Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2019 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 8 Articles
Parkinson’s disease is the most common type of neurodegenerative disease causing the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain due to which symptoms like muscle rigidity, bradykinasia, gait posture and tremors at rest appear. Spirulina has shown curative effects on diabetes and hypertension besides being hepatorenal protective and immunity booster. There are many species of Spirulina found in nature, out of them Spirulina platensis and Spirulina maxima have been utilized more frequently. This study was designed to assess the anti-Parkinson effect of Spirulina platensis on haloperidol induced catalepsy and vacuous chewing movements in mice. Anti-Parkinson activity was evaluated following the oral administration of two different doses (250 and 500 mg/kg) of Spirulina platensis. The results of the study show that Spirulina platensis has significantly reduced the staying time of animals onto the bar in haloperidol induce catalepsy model when compared to control group. Whereas, significant reduction in the vacuous chewing movements was also observed in both treated groups of Spirulina platensis at a dose 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg....
The present work was designed to evaluate the antidiabetic effect of methanolic extract of Euphorbia thymifolia (ETME) in experimentally induced diabetes in rats. Diabetes was induced in experimental rats using streptozotocin, 55 mg/kg, i.p. The antidiabetic effect was estimated by measuring glucose level and other parameters like lipid profile, total cholesterol and triglyceride level in tissue homogenates, total hemoglobin, HbA1C, α-glucosidase activity and histology of pancreas. Administration of different doses of ETME (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) significantly attenuated the glucose level and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity in experimental rats. Moreover, microscopy of pancreas in glibenclamide and ETME 400 mg/kg group showed restoration of architecture of pancreatic β-cell and hepatocytes near to normal and appeared to regulate diabetes at the cellular level. It was concluded that ETME showed antidiabetic effect due to presence of phytoconstituents that responsible for α-glucosidase inhibition activity and improved pancreas architecture....
Conjugation of curcumin and gold with green chemistry is an approach to improve the\neffectiveness of curcumin as anti-fibrosis. In this work, curcumin and gold were conjugated to deliver\ncurcumin to the liver. Curcumin-gold nanoparticles (cAuNPs) were prepared by varying curcumin\npH and concentration. The successful of cAuNPs formation were identified by using UV-visible\nand FTIR spectrophotometers. The particle size and morphology were analyzed using particle size\nanalyzer and cryo-TEM respectively. In vitro antioxidant assay was performed to determine the\ncurcumin activity after conjugation. Physical and chemical stabilities of cAuNPs were studied for\none month at 5 C, 25 C, and 40 C. Furthermore, the cAuNPs activity to modulate early marker of\nfibrosis was tested on NIH/3T3 cells. The optimum condition for cAuNPs synthesis was by using\n1.5 mM curcumin at pH 9.3. As compared to free curcumin, cAuNPs showed higher antioxidant\nactivity and maintained the nanosize after stored for one month. In line with the antioxidant activity,\ncAuNPs 0.25â??1.... reduced the collagen production by NIH/3T3 cells. More importantly,\ncAuNPs did not demonstrate any effect on the development of chicken embryo. Taken together,\nthe attachment of gold to curcumin in the form of cAuNPs is promising for curcumin targeting to\ntreat hepatic fibrosis....
Azadirachta indica A. Juss (neem) extracts have been used in pharmaceutical applications as\nantitumor agents, due to their terpenes and phenolic compounds. To obtain extracts from neem leaves\nwith potential antiproliferative effect, a sequential process of pressurized liquid extraction was carried\nout in a fixed bed extractor at 25 C and 100 bar, using hexane (SH), ethyl acetate (SEA), and ethanol\n(SE) as solvents. Extractions using only ethanol (EE) was also conducted to compare the characteristics\nof the fractionated extracts. The results obtained by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization\nmass spectrometry suggested a higher concentration of terpenes in the SEA extract in comparison to\nSH, SE, and EE extracts. Therefore, antiproliferative activity showed that SEA extracts were the most\nefficient inhibitor to human tumor cells MCF-7, NCI-H460, HeLa, and HepG2. Hepatocellular cells\nwere more resistant to SH, SEA, SE, and EE compared to breast, lung, hepatocellular, and cervical\nmalignant cells. Neem fractioned extracts obtained in the present study seem to be more selective for\nmalignant cells compared to the non-tumor cells....
*e toxicity of the aqueous extract of Origanum majorana was tested (5 and 10 g/kg) in albino mice. No symptoms of toxicity or\nmortality were observed. *e mice survived being active and healthy during all 14 days of observation. In addition, the weight\nmeasurement of the left and right kidneys, heart, and liver shows no significant difference between the control, 5 g/kg, and 10 g/kg.\nAll extracts (aqueous, petroleum ether, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, methanolic, and depleted aqueous extracts) of Origanum\nmajorana tested against both types of cancer cells showed a more pronounced cytotoxic effect against breast cell line MDA-MB-\n231 than colon cells line HT-29 cells. *e most marked effect is that of the ethyl acetate extract with IC50 30.90 ± 1.39 and 50.11 ±\n1.44 ..... respectively. HPLC analysis of extracts from Origanum majorana showed that this plant contained polyphenols and\nflavonoids, which may be responsible for the biological activities found....
Bioenhancers are the agents capable of enhancing bioavailability of certain drugs with which it is co-administered. Piperine (CAS no:94-62-2), an alkaloid obtained from Piper nigrum and P. longum has been shown to possess diverse biochemical and pharmacological activities and known inhibitor of various enzymes like CYP (Cytochrome P450) responsible for biotransformation of drugs. By inhibiting the metabolism of drugs, piperine improves the bioavailability of drugs. In the present study piperine (10 mg/kg) significantly increased dose-dependent antihyperglycemic activity of metformin (CAS no: 1115-70-4) which was correlated with increased plasma concentration of metformin as evaluated by glucose challenged and alloxan-induced diabetic models, when it was administered with metformin. The increased plasma concentration of metformin when co-administered with piperine may be due to modification in gastrointestinal epithelial cell membrane permeability or inhibition of gastrointestinal transit or gastric emptying time or modifications in intestinal motility or increase in gastrointestinal blood supply, which results in increasing the bioavailability of metformin. The results of this study demonstrate that piperine could be used as a potential bioenhancer along with metformin....
The study highlights the hepatoprotective and antioxidant potential of hydro alcoholic extract of Deva vati tablets (HEDV), an ayurvedic formulation, against paracetamol induced hepatotoxicity in Wistar rats. The formulation was standardized pharmaceutically and microbiologically. Acute toxicity studies were performed and LD50 was fixed at the dose of 2000 mg/kg since no mortality and morbidity was observed. Various doses of hydroalcoholic extract and standard silymarin 100 mg/kg p.o was administered daily to rats for 7 days followed by paracetamol administration to produce hepatic injury. At end of the study blood was collected and animals were sacrificed to evaluate biochemical, histopathology and in-vivo antioxidant activity. Pre-treatment with extract showed significant protection against hepatic damage by maintaining the morphological parameters and normalizing the elevated levels of biochemical parameters (SGOT, SGPT, ALP and total bilirubin), which were evidently showed in histopathological study. A significant increase in the level of in-vivo antioxidants (SOD, catalase, GSH) were observed in treated groups compared to control group. The hydro alcoholic extract of Deva vati showed hepatoprotective and antioxidant activity against paracetamol induced hepatoxicity in Wistar rats....
The in vitro antibacterial activity of some essential oils from Sardinian flora, both alone and\nin combination with chitosan, was investigated against a strain of Cutibacterium acnes, a bacterium\ninvolved in pathogenesis of acne. The composition of the essential oils was determined by gas\nchromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The results of this investigation\ndemonstrated that some of the oils examined, characterised by different chemical profiles, possessed\nsome activity against C. acnes. Interestingly, this antibacterial effect was enhanced by sub-inhibitory\nconcentrations of chitosan. These observations suggest the potential application of this synergy in the\ndevelopment of innovative topical formulations useful in the management of acne....
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