Madhulika Bhagat

Iron (FeII) Chelation, Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power, and Immune Modulating Potential of Arisaema jacquemontii (Himalayan Cobra Lily)

This study explored the antioxidant and immunomodulatory potential of ethnomedicinally valuable species, namely, Arisaema jacquemontii of north-western Himalayan region. The tubers, leaves, and fruits of this plant were subjected to extraction using different solvents. In vitro antioxidant studies were performed in terms of chelation power on ferrous ions and FRAP assay. The crude methanol extract of leaves was found to harbour better chelating capacity (58% at 100 μg/mL) and reducing power (FRAP value 1085.4 ± 0.11 μMFe3+/g dry wt.) than all the other extracts. The crude methanol extract was thus further partitioned with solvents to yield five fractions. Antioxidant study of fractions suggested that the methanol fraction possessed significant chelation capacity (49.7% at 100 μg/mL) and reducing power with FRAP value of 1435.4 μM/g dry wt. The fractions were also studied for immune modulating potential where it was observed that hexane fraction had significant suppressive effect on mitogen induced T-cell and B-cell proliferation and remarkable stimulating effect on humoral response by 141% and on DTH response by 168% in immune suppressed mice as compared to the controls. Therefore, it can be concluded that A. jacquemontii leaves hold considerable antioxidant and immunomodulating potential and they can be explored further for the identification of their chemical composition for a better understanding of their biological activities.

Antioxidant Activity of Essential Oil and Extracts of Valeriana jatamansi Roots

Valeriana jatamansi is an indigenous medicinal plant used in the treatment of a number of diseases. In the present study, chemical composition of the essential oil was determined by GC-MS. Seven major components were identified in Valeriana jatamansi essential oil, namely, β-vatirenene, β-patchoulene, dehydroaromadendrene, β-gurjunene, patchoulic alcohol, β-guaiene, and α-muurolene. Methanolic, aqueous, and chloroform extracts of Valeriana jatamansi roots were also prepared and analyzed for their polyphenols and flavonoid content. Antioxidant activity of essential oil and different extracts of Valeriana jatamansi roots was determined by DPPH radical scavenging and chelation power assay. A linear correlation has been obtained by comparing the antioxidant activity and polyphenols and flavonoid content of the extracts. Results indicated that antioxidant activity of methanolic extract could be attributed to the presence of rich amount of polyphenols and flavonoid. Essential oil of Valeriana jatamansi roots showed moderate antioxidant activity.

Anti-cancer activity of arka (Calotropis procera) on HCT-15 cancer cell line.

Calotropis procera (Ait.) R.Br., belongs to family Asclepiadaceae. It is a popular medicinal plant which possesses relevant medicinal properties especially lessening of inflammation, relief of pain, healing and reducing secondary bacterial infections (Fabiyi et al., 1993). The decoction of the aerial parts of the plant is commonly used in Saudi Arabia as traditional medicine for the treatment of variety of diseases including fever, joint pain, muscular spasm, constipation and its ethanolic extract have a significant antipyretic, analgesic, neuromuscular blocking activity (Mossa et al., 1991). The latex of Calotropis procera contains antinociceptive (Soares et al., 2005), antiinflammatory (Kumar and Basu, 1994), antipyretic (Larhsini et al., 2002), antidiarrhoeal (Kumar et al., 2001), anthelmintic (Al-Qarawi et al., 2001) and analgesic (Dewan et al., 2000) properties. The present investigation is an attempt to identify novel anticancer agents from traditional herbal medicine by carrying out in vitro cytotoxicity of Calotropis procera stem-leaves extracts against human cancer cells.

Drug embedded PVP coated magnetic nanoparticles for targeted killing of breast cancer cells.

Magnetic drug targeting is a drug delivery system that can be used in loco-regional cancer treatment. Coated magnetic particles, called carriers, are very useful for delivering chemotherapeutic drugs. Magnetic carriers were synthesized by co-precipitation of iron oxide followed by coating with polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP). Characterization was performed using X-ray diffraction, TEM, TGA, FTIR and UV-Vis Spectroscopy. Magnetite (Fe3O4) remained as the core of the carrier. The amount of PVP bound to the iron oxide nanoparticles was estimated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the attachment of PVP to the iron oxide nanoparticles confirmed by FTIR analysis. The loading efficiency of Epirubicin hydrochloride onto the PVP coated and uncoated iron oxide nanoparticles was measured at intervals such as 1 hr and 24 hrs by UV-Vis Spectroscopy. The binding of Epirubicin hydrochloride to the PVP coated and uncoated iron oxide nanoparticles were confirmed by FTIR analysis. The present findings showed that Epirubicin hydrochloride loaded PVP coated iron oxide nanoparticles are promising for magnetically targeted drug delivery. The drug displayed increased cell cytotoxicity at lower concentrations when conjugated with the nanoparticles than being administered conventionally as individual drugs.

Evaluation of Cassia occidentalis for in vitro cytotoxicity against human cancer cell lines and antibacterial activity

Objective: To evaluate the in vitro cytotoxicity and antibacterial properties of Cassia occidentalis (whole plant) via alcoholic, hydro-alcoholic, and aqueous extracts against eight human cancer cell lines from six different tissues and four bacterial strains. Material and Methods: in vitro cytotoxicity against the human cancer cells, cultured for 48h in presence of different concentrations C. occidentalis extracts and percentage of cell viability, was evaluated using the sulforhodamine-B (SRB) assay. The antibacterial activity was performed using the standard protocol against bacterial strains. Results: It was observed that aqueous extract of C. occidentalis (whole plant) had more potential than hydro-alcoholic and alcoholic extracts against HCT-15, SW-620, PC-3, MCF-7, SiHa, and OVCAR-5 human cancer cell lines at 100, 30, and 10 μg/ml in a dose-dependent manner. The hydro-alcoholic extract showed potential against Bacillus subtillis. Conclusion: The plant can be explored for the possible development of lead molecules for drug discovery.

Biological and electrical properties of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles

In this work, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized biochemically at room temperature using aqueous extract of rhizome of Rheum australe plant. The as-synthesized AgNPs were further studied for their morphological, biological and electrical characterization. The morphological studies, such as scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and UV–vis spectrum confirmed their successful synthesis. Biological analysis revealed their antioxidant activity by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. Electrical characterization showed that the conductivity of the mixture of AgNPs with DPPH assay is more than the AgNPs dispersed in distilled water. The obtained results may have potential applications as sensors.

In vitro and In vivo Biological Activities of Nardostachys Jatamansi Roots

Since age old, plants have been the source of medicines for the treatment of various diseases. Regardless of the availability of a wealth of synthetic drugs, plants remain–even in the 21st century–an integral part of the health care in different countries, especially the developing ones. Efforts are being made to develop safe and cost effective anticancer agents from natural sources. As the age of modern medicine, single pure drugs emerged, and plant-derived active principles, their semisynthetic and synthetic analogs have served as a major route to new pharmaceu ticals. Since 1961, plant-derived compounds have been approved for use as anticancer drugs: vinblastine (Velban®), vincristine (Oncovin®), eto poside (VP-16®), taxol (Paclitaxel®), etc [1].

Cancer Chemoprevention and Piperine: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities

Cancer is a genetic disease characterized by unregulated growth and dissemination of malignantly transformed neoplastic cells. The process of cancer development goes through several stages of biochemical and genetic alterations in a target cell. Several dietary alkaloids have been found to inhibit the molecular events and signaling pathways associated with various stages of cancer development and therefore are useful in cancer chemoprevention. Cancer chemoprevention has long been recognized as an important prophylactic strategy to reduce the burden of cancer on health care system. Cancer chemoprevention assumes the use of one or more pharmacologically active agents to block, suppress, prevent, or reverse the development of invasive cancer. Piperine is an active alkaloid with an excellent spectrum of therapeutic activities such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, anti-asthmatic, anti-convulsant, anti-mutagenic, antimycobacterial, anti-amoebic, and anti-cancer activities. In this article, we made an attempt to sum up the current knowledge on piperine that supports the chemopreventive potential of this dietary phytochemical. Many mechanisms have been purported to understand the chemopreventive action of piperine. Piperine has been reported to inhibit the proliferation and survival of many types of cancer cells through its influence on activation of apoptotic signaling and inhibition of cell cycle progression. Piperine is known to affect cancer cells in variety of other ways such as influencing the redox homeostasis, inhibiting cancer stem cell (CSC) self-renewal and modulation of ER stress and autophagy. Piperine can modify activity of many enzymes and transcription factors to inhibit invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis. Piperine is a potent inhibitor of p-glycoprotein (P-gp) and has a significant effect on the drug metabolizing enzyme (DME) system. Because of its inhibitory influence on P-gp activity, piperine can reverse multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer cells and acts as bioavailability enhancer for many chemotherapeutic agents. In this article, we emphasize the potential of piperine as a promising cancer chemopreventive agent and the knowledge we collected in this review can be applied in the strategic design of future researches particularly human intervention trials with piperine.

Chemical characterization, biological assessment and molecular docking studies of essential oil of Ocimum viride

Ocimum viride (family: Lamiaceae) is a medicinally important aromatic plant that grows widely in north western Himalayan range of Indian subcontinent. Essentials oils (EOs) and purified aromatic compounds derived from plants of genus Ocimum have long been used in traditional system of medicine to treat various chronic disorders. In this study we made an attempt to assess the chemical composition of essential oil (EO) obtained from Ocimum viride for potential antimicrobial and anticancer properties. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) analysis revealed that EOs of aerial parts (leaves) of Ocimum viride contain high amounts of oxygenated monoterpenes, thymol and gamma terpinene. Notably, thymol (~50%) and γ-terpinene (~18%) were identified as the most abundant components of the oil. EOs showed most prominent antibacterial effect against Bacillus subtilis and in silico molecular docking analyses of antibacterial action against bacterial cell wall of Bacillus subtilis showed interaction of thymol with Sec A protein of Bacillus subtilis (binding energy of -15 kcal/mol) with active site Lys284, Trp275, Leu269, Arg19, Glu277, pro270. While, in vitro cytotoxic effect of EO against six human cancer cell lines showed maximum effect with IC50 value of ~0.034 ± 0.001μL/ mL against HT-29 colon cancer cell line. DNA fragmentation analysis and cell cycle analysis revealed that EO inhibits the growth of HT-29 colon cancer cells probably through induction of unrepairable DNA damage and subsequent cell death. Taken together, our results indicate that EO possesses potent antimicrobial and anticancer properties, and may find applications in bacterial growth inhibition and cancer therapeutics.

Phytochemical, Cytotoxic and Immunomodulatory Analysis of an Indian Blackberry Rubus fruticosus

Abstract The present study was carried out for cytotoxic potential, immunomodulatory response, antioxidant potential and phytochemical analysis of Rubus fruticosus (leaf and fruits). In vitro cytotoxicity of methanolic extract of fruit possess higher activity than the leaf part against lung (A549) cancer cell line with 72 % growth inhibition at 100 µg/mL concentration. Similarly, when administered orally at 100 mg/kg p.o., fruit (crude extract) showed an increase of 130 % activity in delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) response and 79 % activity in humoral antibody response in immune suppressed Balb/c mice. On fractionation of the methanolic fruit extract, the acetone fraction of fruit showed remarkable antioxidant potential. Phytochemical analysis of acetone fraction showed the presence of higher content of phenols (290.81 mg GAEs/g dry weight) and flavonoids (50±0.12 mg QEs/g dry wt). Further, HPLC analysis confirmed the presence of cyanidin and ellagic acid in acetone fraction. The above results showed that the fruits of Rubus fruticosus as a very good source of herbal preparation with its significant antioxidant potential, immunomodulation and cytotoxic effect, that can be further exploited in food and pharmaceutical industry.