Abdul Nazir

Traditional uses of medicinal plants against malarial disease by the tribal communities of Lesser Himalayas–Pakistan

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Malaria is among the most prevalent infectious diseases in the developing countries of world. Estimated number of annual malaria episodes in Pakistan is 1.5 million, but very little is known about medicinal plant species of Pakistan, which have great potential against malarial disease. Present study was aimed to document medicinal plant species used by the local inhabitants of Lesser Himalayas-Pakistan to treat malaria. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and contributor observation. A total of 55 informants aged between 25 and 80 years who were familiar with malarial disease participated in the survey. RESULTS A total of 84 plant species belonging to 69 genera and 50 families were recorded to treat malaria. Asteraceae was found as most cited botanical family with (11.9%) representation, followed by Lamiaceae (5.9%), Solanaceae and Verbenaceae (4.7%) and Violaceae (3.5%) respectively. About 60% of the inhabitants prefer herbal treatment by local herbalists or self-treatment with locally available medicinal plant species. Of the plants identified during present investigation against malaria, Azadirachta indica, Swertia chirayita and Swertia ciliata exhibited uppermost frequency of encounter (36.3%) and corresponding PR value 5. About 67.2% of the botanical taxa are reported for the first time in the treatment of malaria. It was observed thatover harvesting is the foremost threat to medicinal plant species of the study area. CONCLUSION Present survey indicates that traditional knowledge about the use of plant species against various diseases and particularly to treat malaria is in decline. Similarly anthropogenic pressure, over exploitation and grazing of the botanical taxa are the major concerns regarding medicinal plant biodiversity loss. Frequently utilized plant species with significant malarial reduction should be authenticated by in vitro and in vivo standard tests.

Ethnobotanical and antimicrobial study of some selected medicinal plants used in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) as a potential source to cure infectious diseases

BackgroundPresent investigation deals with antimicrobial screening of ten medicinally important plants used by the inhabitants of district Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) for different infectious diseases.MethodsAqueous, n-hexane and ethanolic extracts of each plant were tested for their antimicrobial activity against both Gram positive and Gram negative strains of bacteria, as well as strain of yeast. Agar well diffusion and broth dilution methods were used to determine the antimicrobial activity of different plant extracts.ResultsThe results indicated that all plants exhibited antimicrobial activity against one or more test pathogens. Interestingly, extracts of three plants showed strong and broad spectrum activity as compared to rest of the extracts which demonstrated the moderate activity. On the whole ethanolic extracts exhibited maximum antimicrobial effect than their corresponding aqueous and n-hexane extracts, when compared with standard antibiotics i.e., Streptomycin and Tetracycline. Among various extracts, only ethanloic extract of Azadirachta indica and aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Eucalyptus globulus and Bergenia ciliata and ethanolic extract of Punica granatum were found to have potentially promising activity against test microorganisms.ConclusionDifferent plant extracts show promising antimicrobial activity justifying their usage in traditional medicines. This study will be continued to identify more plants with potential antimicrobial components.

Comparative SEM and LM foliar epidermal and palyno-morphological studies of Amaranthaceae and its taxonomic implications

Palynological features as well as comparative foliar epidermal using light and scanning electron microscope (SEM) of 17 species (10genera) of Amaranthaceae have been studied for its taxonomic significance. Different foliar and palynological micro‐morphological characters were examined to explain their value in resolving the difficulty in identification. All species were amphistomatic but stomata on abaxial surface were more abundant. Taxonomically significant epidermal character including stomata type, trichomes (unicellular, multicellular, and capitate) and epidermal cells shapes (polygonal and irregular) were also observed. Pollens of this family are Polypantoporate, pores large, spheroidal, mesoporous region is sparsely to scabrate, densely psilate, and spinulose. All these characters can be active at species level for identification purpose. This study indicates that at different taxonomic levels, LM and SEM pollen and epidermal morphology is explanatory and significant to identify species and genera.

Phytochemical profiling and antiviral activity of Ajuga bracteosa, Ajuga parviflora, Berberis lycium and Citrus lemon against Hepatitis C Virus

Abstract Hepatitis C is a serious health issue and cause liver disorders in millions of people. Available therapeutic agents require long term administration with numerous side effects. Therefore, there is a dire need to find alternative treatment options for this disease. Since ancient times, medicinal plants are widely used to cure various diseases with no or less harmful effects. Therefore, this study was designed to find out phytochemicals and investigate antiviral activity of methanol extract of Ajuga bracteosa, Ajuga parviflora, Berberis lycium and Citrus lemon against Hepatitis C Virus (HCV infection). Phytochemical analysis of the plant extract was performed using various chemical tests. Toxicity of the plant extract was determined against using trypan blue exclusion method. Antiviral activity of the selected plant extract was find out against HCV infected HepG2 cells. For this purpose, HepG2 cells were seeded with HCV positive and negative serum and nontoxic doses of plant extract for 24 and 48 h. After this RNA was extracted and viral load was determined using Real-time PCR. Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of flavonoids and phenols in all plant extracts while amino acids, alkaloids and tannins were present in B. lycium and saponins were detected in C. lemon. Toxicity assay showed that all plant extracts were nontoxic at maximum concentration of 200 μg/ml except B. lycium, which showed mild toxicity at 40 μg/ml and were extremely toxic at 60 μg/ml and above doses. Real-time PCR quantitation result revealed that after 24 h treatments A. parviflora showed highest antiviral activity, followed by A. bracteosa, while B. lycium extract had low (35%) and C. lemon has no antiviral effects. The 48 h treatments showed an increase antiviral activity by A. bracteosa followed by A. parviflora and B. lycium while C. lemon showed negative effect. Our results depicted that mentioned plants might be used as an alternative therapeutic regime or in combination with existing treatments against HCV.