Seasonal Variation, Fractional Isolation and Nanoencapsulation of Antioxidant Compounds of Indian Blackberry (Syzygium cumini).

Indian blackberry (Syzygium cumini L.) is an evergreen tree in the Myrtaceae family. It is used in traditional medicine due to its significant bioactivities and presence of polyphenols with antioxidant activities. The present study describes the effect of seasonal variations on Indian blackberry leaf essential oil yield and chemical composition, production of fractions from essential oil using high vacuum fractional distillation and slow cooling to low temperature (-50 °C) under vacuum, and bioactivities of the essential oil, fractions, and nanoparticles. The results show that Indian blackberry essential oil yield was higher in spring season as compared to winter season. Indian blackberry essential oil fractionation processes were effective in separating and concentrating compounds with desired bioactivities. The bioactivities shown by magnesium nanoparticles were comparatively higher than barium nanoparticles.

Cytotoxic, α-amylase inhibitory and thrombolytic activities of organic and aqueous extracts of Bacillus clausii KP10.

Humans are experiencing serious health issues like myocardial infarction and diabetes. Thrombosis is the reason of myocardial infarction that may cause death. Bioactive compounds or enzymes can be used to dissolve the clot. Whereas diabetes is a disorder of metabolism in which the level of glucose in blood becomes high. It can be controlled by inhibiting α-amylase enzyme. The current project was, therefore planned to investigate the thrombolytic, α-amylase inhibitory and cytotoxic (to access drug safety) potentials of the organic and aqueous bioactive fractions of Bacillus clausii KP10. The cytotoxicity was assessed with hemolytic assay, α-amylase inhibition assay was done by using DNS and in-vitro thrombolytic effect was checked with human blood. In our experiments, the maximum hemolytic activity was shown by ethyl acetate fraction (12.64%). Results were compared with standard Triton X-100 which showed 91.61% hemolytic activity whereas all other fractions showed least cytotoxic activity. The extracts were also evaluated as thrombolytic agents as correlated to streptokinase (73.83%). All the extracts showed clot lysis activity, among which water soluble fraction exhibited maximum (35.16%) clot lysis activity. In our experiment methanol soluble fraction of B. clausii KP10 showed maximum 26.49% α-amylase inhibitory activity. Results were analyzed statistically through analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Raman spectroscopy for the evaluation of the effects of different concentrations of Copper on the chemical composition and biological activity of basil essential oil.

The present study is performed to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of Cu as fertilizer on the chemical composition of basil essential oil and its biological activity including antioxidant and antifungal activities by employing Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, the effect of Cu is also determined on the vegetative growth and essential oil yield. Both, antifungal and antioxidant activities were found to be maximum with essential oils obtained at 0.04mg/l concentration of Cu fertilizer. The results of the GC-MS and Raman spectroscopy have revealed that the linalool and estragole are found to be as a major chemical compound in basil essential oil. The Raman spectral changes associated with these biological components lead to the conclusion that estragole seems to have dominating effect in the biological activities of the basil essential oil as compared to linalool although the latter is observed in greater concentration.

Variation in Phenolic Profile, ß-Carotene and Flavonoid Contents, Biological Activities of Two Tagetes Species from Pakistani Flora.

The objective of present study was to evaluate the variation in phenolic profile, ß-carotene, flavonoid contents, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of Tagetes erecta and Tagetes patula (T. erecta and T. patula) through different in vitro assays. Antioxidant activity was determined through 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging and inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation assays and antibacterial and antifungal activities studied using the disc diffusion and resazurin microtiter-plate assays against bacterial and fungal strains. Moreover, total phenolics (TP), total carotenoids (TC) and total flavonoids (TF) were also determined. Highest (TP 35.8 mg GAE/g) and TF (16.9 mg CE/g) contents were found in MeOH extract of T. patula. T. erecta extract showed higher TC contents (6.45 mg/g) than T. patula extract (6.32 mg/g). T. erecta exhibited the highest DPPH radical-scavenging activity (IC50 ) (5.73 µg/mL) and inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation (80.1%). RP-HPLC revealed the presence of caffeic acid, sinapic acid and ferulic acid in Tagetes extracts, m-coumaric acid in T. erecta whereas chlorogenic acid in T. patula extract only. Both extracts possessed promising antimicrobial activity compared to the ciprofloxacin and flumequine (+ve controls) against Bacillus subtilis and Alternaria alternate. Both extract were rich source of polyphenols exhibiting excellent biological activities.

Chemical characterisation of bioactive compounds in Medicago sativa growing in the desert of Oman.

Medicago sativa Linn growing in Omani desert were chemically characterised using flame photometry, inductively coupled plasma, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analysis. HPLC analyses were performed to determine the phenolics and flavonoids present in M. sativa. The major compounds detected in M. sativa leaves were protchaechenic acid (3.22%), hydroxyl benzoic acid (1.05%), ß-Phenyl caffate (0.97%) and kaempherol (0.89%). Pterostilbene, a cholesterol-lowering compound, was detected in M. sativa.

Bioanalytical evaluation of Cinnamomum zeylanicum essential oil.

This manuscript describes the antioxidant activity of essential oil of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) bark extracted by supercritical fluid extraction (SCFE), hydro distillation and steam distillation. The cinnamon bark essential oil exhibited a wide range of total phenolic contents, total flavonoid contents, reducing power, inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation and DPPH radical-scavenging activity (IC50). Bioactivity of cinnamon essential oil was assayed against various bacterial strains including Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pastrurella multocida and Straphylococcus aureus and fungal strains including Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. More essential oil yield was obtained using SCFE in comparison to other methods. The oil extracted by SCFE was dominated by cinnamaldehyde, limonene, copaene, naphthalene, heptane, bicyclo[4.2.0]octa-1,3,5-triene and 2-propenal. Due to the presence of cinnamaldehyde in the essential oil of cinnamon bark it acts as a good antioxidant and antimicrobial agent.

Analytical evaluation of three wild growing Omani medicinal plants.

Three wild Omani plants, Moringa peregrina, Acacia nilotica and Rhazya stricta, were selected for the present study. Na, K and Ca contents were determined using flame photometric analysis. M. peregrina seeds (22.5 mg/g) and pods (27.7 mg/g) had higher Na contents than A. nilotica (0.33 mg/g) and R. stricta (0.30 mg/g), whereas the K and Ca contents of R. stricta were significantly higher than those of the other two plants. The protein content was lowest in R. stricta (9.8%) and highest in M peregrina seeds (21.0%). The highest total phenolic contents (TPC) were found in M. peregrina seeds (350.3 mg/g) and the lowest in A. nilotica (66.1 mg/g). The major component of M. peregrina seed oil was oleic acid (74.7%). Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis (GC-MS) revealed that octadecanal (30.9%) was the major compound in A. nilotica. The presence of various phenolics and flavonoids in M. peregrina, A. nilotica and R. stricta were confirmed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

Essential oil from Ocimum basilicum (Omani Basil): a desert crop.

The focus of the present study was on the influence of season on yield, chemical composition, antioxidant and antifungal activities of Omani basil (Ocimum basilicum) oil. The present study involved only one of the eight Omani basil varieties. The hydro-distilled essential oil yields were computed to be 0.1%, 0.3% and 0.1% in the winter, spring and summer seasons, respectively. The major components identified were L- linalool (26.5-56.3%), geraniol (12.1-16.5%), 1,8-cineole (2.5-15.1%), p-allylanisole (0.2-13.8%) and DL-limonene (0.2-10.4%). A noteworthy extra component was beta- farnesene, which was exclusively detected in the oil extracted during winter and spring at 6.3% and 5.8%, respectively. The essential oil composition over the different seasons was quite idiosyncratic, in which the principal components of one season were either trivial or totally absent in another. The essential oil extracted in spring exhibited the highest antioxidant activity (except DPPH scavenging ability) in comparison with the oils from other seasons. The basil oil was tested against pathogenic fungi viz. Aspergillus niger, A. fumigatus, Penicillium italicum and Rhizopus stolonifer using a disc diffusion method, and by determination of minimum inhibitory concentration. Surprisingly high antifungal values were found highlighting the potential of Omani basil as a preservative in the food and medical industries.