Medicinal plants used in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Phytochemical screening.

Ethnobotanical and phytochemical studies are useful to discover new drugs. Phytochemical screening is an important step in the detection of the bioactive components existing in medicinal plants that are used in traditional medicine. Very few phytochemical studies investigating medicinal plants used in traditional medicine exist in Saudi Arabia. Eighty-five medicinal plants used in traditional medicine in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia are investigated here for the first time. This research aims to screen of 85 medicinal plants used in traditional medicine in Jeddah for the presence of secondary metabolites, and to answer the following question: Is the ethnomedicinal importance of medicinal plants used in Jeddah conform to their secondary metabolite content. Ethnobotanical fieldwork took place in Jeddah from August 2018 to September 2019. Eighty-five different plant species belonging to 37 families were identified. Screening of 85 medicinal plants was performed for the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, tannins, saponins and resins using standard methods. The most commonly distributed phytochemical compounds among medicinal plants used were glycosides (82%; 70 species), tannins (68%; 58 species), alkaloids (56%; 48 species), saponins (52%, 44 species) and flavonoids (35%; 30 species). On the other hand, the least commonly distributed compounds were resins (31%; 26 species). All the six groups of secondary metabolites were found in seeds of Cuminum cyminum L., Pimpinella anisum L. and Trigonella foenum-graecum L. It can be said that the ethnomedicinal importance of these 85 medicinal plants used in Jeddah conform to their secondary metabolite content. More research should be carried out on the quantitative analysis of phytochemicals in these 85 medicinal plants used in traditional medicine in Jeddah. Furthermore, there is a need to focus phytochemical screening on ethnobotanical studies to complete research into traditional medicine which leads to the discovery of new drugs.

Medicinal plants used in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: A gender perspective.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Very few studies examining quantitatively gender differences in the knowledge and use of medicinal plants exist for the Arab world. Differences in ethnobotanical knowledge of medicinal plants between men and women in Jeddah are explored here for the first time. AIM OF THE STUDY: Our study aims to document urban medicinal plant knowledge in Jeddah, and to answer the following questions: (1) What medicinal plants are used by Saudis in Jeddah? (2) To what extent do men and women use medicinal plants? (3) Are plants used by men significantly different to those used by women? And, (4) do men and women learn about medicinal plants in different ways? Given the gendered nature of space and relations in the Arab world, we hypothesise that men and women learn about plants in different ways and that this will contribute to explain any possible differences. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ethnobotanical fieldwork took place in Jeddah from August 2018 to September 2019. Individual free-listing, semi-structured interviews and an online survey questionnaire were carried out to document local medicinal plant. In total, 50 men and 50 women were interviewed face-to-face and 344 people responded to the questionnaire, of which 154 were men and 190 were women. RESULTS: A total of 94 medicinal plant vernacular names were documented representing 85 different plant species belonging to 37 families. Men cited 63 plants (33 plant families) and women 83 (36 plant families). Sixty-one plants were cited by both men and women, two only by men and 22 only by women. Men and women learn in similar ways, but generally use medicinal plants to treat different ailments. Women rely on medicinal plant use to a larger extent. CONCLUSION: Medicinal plant use is dependent on gendered social roles and experience, as well as preference for biomedicine or medicinal plant use. Men and women use similar plants, but women have greater knowledge that increases with age. Given the food-medicine continuum, women's double role of family food and care providers may explain their expertise in medicinal plant use.

Inhibitory activity of different medicinal extracts from Thuja leaves, ginger roots, Harmal seeds and turmeric rhizomes against Fig leaf mottle-associated virus 1 (FLMaV-1) infecting figs in Mecca region.

Fig leaf mottle-associated virus-1 (FLMaV-1) is a closterovirus newly identified in fig trees, in the Mecca region, suffering from mosaic disease symptoms and apparently is compromising the fig plantation in the country. In the present study, we demonstrated the efficiency of two in vivo experiments including pre and post treatments using Thuja leaf, ginger roots, Harmal seeds and turmeric rhizome extracts on symptoms expression of rooted cuttings infected with FLMaV-1- and their impact on virus multiplication. Results showed that individual treatments with ginger roots and turmeric rhizomes in pre-grafting experiments and Thuja extract following Harmal seeds in post grafting experiments were efficient against symptom development. In addition, results showed that the total photosynthesis pigments; total soluble intracellular proteins and total phenol contents were higher in infected treated cuttings compared with healthy ones, thus it was taken as evidence on a mutual interaction between these extracts and virus multiplication.

The alteration of mRNA expression of SOD and GPX genes, and proteins in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) under stress of NaCl and/or ZnO nanoparticles.

Five cultivars of tomato having different levels of salt stress tolerance were exposed to different treatments of NaCl (0, 3 and 6 g L-1) and ZnO-NPs (0, 15 and 30 mg L-1). Treatments with NaCl at both 3 and 6 g L-1 suppressed the mRNA levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) genes in all cultivars while plants treated with ZnO-NPs in the presence of NaCl, showed increments in the mRNA expression levels. This indicated that ZnO-NPs had a positive response on plant metabolism under salt stress. Superior expression levels of mRNA were observed in the salt tolerant cultivars, Sandpoint and Edkawy while the lowest level was detected in the salt sensitive cultivar, Anna Aasa. SDS-PAGE showed clear differences in patterns of protein expression among the cultivars. A negative protein marker for salt sensitivity and ZnO-NPs was detected in cv. Anna Aasa at a molecular weight of 19.162 kDa, while the tolerant cultivar Edkawy had two positive markers at molecular weights of 74.991 and 79.735 kDa.