Hypoglycemic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective potentials of crude methanolic extract from Acacia nilotica L. - results of an in vitro study.

Acacia nilotica L., also known as babul, belonging to the Fabaceae family and the Acacia genus, is typically used for ornamental purposes and also as a medicinal plant found in tropical and subtropical areas. This plant is a rich source of bioactive compounds. The current study aimed to elucidate the hypoglycemic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective potential of A. nilotica's crude methanolic extract. The results of the in vitro antidiabetic assay revealed that methanolic extract of A. nilotica inhibited the enzyme α-glucosidase (IC50: 33 µg mL-1) and α-amylase (IC50: 17 µg mL-1) in a dose-dependent manner. While in the anticholinesterase enzyme inhibitory assay, maximum inhibition was shown by the extract against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) (637.01 µg mL-1) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) (491.98 µg mL-1), with the highest percent inhibition of 67.54% and 71.50% at 1000 µg mL-1, respectively. This inhibitory potential was lower as compared to the standard drug Galantamine that exhibited 82.43 and 89.50% inhibition at the same concentration, respectively. Moreover, the methanolic extract of A. nilotica also significantly inhibited the activities of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) and 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) in a concentration-dependent manner. The percent inhibitory activity of 5-LOX and COX-2 ranged from 42.47% to 71.53% and 43.48% to 75.22%, respectively. Furthermore, in silico, in vivo, and clinical investigations must be planned to validate the above-stated bioactivities of A. nilotica.

Comparative assessment of phenolic composition profile and biological activities of green extract and conventional extracts of Salvia sclarea.

In recent years, there have been an attempt to develop safe and environmental friendly solvents to replace conventional solvents, and use for extraction bioactive compounds from natural sources. A current investigation involved the preparation of green, methanolic, and ultrasonic extracts of S. sclarea, and compared their phenolic profiling using HPLC-DAD, antibacterial, antioxidant, and enzyme inhibition activities. The HPLC-DAD analysis revealed that Rosmarinic acid was the main content in all extracts, with Ellagic acid only present in the green extract. The green extract exhibited superior anti-biofilm activity against S. Aureus and E. Faecalis compared to the other extracts at MIC concentration. Furthermore, the green extract also displayed the highest inhibition of swarming motility in P. Aeruginosa with inhibition range 68.0 ± 2.1 (MIC) to 19.5 ± 0.6 (MIC/4). and better enzyme inhibitory activity against BChE (with IC50 = 131.6 ± 0.98 µg/mL) and AChE (with inhibition 47.00 ± 1.50%) compared to the other extracts; while, the ultrasonic extract showed strong inhibition of violacein production by C. Violaceum with a inhibition range 05.5 ± 0.1 (MIC/32) to 100 ± 0.00 (MIC), followed by the green extract with a inhibition range 15.0 ± 0.5 (MIC/8) to 100 ± 0.00 (MIC), additionally, the ultrasonic and methanoic extracts showed significant activity against urease enzyme with (IC50 = 171.6 ± 0.95 µg/mL and IC5 0 = 187.5 ± 1.32 µg/mL) respectively. Both the green and methanolic extracts showed considerable antioxidant activities, as ß-carotene-linoleic acid (IC50 = 5.61 ± 0.47 µg/mL and 5.37 ± 0.27 µg/mL), DPPH· (IC50 = 19.20 ± 0.70 µg/mL and 16.31 ± 0.23 µg/mL), ABTS·+(IC50 = 8.64 ± 0.63 µg/mL and 6.50 ± 0.45 µg/mL) and CUPRAC (A0.5 = 17.22 ± 0.36 µg/mL and 12.28 ± 0.12 µg/mL) respectively, likewise the green extract performing better in metal chelating compared to the other extracts. The green extraction is reported as a cost effective and solvent free method for extracting natural products that produces compounds free of toxic chemicals. This could be the method to be used in the industries as a renewable method.

Isolation, Biological Evaluation, and Molecular Docking Studies of Compounds from Sophora mollis (Royle) Graham Ex Baker.

The Sophora mollis is one of the best anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancerous plant; therefore, the isolated chemical constituents, that is, scopoletin (1), pinitol (2), 2-propenoic acid, 3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-octacosyl ester (3), betulin (4), and ß-sitosterol glucoside (5) were tested for these folklores. The structures of the isolated compounds were confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 2D-NMR, and mass spectral data. The anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiglycation, and antioxidant activities of compounds 1-5 were evaluated using different assays. Compound 1 exhibited significant anti-inflammatory effect as it reduced edema of the paw (83.98%), which is more potent than the standard drug (ibuprofen) (which showed an inhibition percentage of 73.22% a), followed by compound 3. Furthermore, compound 3 showed significant free-radical scavenging activity using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) free-radical assay. Percentage inhibition of DPPH recorded was 95.646 ± 0.003, 94.766 ± 0.014, and 94.516 ± 0.011% at concentrations of 400, 200, and 100 µg/mL, respectively. Evaluation of anticancer activity of isolated compounds reveals weak effect against HeLa and 3T3 cell lines. Docking studies of the most active compound into the binding sites of cyclooxygenase isoforms showed a better antagonistic potential against COX-1 than the COX-2 isoform.

Chemical composition and in vitro anticancer, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of essential oil and methanol extract from Rumex nervosus.

Chemical composition, antioxidant, anticancer, and antimacrobial activities of essential oil obtained from leaves of Rumex nervosus has been evaluated here for the first time. GC/MS analysis reveals the presence of Palmitoleic Acid (28.35%) and Palmitic acid, (25. 37%) as their methyl ester as major components. The essential oil showed significant DPPH radical scavenging activity (94.907 ± 0.1089% and 94.003 ± 0.0749%) at concentration (100 and 80) µg/mL respectively. The oil showed promising activity against staph aureus, while showed weak activity against (Hela and 3T3) cell lines. The crude extract / fractions of R. nervosus (leaves) showed significant antioxidant activity at dose (100 and 80) µg/mL. Futhermore the crude showed significant activity against (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) cell lines with IC50 (20.5138 ± 0.933 and 25.1728 ± 0.9176) µg/mL respectively, and chloroform fraction showed good activity against (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) cell lines with IC50 (31.154 ± 0.965 and 42.269 ± 2.1045) µg/mL.

Antileishmanial, insecticidal and phytotoxic potential of leaves and stems of Rumex nervosus Vahl.

Biological assays including; phytotoxicity, brine shrimp lethality, antileishmanial and insecticidal activities were carried out on crude methanolic extracts of stems and leaves of R. nervosus and their fraction namely; n-Hexane, CHCl3, EtOAc, and MeOH fractions. The highest significant phytotoxicty activity showed by chloroform, n-hexane fractions and crude extract of leaves, the growth regulation were (95%, 90% and 90%) respectively against Lemna minor, while ethyl acetate fraction and n-hexane fractions of stems displayed significant phytotoxicty (100% and 90%) respectively against Lemna minor at high dose (1000µg/ml). The results obtained from cytotoxicity assays revealed that none of the fractions are cytotoxic. The chloroform fraction of stems was showed good antileishmanial activity against L. major with LC50±S.D: 70.3±1.2 at µg/ml. The crude methanolic extracts of leaves, chloroform fraction and ethyl acetate fraction exhibited low mortality against tested insect Rhyzopertha dominica while, the rest of extracts were found almost inactive against insects species.

Antioxidant, antimicrobial and urease inhibiting activities of methanolic extracts from Cyphostemma digitatum stem and roots.

Cyphostemma digitatum stem and roots extracts were investigated for antioxidant, antimicrobial, urease inhibition potential and phytochemical analysis. Phytochemical screening of the roots and stem extract revealed the presence of secondary metabolites including flavonoids, alkaloids, coumarins, saponins, terpenoids, tannins, carbohydrates/reducing sugars and phenolic compounds. The methanolic extracts of the roots displayed highest antioxidant activity (93.518%) against DPPH while the crude methanolic extract of the stem showed highest antioxidant activity (66.163%) at 100 µg/mL concentration. The methanolic extracts of both stem and roots were moderately active or even found to be less active against the selected bacterial and fungal strains (Tables S2 and S3). The roots extract (methanol) showed significant urease enzyme inhibition activity (IC50 = 41.2 ± 0.66; 0.2 mg/mL) while the stem extract was found moderately active (IC50 = 401.1 ± 0.58; 0.2 mg/mL) against thiourea (IC50 = 21.011; 0.2 mg/mL).

Comparative urease enzyme inhibition profile of leaves and stems of Rumex nervosus vahl.

Ureases inhibitory agents are becoming important because of their application in treating many aliments. This work describes the urease inhibitory potential of the crude extracts of leaves and stems of Rumex nervosus, which includes crude extracts as well as various sub-fractions, n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol. The crude extracts of stems and leaves exhibited promising ureases inhibition (IC50 values of 17.5 ± 0.84 and 29.6 ± 0.96 µg/mL, respectively). Among the sub-fractions, methanol-soluble fractions of leaves and stems showed significant inhibition having IC50 values of 21.9 ± 0.67 and 21.5 ± 0.69 µg/mL, respectively, followed by ethyl acetate fractions of stems and leaves.