Short Communication: Antiviral activity of Ribes uva-crispa L. extracts in vitro.

There is currently no approved vaccine or a useful antiviral drug against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that causes viral infection worldwide. Crude plant extracts can be an important resource for the development of new anti-RSV agents. In this study, cytotoxic and anti-RSV effect of the extracts Ribes uva-crispa, which has been known as "gooseberry" in Turkey and fruits used in the treatment of the various disorders, were evaluated by colorimetric XTT method. Results were expressed as 50% cytotoxicity (CC50), 50% effective concentration (EC50) and selectivity index (SI: CC50 / EC50). Of the tested extracts, the highest antiviral activity was found to be 96.90µg/mL EC50 and 11.70 SI from fruit aqueous extract; it was followed by leaf methanol extract (EC50: 2527.41µg/mL, SI: 6.55), leaf aqueous extract (EC50: 1093.37µg/mL, SI: 1.40) and fruit methanol extract (EC50: 11262.35µg/mL, SI: 0.56), respectively. As a result, we can say that these extracts, especially Ribes uva-crispa fruit aqueous and leaf methanol extracts, are worthy of further studies for the development of new and unique anti-RSV drugs.

Chemical diversity of volatiles of Teucrium orientale L. var. orientale, var. puberulens, and var. glabrescens determined by simultaneous GC-FID and GC/MS techniques.

In the present work, three varieties of Teucrium orientale, var. orientale, var. puberulens, and var. glabrescens, were collected and investigated for chemical composition of the oils. Subsequent gas chromatography (GC-FID) and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS) revealed high abundance of sesquiterpenes in the essential oils analyzed. All the oils contained ß-caryophyllene (22.6, 8.5, and 6.3%, resp.) and hexadecanoic acid (7.9, 12.8, and 13.1%). Germacrene D (24.6 and 33.4%) and bicyclogermacrene (6.7 and 8.5%) were found to be the main constituents of var. orientale and var. puberulens, respectively. The high percentages of ß-cubebene (26.9%), α-cubebene (9.0%), and α-copaene (7.2%) established the diversity of var. glabrescens. The qualitative difference between the essential oils allowed the differentiation between the varieties in agreement with the morphological observations described in Flora of Turkey for each variety studied. In addition, a cluster analysis of twelve Teucrium taxa based on the essential-oil composition has been carried out. Hovewer, the analysis did not clearly reflect the infrageneric classification of the genus, it largely confirmed the relationships between the infraspecific taxa of Teucrium orientale and T. chamaedrys.