran (QUE) served as standard. Biochemical indices such as total cholesterol (TC),\r\ntriglycerides (TG), low- and high-density lipoproteins-cholesterol (LDL-C and HDL-C), aspartate and alanine aminotransferases\r\n(AST and ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), reduced glutathione, glutathione-s-transferase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx),\r\ncatalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and lipid peroxidation (LPO) were assessed. Hypercholesterolemic (HC) rats had\r\nsignificantly increased relative weight of liver and heart. Dietary cholesterol caused a significant increase P < 0.05) in the levels\r\nof serum, hepatic, and cardiac TC by 110%, 70%, and 85%, LDL-C by 79%, 82%, and 176%, and TG by 68%, 96%, and 62%,\r\nrespectively. Treatment with AA significantly reduced the relative weight of the organs and lipid parameters. There were beneficial\r\nincreases in serum and cardiac HDL-C levels in HC rats treated with AA. In HC rats, serum LDH, ALT, and AST activities and\r\nlevels of LPO were increased, whereas hepatic and cardiac SOD, CAT, and GPx were reduced. All biochemical and histological\r\nalterations were ameliorated upon treatment with AA. Extract of AA had protective effects against dietary cholesterol-induced\r\nhypercholesterolemia....
Callistemon citrinus (C. citrinus) belongs to family Myrtaceae that has a great medicinal importance. The petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of the leaves of C. citrinus were subjected to screenings for brine shrimp lethality. The methanol extract exhibited potent cytotoxic activity with LC50 of 1.67�µg/ml, while the petroleum ether and ethyl acetate extract revealed moderate cytotoxicity with the LC50 of 6.25 and 5.51�µg/ml, respectively....
The conditions for extraction of the total flavonoids from Flos pueraria was optimized and the\r\npurification and separation process were conducted to identify the main constituents of the total\r\nflavonoids as well. The solvent for extraction and its concentration, the solid-to-liquid ratio, extraction\r\nduration, temperature and ultrasonic frequency were investigated through a single-factor experiment.\r\nAn orthogonal design (L9 (34) was constructed to achieve the best extraction conditions. The crude\r\nextract was then purified sequentially by petroleum ether, ethanol and chloroform, n-butyl alcohol, and\r\neluted gradually with mixed mobile phase of methanol-chloroform solution in the silica gel column\r\nsystem. The ingredients were further separated by color reaction, ultraviolet spectrophotometry, high\r\nperformance liquid chromatography, infrared and mass spectral analysis. The optimum extraction\r\ncondition for the total flavonoids from F. pueraria was as follows: extraction by 50% (v/v) methanol\r\nsolution, the solid-to-liquid ratio at 1:30, extraction duration 2.0 h, the temperature of 70�°C, ultrasound 3\r\ntimes and 30 min each time. Five isoflavones were separated and identified as irisolidone, genistein,\r\ndaidzein, kakkalide and puerarin, respectively. Under these optimal conditions, the yield of total\r\nflavonoids in the extracts was up to 17.5%, while the output rate previously reported is about 8% in\r\ngeneral. Our study provided means for further development and utilization of the bioactive components\r\nfrom F. pueraria....
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder in the endocrine system. This dreadful disease is found in all parts of the world and is becoming a serious threat to mankind health. There are lots of chemical agents available to control and to treat diabetic patients, but total recovery from diabetes has not been reported up to this date. Alternative to these synthetic agents, plants provide a potential source of hypoglycaemic drugs and are widely used in several traditional systems of medicine. Helicteres isora has been documented as a traditional treatment of diabetes. The effect of this plant may delay the development of diabetic complications and correct the metabolic abnormalities using variety of mechanisms. This research focuses mainly on the hypoglycemic activity of various extracts of dried fruits of H. isora in alloxan induced hyperglycemia and increased the glucose uptake in rat diaphragm....
Samples of matured and naturally growing sporophores of a wild macrofungus, M. xanthopus was collected from the natural vegetation from Shimoga district of Karnataka. This species was analyzed for its primary and secondary metabolites, physicochemical parameters and antimicrobial activities. Proteins, alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, triterpenoids were present in all the sporophores except carbohydrates, polysaccharides, lipids, oils, glycosides, lignins, phenolics, tannins and saponins for screening of phytochemical studies. This mushroom was found to contain highest percentage of acid soluble ash content(43%) followed by moisture (27.6%), water soluble ash (13%), pH of 5 % w/v solution of aqueous extract (12.6 %), alcohol soluble extractive (10.5 %), foreign matter (5.9%) and total ash content (3.9%) for the physicochemical analysis. M. xanthopus showed highest antimicrobial activity against the two test cultures S.aureus and C.albicans. The chloroform and petroleum ether extracts inhibited the growth of these tested microorganisms and clear inhibition zones of 14 to 16 mm, and 12 to 14 mm in diameter was recorded. Chloroform extract revealed MIC value against S.aureus was similar to the standard antibiotic ampicillin (250 �µg /ml) and petroleum ether extract revealed MIC value against C.albicans was also similar to the standard greseofulvin (500�µg /ml)....
The aim of the study was to investigate the protective effects of Launaea procumbens methanolic\r\nextract (LM) against CCl4-induced molecular, hormonal and pathological abnormalities in rats. Male\r\nSprague Dawley rats were provided by National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad and orally fed with\r\n100, 200 mg/kg body weight of LM after 48 h of CCl4 treatment (3 ml/kg body weight, 30% in olive oil)\r\nbiweekly for 4 weeks. The results showed that the administration of LM significantly improved the CCl4-\r\ninduced serum level of hormones, argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) and DNA\r\ndamages. Histopathology showed that LM reduced the incidence of adrenal lesions induced by CCl4 in\r\nrats. These results suggest that LM could protect adrenal against the CCl4-induced oxidative damage in\r\nrats....
Both World Health Organization (WHO) and Kenya government have recognized the role of herbal\r\ntraditional medicinal practice in primary health management due to the observation that 80% of the\r\nrural communities consult traditional healers before they go for the orthodox medical services. The\r\ntraditional herbal practice remains familiar and artitional, thus least developed and hence the patients\r\ndo not get the best values for their input in the services. The research strategies executed by\r\nresearchers have never focussed on the plight of the patients but covered phytochemical,\r\npharmacological and no clinical evaluations. Effectively, the data so far available remain less useful\r\nthan should have been to the development of herbal traditional practices. The current project thus\r\naimed at focussing on the establishment of a research strategy that used observational studies to\r\nestablish the possibility for designing a rigorous clinical trials of herbal medical practice involving\r\nparticipation of three herbalists, patients, one orthodox medical doctor, a plant taxonomist and a\r\nphytochemist with the objectives of proofing and validating the practice, using principles of biomedical\r\nand bioscience in Gem and Seme sublocations in Siaya and Kisumu Districts, respectively in Nyanza\r\nprovince, Kenya. Through the ethnobotanical field survey, the taxonomist identified 95 plant species\r\nused by the herbalists. Through literature review it was found that 100% of the plants are used by other\r\nherbalists in East Africa to treat human and animal ailments while 30% of the species had received\r\nphytochemical and pharmacological evaluations, thus validating their therapeutic values. About 10% of\r\nthese species had been used in clinical studies. The observation indicate that the herbalists have\r\nreasonable potentials for management of the diseases despite their ignorance on the literature data on\r\nthese plants as well as modern medical practical procedures. The inclusion of modern diagnosis of\r\ndiseases by a medical doctor and medical laboratory tests improved the rate of the healing outcome by\r\n20% when the healing rate was compared with that observed for the treatment of patients before the\r\nintervention through this project. The results so far indicate that it is practicable to implement a\r\nrigorous clinical trial in which both herbalists, patients and researchers collaborate. Such strategies\r\nshall not only give critical data for validation of herbal traditional medicinal practice but be useful for\r\nprospection for phytochemicines based on indigenous knowledge and also be used for the\r\nimprovement and management of the practice....
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