Pharmacological studies of rhizomes of extract of Cyperus tegetum, emphasized on anticancer, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: With over 950 species, Cyperus is one of the most promising health boosting genera in the Cyperaceae family. Traditional uses of Cyperus sp. have been described for gastrointestinal blood abnormalities, menstrual irregularities, and inflammatory diseases, among others. Cyperus tegetum Roxb belonging to Cyperaceae family, is used in traditional medicine to treat skin cancers. AIM OF THE STUDY: The present study was carried out to explore the potential effect of the extract of the plant Cyperus tegetum against different pharmacological activity namely inflammatory, analgesic activity as well as skin cancer activity in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cytotoxicity of the extract was measured by MTT and Live/death assay on HeLa cell line. Skin cancer was induced by 7,12-dimethylbenz(a) anthracene (DMBA) and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) in mice to measure its effects. RESULT: Stigmasterol and some poly phenolic compounds are identified using HPTLC process from the methanol extract of the rhizome of the plant Cyperus tegetum (CT-II). After confirmation of the presence of different polyphenolic compound and triterpenoids in the extract, it was subject to MTT and Live/death assay on HeLa cell line. From the observation it could be concluded that the IC50 of the extract is 300 µg/ml. Thus, the CTII was evaluated further for its in vivo anticancer property. In the tumorigenesis study, the number of tumor growths, the area and weight of the tumor significantly decreases with increment in the dose of CT-II extract and some elevated enzyme release in renal (creatinine, urea) as well as hepatic (AST, ALT, ALP) enzymes are also controlled with the increased dose of the same extract. The elevated enzyme release may be due to cancer induced rupture of the plasma and cellular damage. This CT-II extract also exhibits some other pharmacological activity like anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity. CONCLUSION: As metabolic activation via carcinogens and inflammation response plays important role in development of cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties can be correlated with anti-cancer properties. Taken all the above studies, it was illustrated that the extract of Cyperus tegetum might be a promising compound to reduce skin cancer risk.

Natural polysaccharide derived carbon dot based in situ facile green synthesis of silver nanoparticles: Synergistic effect on breast cancer.

Over the decades, several nanoparticles have been developed for biomedical applications, still facile green synthesis derived nanoparticles showed tremendous attraction due to avoid of toxic solvent, ease of synthesis and low cost. Here, facile one pot in situ green synthesis is reported to develop silver nanoparticles with the aid of natural polysaccharide presented in sweet lemon peel waste derived carbon dot (CD) acted as a reducing and stabilizing agent at room temperature. The synthesis of CD and CD based silver nanoparticles (CD@AgNPs) was characterized by FTIR, UV-vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectrophotometer, XRD and TEM. CD@AgNPs exhibited excellent antimicrobial activity against E. coli at very low concentration of 5.0 µg/ml. Interestingly, CD showed selective cytotoxicity against MCF7 breast cancer cells with the IC50 of 10 µg/ml while CD@AgNPs demonstrated synergistic effect on cytotoxicity. It is found that the cells death of MCF7 cells mainly occurred through the up-regulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, the synthesized CD@AgNPs may show an efficient anticancer agent for targeted breast cancer therapy in future.

Oleanolic acid loaded poly lactic co- glycolic acid- vitamin E TPGS nanoparticles for the treatment of Leishmania donovani infected visceral leishmaniasis.

Oleanolic acid (OA) has low aqueous solubility and low permeability, which results poor bioavailability. To surmount the inadequacy, our aim was to fabricate oleanolic acid loaded poly lactic co- glycolic acid (PLGA)- d-α- tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS) nanoparticles, which could be efficacious for the treatment of Leishmania donovani mediated visceral leishmaniasis (VL). OA loaded PLGA- TPGS nanoparticles were prepared by emulsion solvent evaporation technique. Cellular uptake was investigated. In vitro cumulative drug release study was carried out. In vitro susceptibility was confirmed against the amastigotes of Leishmania donovani AG83 wild and drug resistant strains. In vivo antileishmanial activity was evaluated against wild type amastigotes of L. donovani. OA loaded nanoparticles were successfully formulated. The highest drug loading was found to be 11.08%±0.35%. 85.66%±0.56% was the highest in vitro OA release for 30days among the formulations. In vivo study revealed that, 98.82±1.92% amastigote burden in spleen of BALB/c mice were suppressed by the polymeric nanoformulation of OA. Experimental OA nanoparticle formulation proved itself as an attractive carrier for OA which was significantly efficacious against both in vitro and in vivo amastigote form of Leishmania donovani than pure OA for chemotherapeutic intervention of visceral leishmaniasis.

Medicinal plants used by tribal population of Coochbehar district, West Bengal, India-an ethnobotanical survey

Objective: To explore traditional ethnomedicinal knowledge of different tribes of Coochbehar district of West Bengal, India, and its present status.Methods:were interviewed on medicinal use of local flora in all the tribal villages of Coochbehar district during July, 2007 to December, 2009 and some of the places were revisited for this purpose again during July to December of 2012. With the help of standardized questionnaires, traditional healers and resource persons Results: A total of 46 plant species belonging to 42 genera and 27 families were reported to be used for treating 33 various physical ailments. In terms of the number of medicinal plant species, Fabaceae (5 species) and Euphorbiaceae (4 species) are dominant families. Among different plant parts used for the preparation of medicine, leaves were most frequently used for the treatment of diseases.Conclusions:In all tribal villages we found the use of medicinal plants, particularly to treat common physical problems like smaller injuries, stomachache and abdominal disorder. However, non-availability of such plants in close vicinity is imposing restriction on using medicinal plants. Further research on these species may lead to the discovery of novel bioactive molecules in one hand and also it may open up a new horizon of sustainable development.