Plant Seed Mucilage as a Glue: Adhesive Properties of Hydrated and Dried-in-Contact Seed Mucilage of Five Plant Species.

Seed and fruit mucilage is composed of three types of polysaccharides-pectins, cellulose, and hemicelluloses-and demonstrates adhesive properties after hydration. One of the important functions of the mucilage is to enable seeds to attach to diverse natural surfaces. Due to its adhesive properties, which increase during dehydration, the diaspore can be anchored to the substrate (soil) or attached to an animal's body and dispersed over varied distances. After complete desiccation, the mucilage envelope forms a thin transparent layer around the diaspore creating a strong bond to the substrate. In the present study, we examined the mucilaginous seeds of six different plant taxa (from genera Linum, Lepidium, Ocimum, Salvia and Plantago) and addressed two main questions: (1) How strong is the adhesive bond of the dried mucilage envelope? and (2) What are the differences in adhesion between different mucilage types? Generally, the dried mucilage envelope revealed strong adhesive properties. Some differences between mucilage types were observed, particularly in relation to adhesive force (Fad) whose maximal values varied from 0.58 to 6.22 N. The highest adhesion force was revealed in the cellulose mucilage of Ocimum basilicum. However, mucilage lacking cellulose fibrils, such as that of Plantago ovata, also demonstrated high values of adhesion force with a maximum close to 5.74 N. The adhesion strength, calculated as force per unit contact area (Fad/A0), was comparable between studied taxa. Obtained results demonstrated (1) that the strength of mucilage adhesive bonds strongly surpasses the requirements necessary for epizoochory and (2) that seed mucilage has a high potential as a nontoxic, natural substance that can be used in water-based glues.

Comparative transcriptome analysis to identify putative genes related to trichome development in Ocimum species.

Genus Ocimum is known to have species possessing important therapeutic essential oil. The major phytoconstituents of essential oil in Ocimum species are phenylpropanoids and terpenoids. The essential oil is accumulated in the trichomes; the specialized structures predominantly found on leaves and other tissues. The development of trichome is integrated with development of plant and leaf and also tightly coordinated with the primary and secondary metabolic pathways producing essential oil constituents. In continuation to our studies on elucidating/understanding the mechanism of biosynthesis of  essential oil pathways in Ocimum species, we have performed comparative transcriptome analysis to investigate the role of trichome-related gene expression in the regulation of biosynthetic pathways of essential oil. The essential oil biogenesis is tightly integrated with primary metabolic activities, the analysis for the expression pattern of genes related to primary metabolism and its relationship with secondary metabolism was evaluated in comparative manner. Physiological parameters in relation to primary metabolism such as photosynthetic pigment content, soluble sugar content, and invertase enzymes along with morphological parameters were analysed in O. basilicum and O. sanctum. Differential expression profiling uncovered about 8116 and 2810 differentially expressed transcripts in O. basilicum and O. sanctum, respectively. Enrichment of differentially expressed genes were analysed in relation to metabolic pathways, primary metabolism and secondary metabolism. Trichome related genes identified from the Ocimum species vis-à-vis their expression profiles suggested higher expression in O. basilicum. The findings in this study provide interesting insights into the role of trichome-related transcripts in relation to essential oil content in Ocimum species. The study is valuable as this is the first study on revealing the transcripts and their role in trichome development and essential oil biogenesis in two major species of Ocimum.

Genome sequencing of herb Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum) unravels key genes behind its strong medicinal properties.

BACKGROUND: Krishna Tulsi, a member of Lamiaceae family, is a herb well known for its spiritual, religious and medicinal importance in India. The common name of this plant is 'Tulsi' (or 'Tulasi' or 'Thulasi') and is considered sacred by Hindus. We present the draft genome of Ocimum tenuiflurum L (subtype Krishna Tulsi) in this report. The paired-end and mate-pair sequence libraries were generated for the whole genome sequenced with the Illumina Hiseq 1000, resulting in an assembled genome of 374 Mb, with a genome coverage of 61 % (612 Mb estimated genome size). We have also studied transcriptomes (RNA-Seq) of two subtypes of O. tenuiflorum, Krishna and Rama Tulsi and report the relative expression of genes in both the varieties. RESULTS: The pathways leading to the production of medicinally-important specialized metabolites have been studied in detail, in relation to similar pathways in Arabidopsis thaliana and other plants. Expression levels of anthocyanin biosynthesis-related genes in leaf samples of Krishna Tulsi were observed to be relatively high, explaining the purple colouration of Krishna Tulsi leaves. The expression of six important genes identified from genome data were validated by performing q-RT-PCR in different tissues of five different species, which shows the high extent of urosolic acid-producing genes in young leaves of the Rama subtype. In addition, the presence of eugenol and ursolic acid, implied as potential drugs in the cure of many diseases including cancer was confirmed using mass spectrometry. CONCLUSIONS: The availability of the whole genome of O.tenuiflorum and our sequence analysis suggests that small amino acid changes at the functional sites of genes involved in metabolite synthesis pathways confer special medicinal properties to this herb.

Low-temperature perception and modulations in Ocimum basilicum commercial cultivar CIM-Shishir: Biosynthetic potential with insight towards climate-smart resilience.

The newly released interspecific hybrid variety CIM-Shishir, resulting from a cross between Ocimum basilicum and Ocimum kilimandscharicum claims to be a multicut, lodging resistant, cold tolerant, high essential oil yielding with linalool rich variety. It has a purple-green stem and has a unique feature and advantage of better survival in the winter season than other O. basilicum varieties, illustrating its physiological mechanisms for cold tolerance. In this study, we subjected both the CIM-Shishir variety and a control plant to cold stress to investigate the impact of low temperatures on various physiological, trichome developments, secondary metabolite constitution aspects related to essential oil production, and gene expression. The analysis revealed a significantly higher density and altered morphology of trichomes on the leaf surface of the variety subjected to low temperatures, indicating its adaptation to cold conditions. Furthermore, when comparing the treated plants under low-temperature stress, it was observed that the relative electrolyte leakage and Malondialdehyde (MDA) contents substantially increased in the control in contrast to the CIM-Shishir variety. This finding suggests that CIM-Shishir exhibits superior cold tolerance. Additionally, an increase in proline content was noted in the variety exposed to low temperatures compared to the control. Moreover, the chlorophyll and anthocyanin content gradually increased with prolonged exposure to low-temperature stress in the newly developed variety, indicating its ability to maintain photosynthetic capacity and adapt to cold conditions. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) also increased under low-temperature conditions in the CIM-Shishir variety, further highlighting its cold tolerance behaviour. In our research, we investigated the comprehensive molecular mechanisms of cold response in Ocimum. We analyzed the expression of key genes associated with cold tolerance in two plant groups: the newly developed hybrid variety known as CIM-Shishir Ocimum, which exhibits cold tolerance, and the control plants susceptible to cold climates that include WRKY53, ICE1, HOS1, COR47, LOS15, DREB5, CBF4, LTI6, KIN, and ERD2. These genes exhibited significantly higher expression levels in the CIM-Shishir variety compared to the control, shedding light on the genetic basis of its cold tolerance. The need for climate-smart, resilient high-yielding genotype is of high importance due to varied climatic conditions as this will hit the yield drastically and further to the economic sectors including farmers and many industries that are dependent on the bioactive constituents of Ocimum.

Mitigation of arsenic poisoning induced oxidative stress and genotoxicity by Ocimum gratissimum L.

Arsenic toxicity is a major problem across the world due to geogenic activity and has been supposed to generate free radicals and genotoxicity among the arsenic-poisoned population. There is a need to find suitable free radical quenching compounds for the arsenic-induced free radical-affected population. In the present study, Na3AsO3- induced oxidative stress and genotoxicity were evaluated in Oryctolagus cuniculus L, and quenching competency of Ocimum species was examined by applying enzymatic and non-enzymatic in vitro tests, comet assay, and Random Amplified Polymorphic Deoxyribonucleic acid - Polymerase Chain Reaction (RAPD-PCR) methods. In the present study, oxidative damage due to Na3AsO3 intoxication in O. cuniculus L has been confirmed followed by substantive genotoxicity, and in a further study, it has also been reported that the extract of O. gratissimum L lowers the oxidative stress in experimental animals confirmed by a decrease in Malondialdehyde (MDA) 4.78 ± 0.05 (nmol/mg protein), and an increase in Glutathione (GSH) 2.87 ± 0.50 (µmoles/mg proteins), Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) 1.78 ± 0.03(Units/mg protein), Catalase (CAT) 2.72 ± 0.02 (µmoles of H2O2 consumed/min/mg proteins) and Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) 7.43 ± 0.01 (µg of glutathione utilized/min/mg protein). A positive impact of extract of O. gratissimum L on protection of genotoxicity has been also confirmed by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) based reduction in polymorphic bands of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from 6.5 to 3.16 and comet assay-based increase in head DNA % (87.86 ± 1.58), tail moment (1.07 ± 0.27) and decrease in tail DNA % (12.13 ± 1.58) & tail length (8.2 ± 1.46) at 5% P in lymphocytes. A significant level reduction in free radicals and reduction in DNA polymorphism has proved the competency of test material for the development of suitable antidotes against arsenicosis.

Nanoemulsion of cashew gum and clove essential oil (Ocimum gratissimum Linn) potentiating antioxidant and antimicrobial activity.

In this study, nanoemulsions of essential oil from Ocimumgratissimum (Linn) (EO) were produced using low and high energy techniques using cashew gum (CG) as a co-surfactant. The main constituents of the EO were determined by Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), and their presence in the EO and in the formulations verified by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-visible spectrophotometry was observed the encapsulation efficiency (EE%), with colloidal stability. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to study cashew gum. Dynamic light scattering analysis (DLS) determined the nanoemulsion Z means, polydispersity index and the Zeta potential value, nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) were determined. The nanostructured EO showed better antibacterial action against the pathogenic gastroenteritis species Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica when compared to free EO. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) was used for morphological analysis of the nanoparticle and study of the action of the nanoemulsion through images of the cellular morphology of S. enterica. The antioxidant activity was evaluated against the ABTS radical (2,2'-azino-bis diazonium salt (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)). The encapsulation of EO in a nanostructured system improved its antibacterial and antioxidant activity, the low energy synthesis showed greater storage stability, remaining stable for 37 days.

Comparative temporal metabolomics studies to investigate interspecies variation in three Ocimum species.

Ocimum is one of the most revered medicinally useful plants which have various species. Each of the species is distinct in terms of metabolite composition as well as the medicinal property. Some basil types are used more often as an aromatic and flavoring ingredient. It would be informative to know relatedness among the species which though belong to the same genera while exclusively different in terms of metabolic composition and the operating pathways. In the present investigation the similar effort has been made in order to differentiate three commonly occurring Ocimum species having the high medicinal value, these are Ocimum sanctum, O. gratissimum and O. kilimandscharicum. The parameters for the comparative analysis of these three Ocimum species comprised of temporal changes in number leaf trichomes, essential oil composition, phenylpropanoid pathway genes expression and the activity of important enzymes. O. gratissimum was found to be richest in phenylpropanoid accumulation as well as their gene expression when compared to O. sanctum while O. kilimandscharicum was found to be accumulating terpenoid. In order to get an overview of this qualitative and quantitative regulation of terpenes and phenylpropenes, the expression pattern of some important transcription factors involved in secondary metabolism were also studied.

Batch adsorption and kinetics of chromium (VI) removal from aqueous solutions by Ocimum americanum L. seed pods.

In this paper batch removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solutions by Ocimum americanum L. seed pods was investigated. The optimum pH and shaker speed were found to be 1.5 and 121 rpm. The equilibrium adsorption data fit well with Langmuir isotherm. The maximum chromium adsorption capacity determined from Langmuir isotherm was 83.33 mg/g dry weight of seed pods at pH 1.5 and shaker speed 121 rpm. The batch experiments were conducted to study the adsorption kinetics of chromium removal for the concentrations of 100 mg/L, 150 mg/L and 200mg/L chromium solutions. The adsorbent dosage was 8 g dry seed pods/L. The removal efficiency observed for all the three chromium concentrations was 100%. The equilibrium was achieved less than 120 min for all the three concentrations. The adsorption kinetic data was fitted with first and second order kinetic models. Finally it was concluded that the chromium adsorption kinetics of O. americanum L. seed pods was well explained by second order kinetic model rather than first order model.

Interspecies comparative features of trichomes in Ocimum reveal insights for biosynthesis of specialized essential oil metabolites.

Ocimum species commonly referred to as "Tulsi" are well-known for their distinct medicinal and aromatic properties. The characteristic aroma of Ocimum species and cultivars is attributed to their specific combination of volatile phytochemicals mainly belonging to terpenoid and/or phenylpropanoid classes in their essential oils. The essential oil constituents are synthesized and sequestered in specialized epidermal secretory structures called as glandular trichomes. In this comparative study, inter- and intra-species diversity in structural attributes and profiles of expression of selected genes related to terpenoid and phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathways have been investigated. This is performed to seek relationship of variations in the yield and phytochemical composition of the essential oils. Microscopic analysis of trichomes of O. basilicum, O. gratissimum, O. kilimandscharicum, and O. tenuiflorum (green and purple cultivars) revealed substantial variations in density, size, and relative proportions of peltate and capitate trichomes among them. The essential oil yield has been observed to be controlled by the population, dominance, and size of peltate and capitate glandular trichomes. The essential oil sequestration in leaf is controlled by the dominance of peltate glandular trichome size over its number and is also affected by the capitate glandular trichome size/number with variations in leaf area albeit at lower proportions. Comprehension and comparison of results of GC-MS analysis of essential oils showed that most of the Ocimum (O. basilicum, O. tenuiflorum, and O. gratissimum) species produce phenylpropanoids (eugenol, methyl chavicol) as major volatiles except O. kilimandscharicum, which is discrete in being monoterpenoid-rich species. Among the phenylpropanoid-enriched Ocimum (O. basilicum, O. gratissimum, O. tenuiflorum purple, O. tenuiflorum green) as well, terpenoids were important constituents in imparting characteristic aroma. Further, comparative abundance of transcripts of key genes of phenylpropanoid (PAL, C4H, 4CL, CAD, COMT, and ES) and terpenoid (DXS and HMGR) biosynthetic pathways was evaluated vis-à-vis volatile oil constituents. Transcript abundance demonstrated that richness of their essential oils with specific constituent(s) of a chemical group/subgroup was manifested by the predominant upregulation of phenylpropanoid/terpenoid pathway genes. The study provides trichomes as well as biosynthetic pathway-based knowledge for genetic improvement in Ocimum species for essential oil yield and quality.

α-Glucosidase inhibitory activity and in vivo antihyperglycemic effect of secondary metabolites from the leaf infusion of Ocimum campechianum mill.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Wild basil (Ocimum campechianum Mill.), an aromatic herb of the Lamiaceae family known as "albahaca de monte" (Spanish) or "x'kakaltun" (Mayan) in Yucatan, is used in Mayan traditional medicine to treat diabetes, as well as to alleviate fever symtoms, stomach pain, conjunctivitis, and various skin affections. AIM OF THE STUDY: To isolate and identify the bioactive metabolites responsible for the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity previously detected in the leaf infusion O. campechianum. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The bioassay-guided fractionation and purification of the lyophilized infusion was carried out using a liquid-liquid partition procedure, followed by successive chromatographic purifications of the semipurified fractions. The isolated metabolites were identified by comparing their spectroscopic data with those reported in the literature. The liophylized infusion, together with the semipurified fractions, and the pure metabolites were tested for their antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities, as well as their antihyperglycemic effect. RESULTS: Chromatographic purification of the semipurified fractions led to the isolation of the polymethoxylated flavones 5-demethyl nobiletin (1) and 5-demethyl sinensetin (2), together with luteolin (3), methyl rosmarinate (4) and rosmarinic acid (5). Metabolites 4 and 5 appear to be responsible for the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity and the antihyperglycemic effect detected in the lyophilized infusion. A Lineweaver-Burk double reciprocal plot confirmed that the higher α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of 4 is of non-competitive nature. Both 4 and 5 caused a decrease in blood glucose higher than that caused by acarbose, a result that appears to be related to their strong α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. Even though flavonoids 1-3 did not show a good inhibition of α-glucosidase, these products decreased blood glucose in the in vivo model, suggesting a different antihyperglycemic mechanism. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirm both the traditional use of O. campechianum and the importance of the leaf infusion as a potential source of antihyperglycemic agents. The isolation of 5-demethyl nobiletin (1) and 5-demethyl sinensetin (2) from O. campechianum and other Ocimum spp. suggests that polymethoxyflavones can be considered chemotaxonomical markers for the genus.

In vitro plant tissue cultures accumulate polyisoprenoid alcohols.

In vitro cultivated plant cells and tissues were found to synthesize polyisoprenoids. Taxus baccata suspension cell cultures accumulated polyisoprenoids of the same pattern as the parental tissue; methyl jasmonate or chitosan treatment almost doubled their content. All the root cultures studied accumulated dolichols as predominant polyisoprenoids. Roots of Ocimum sanctum grown in vitro accumulated approx. 2.5-fold higher amount of dolichols than the roots of soil-grown plants. Dolichols dominated over polyprenols in all Triticum sp. tissues studied.

Ocimum sanctum leaf extracts stimulate insulin secretion from perfused pancreas, isolated islets and clonal pancreatic beta-cells.

Ocimum sanctum leaves have previously been reported to reduce blood glucose when administered to rats and humans with diabetes. In the present study, the effects of ethanol extract and five partition fractions of O. sanctum leaves were studied on insulin secretion together with an evaluation of their mechanisms of action. The ethanol extract and each of the aqueous, butanol and ethylacetate fractions stimulated insulin secretion from perfused rat pancreas, isolated rat islets and a clonal rat beta-cell line in a concentration-dependent manner. The stimulatory effects of ethanol extract and each of these partition fractions were potentiated by glucose, isobutylmethylxanthine, tolbutamide and a depolarizing concentration of KCl. Inhibition of the secretory effect was observed with diazoxide, verapamil and Ca2+ removal. In contrast, the stimulatory effects of the chloroform and hexane partition fractions were associated with decreased cell viability and were unaltered by diazoxide and verapamil. The ethanol extract and the five fractions increased intracellular Ca2+ in clonal BRIN-BD11 cells, being partly attenuated by the addition of verapamil. These findings indicated that constituents of O. sanctum leaf extracts have stimulatory effects on physiological pathways of insulin secretion which may underlie its reported antidiabetic action.

Anti-acetylcholinesterase potential and metabolome classification of 4 Ocimum species as determined via UPLC/qTOF/MS and chemometric tools.

Ocimum (sweet basil) is a plant of considerable commercial importance in traditional medicine worldwide as well as for the flavor and food industry. The goal of this study was to examine Ocimum extracts anti-acetylcholinesterase activity and to correlate the activity with their secondary metabolites profiles via a metabolome based ultraperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) approach coupled to chemometrics. The metabolomic differences in phenolics from leaves derived from 4 Ocimum species: Ocimum basilicum, Ocimum africanum, Ocimum americanum and Ocimum minimum were assessed. Under optimized conditions, 81 metabolites were identified including 21 hydroxy cinnamic acids, 4 benzoic acid conjugates, 14C/O flavonoid conjugates, 2 alcohols, 5 acyl sugars, 4 triterpenes and 12 fatty acids. Several salviolanic acid derivatives including salviolanic acid A, B, C & I found in Salvia, were found in Ocimum herein for the first time. Unsupervised principal component analysis (PCA) and supervised orthogonal projection to latent structures-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were further used for comparing and classification of samples. A clear separation among the four investigated Ocimum species was revealed, with O. africanum samples found most enriched in hydroxy cinnamates conjugates (HC) and flavonoids. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report for compositional differences among Ocimum leaves via a metabolomic approach revealing that among examined species O. africanum leaves present a better source of Ocimum bioactive metabolites. The anticholinesrase activity of examined species was further assessed with a potent IC50 values for O. americanum, O. africanum, O. basilicum ranging from 2.5 to 6.6mg/ml, whereas O. minimum was least active with IC50 of 31.4mg/ml. Furthermore, major HC i.e., caftaric, chlorogenic and rosmarinic acids identified in extracts via UPLC-MS analysis exhibited IC50 values of 24, 0.5 and 7.9mg/ml respectively, suggesting that HCs are likely to mediate for the anticholinesterase effect in Ocimum extracts.

Protection of mouse bone marrow against radiation-induced chromosome damage and stem cell death by the ocimum flavonoids orientin and vicenin.

In a previous study, orientin and vicenin, the water-soluble plant flavonoids, protected mice against radiation lethality (Uma Devi et al., Radiat. Res. 151, 74-78, 1999). To study bone marrow protection, adult Swiss mice were exposed to 0-6 Gy 60Co gamma rays 30 min after an intraperitoneal injection of 50 microg/ kg body weight of orientin/vicenin. Chromosomal aberrations in bone marrow were studied at 24 h postirradiation. Stem cell survival was studied using the exogenous spleen colony (CFU-S) assay. Radiation produced a dose-dependent increase in aberrant cells as well as in the yield of the different types of aberrations (breaks, fragments, rings and dicentrics) and a decrease in CFU-S. Pretreatment with either flavonoid significantly reduced the aberrant cells and different aberrations and increased the number of CFU-S compared to the respective radiation-alone groups. The dose modification factors for 50% reductions in the number of CFU-S were 1.6 for orientin and 1.7 for vicenin. The present finding that very low nontoxic doses of orientin and vicenin provide efficient protection against bone marrow damage at clinically relevant radiation doses suggests their potential for protection of normal tissues in radiotherapy.

Rosmarinic acid content and RAPD analysis of in vitro regenerated basil (Ocimum americanum) plants.

Various in vitro cultures were established from shoot tips of Ocimum americanum seedlings. Rosmarinic acid content of the in vitro produced plants as well as parent plant were determined by HPLC analysis and subjected to RAPD analysis. MS medium with BA at a concentration of 1 mg/l and 0.25 mg/l IAA supports maximum rosmarinic acid production in plants produced from cultures grown on that medium. RAPD analysis revealed 64 scorable bands from four primers, including six polymorphic bands. The band pattern revealed differences between the parent plant and the in vitro regenerated plants. Certain band changes were found in O. americanum plants regenerated in vitro, suggesting the existence of genetic variation that might affect the biochemical synthesis of plants derived from tissue culture.

Antibacterial activity of Ocimum sanctum L. fixed oil.

Ocimum sanctum fixed oil showed good antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus pumilus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, where S. aureus was the most sensitive organism. Sesame and soyabean oils also showed moderate activity against S. aureus. Higher content of linolenic acid in O. sanctum fixed oil could contribute towards its antibacterial activity. The antibacterial activity combined with anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of the oil, could make it useful in inflammatory disorder resulting from staphylococcal infection.

Production of anti-cancer triterpene (betulinic acid) from callus cultures of different Ocimum species and its elicitation.

Betulinic acid (BA), a pentacyclic triterpenoid, is gaining unmatched attention owing to its unique anti-cancer activity with selective melanoma growth inhibition without damaging normal cells. It is also well-known for its multifaceted pharmacokinetics, entailing antibacterial, antimalarial, anti-HIV and antioxidant merits. Considering the escalating demand with diminishing bioresource of this molecule, the present study was undertaken that revealed the untapped potentials of Ocimum calli, contrasting to that in the in vitro derived leaves, as effective production alternative of BA in three out of four tested species (i.e. Ocimum basilicum, Ocimum kilimandscharicum, Ocimum sanctum excluding Ocimum grattisimum). Callus inductions were obtained in all the four species with different 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D)/α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) concentrations with kinetin. Notably, 2,4-D favoured maximum callus growth in all whereas NAA proved beneficial for the highest metabolite yield in the calli of each BA-producing species. The O. basilicum calli demonstrated the maximum growth (growth index (GI) 678.7 ± 24.47) and BA yield (2.59 ± 0.55 % dry weight [DW]), whereas those in O. kilimandscharicum (GI 533.33 ± 15.87; BA 1.87 ± 0.6 % DW) and O. sanctum (GI 448 ± 16.07; BA 0.39 ± 0.12 % DW) followed a descending order. The O. gratissimum calli revealed minimum growth (GI 159 ± 13.25) with no BA accumulation. Elicitation with methyl jasmonate at 200-µM concentration after 48-h exposure doubled the BA yield (5.10 ± 0.18 % DW) in NAA-grown O. basilicum calli compared to that in the untreated counterpart (2.61 ± 0.19 % DW), which further enthused its future application.

Protection against prenatal irradiation-induced genomic instability and its consequences in adult mice by Ocimum flavonoids, orientin and vicenin.

PURPOSE: To study the protective effect of orientin and vicenin against early genomic effects of foetal irradiation and their late consequences in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fourteen-day pregnant mice were exposed to 1 Gy 60Co gamma-radiation 30 min after an intraperitoneal injection of orientin or vicenin (50 microg kg(-1) body weight). Chromosomal aberrations were studied in foetal liver cells and their spleen colonies (three passages, colony-forming units-spleen CFU-S1, CFU-S2, CFU-S3) and 1-12 months post-partum bone marrow. Peripheral blood counts and solid tumours were recorded to 12 and 20 months, respectively. RESULTS: Irradiation significantly increased the percent aberrant cells and aberrations/cell in foetal liver and CFU-S1. These effects decreased in later passages of CFU-S and were not seen at 1-6 months post-partum, but increased significantly from 9 months. Total blood counts showed significant reduction from 6 months, while neutrophils increased from 3 months post-partum. Solid tumour incidence in adults increased significantly, with a decrease in age at detection. Orientin/vicenin significantly reduced the chromosomal anomalies in foetal and adult haemopoietic cells, restored blood counts to the normal range, and significantly reduced tumour incidence and delayed tumour development to control age. CONCLUSIONS: Orientin and vicenin protect against foetal irradiation-induced genomic damage and instability, thereby reducing the delayed chromosomal abnormalities and tumorigenesis in adult.

Biotransformation of finasteride by Ocimum sanctum L., and tyrosinase inhibitory activity of transformed metabolites: experimental and computational insights.

Transformation of Finasteride (I) by cell suspension cultures of Ocimum sanctum L. was investigated. Fermentation of compound (I) with O. sanctum afforded three oxidized derivatives, 16ß-hydroxyfinasteride (II), 11α-hydroxyfinasteride (III) and 15ß-hydroxyfinasteride (IV). Among these metabolites, compound (II) was a new metabolite. Compound (I) and its derivatives were studied for their tyrosinase inhibition assay. All test compounds exhibited significant activity compared to standard drug kojic acid, with compound IV being the most potent member with an IC50 of 1.87µM. Molecular docking revealed significant molecular interactions behind the potent tyrosinase inhibitory activity of the tested compounds.

Influence of Npk inorganic fertilizer treatment on the proximate composition of the leaves of Ocimum gratissimum (L.) and Gongronema latifolium (benth).

The influence of NPK inorganic fertilizer treatment on the proximate composition of the leaves of Ocimum gratissimum (L.) and Gongronema latifolium (Benth) was investigated. Cultivated O. gratissimum and G. latifolium were treated with NPK (15:15:15) fertilizer at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 kg h(-1) treatment levels in planting buckets derived using the furrow slice method two months after seedling emergence. No fertilizer treatment served as control. The leaves of the plants were harvested for analysis one month after treatment. The leaf was used for the analysis because it the most eaten part. Fertilizer treatment significantly (p < 0.05) increased the dry matter, moisture content, ash, crude protein, crude fibre, crude fat contents of the leaves of both plants. On the other hand, fertilizer treatment significantly, (p < 0.05) decreased the carbohydrate and the calorific value of the leaves of the plants. The increase in the concentrations of these substances as a result of fertilizer of fertilizer treatment might be due to the role of fertilizer in chlorophyll content of plant's leaves, which in turn enhanced the process of photosynthesis leading to increased synthesis of these substances. The decrease in the carbohydrate content might be due to its conversion to other materials in the plants. The results obtained were discussed in line with current literatures.