Hossein Mostafavi

An Iranian herbal‐marine medicine, MS14, ameliorates experimental allergic encephalomyelitis

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory and demyelinating disease of the central nervous system which mainly affects young adults. To overcome wide spectrum troublesome symptoms of multiple sclerosis which affects the quality of life both in patients and their families, new drugs and remedies have been examined and offered. The preclinical beneficial effects of different medicines have mostly been examined in an animal model of multiple sclerosis called experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). In this study we have tested a traditionally used natural (herbal‐marine) product called MS14 in EAE mice. EAE mice were fed with MS14 containing diet (30%) on the immunization day and monitored for 20 days. The results show that while clinical scores and therefore severity of the disease was progressive in normal‐fed EAE mice, the disease was slowed down in MS14‐fed EAE mice. Moreover, while there were moderate to severe neuropathological changes in normal fed mice, milder changes were seen in MS14 fed mice. Copyright

Chemical Composition of Essential Oil of Stachys byzantina from North-West Iran

The paper reports the composition of the essential oil from aerial parts (leaves) of Stachys byzantina (Lamiaceae) from North-West of Iran. The essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation from selected plants and its chemical composition was determined by GC-MS system. The mass fraction of oil on dry weight base was 0.4 %. Altogether, 21 compounds were identified corresponding to 87.9 % of the total oil. The main components were germacrene D (9.6 %), Menthone (6.9 %), 1,8-cineole (14.8 %), α-terpineol (7.8 %), cubenol (9.9 %), α-cadinol (6.8 %) and Linalool (12.9 %).