Ashraf N. E. Hamed

Officinalioside, a new lignan glucoside from Borago officinalis L.

Abstract A new lignan glucoside, officinalioside (1), was isolated from n-BuOH fraction of the aerial parts of Borago officinalis L., together with four known compounds: actinidioionoside (2), roseoside (3), crotalionoside C (4) and kaempferol 3-O-β-D-galactopyranoside (5). The structure of the new compound was established by means of spectroscopic and chemical analyses. Compounds 1 and 2 showed a moderate DPPH radical scavenging activity (IC50: 52.6 ± 1.70 and 41.3 ± 0.25 μM, respectively) comparable with that of the standard trolox (16.6 ± 2.2 μM) without any significant cytotoxicity towards human cell line A549 (IC50 > 100 μM). Graphical abstract

Forsskamide, a new ceramide from aerial parts of Forsskaolea tenacissima Linn.

Abstract Although the various folk medicine uses and the biological activity of Forsskaolea tenacissima L., few chemical constituents of this plant have been reported, this provoked us to make our study. Forsskamide, a new ceramide was isolated from aerial parts of F. tenacissima L. (Urticaceae). The chemical structure was established by different spectroscopic methods (1H, 13C-NMR, HMBC, HSQC, ROESY, FAB-MS and HR-FAB-MS). Forsskamide showed a moderate cytotoxic activity by (MTT) method against human colorectal carcinoma cell line (HCT-116) with IC50 33.25 μM in comparison with 5-fluorouracil IC50 26.42 μM. While, it did not show any activity against human hepatocarcinaoma cell line (HepG-2).

Pharmacotherapeutic evaluation of Parmentiera cereifera Seem. (Family Bignoniaceae) cultivated in Egypt on albino rats.

Aims: The current study evaluates different biological activities viz., anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycemic and gastroprotective of methanolic extracts (MEs) of different parts viz., [mixture of leaves & stems (1:3) (MLS13), flowers and stem barks] and different fractions of ME of MLS13 of Parmentiera cereifera Seem. Moreover, this study estimates LD50 of ME of MLS13. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out for nine months in 2012 in the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine and Department of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Minia University, Minia, Egypt. Methodology: The different MEs of various parts such as MLS13, flowers and stem barks and the Original Research Article Abdel-Wahab et al.; EJMP, 8(1): 29-38, 2015; Article no.EJMP.2015.087 30 different fractions of ME of MLS13 of P. cereifera were used in the present study. The different pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperglycemic, gastroprotective and LD50 were determined using animal models as described in standard methods. Results: In yeast-induced paw edema method, ME of MLS13 had the highest anti-inflammatory activity (***P<0.001). While, in carrageenan-induced paw edema method, the highest antiinflammatory activity (***P<0.001) was exhibited by ME of stem barks. Moreover, both ME of flowers (***P<0.001) and ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fraction (***P<0.01) exhibited significant antihyperglycemic activity in alloxan-induced diabetes method. Furthermore, in indomethacin-induced gastric ulcer method, the highest gastroprotective effect (***P<0.001) was demonstrated by the petroleum ether (pet. ether) fraction. Finally, there is no toxicity symptoms of ME of MLS13 of P. cereifera up to 5 gm/kg. Conclusion: The biological results revealed that P. cereifera may be used in the development of various pharmaceutical preparations viz., anti-infalammatory, anti-hypergycemic as well as gastroprotective drugs, due to its wide safety margin.