Muhammad Zia

Antibacterial activity of some selected medicinal plants of Pakistan

BackgroundScreening of the ethnobotenical plants is a pre-requisite to evaluate their therapeutic potential and it can lead to the isolation of new bioactive compounds.MethodsThe crude extracts and fractions of six medicinal important plants (Arisaema flavum, Debregeasia salicifolia, Carissa opaca, Pistacia integerrima, Aesculus indica, and Toona ciliata) were tested against three Gram positive and two Gram negative ATCC bacterial species using the agar well diffusion method.ResultsThe crude extract of P. integerrima and A. indica were active against all tested bacterial strains (12-23 mm zone of inhibition). Other four plants crude extracts (Arisaema flavum, Debregeasia salicifolia, Carissa opaca, and Toona ciliata) were active against different bacterial strains. The crude extracts showed varying level of bactericidal activity. The aqueous fractions of A. indica and P. integerrima crude extract showed maximum activity (19.66 and 16 mm, respectively) against B. subtilis, while the chloroform fractions of T. ciliata and D. salicifolia presented good antibacterial activities (13-17 mm zone of inhibition) against all the bacterial cultures tested.ConclusionThe methanol fraction of Pistacia integerrima, chloroform fractions of Debregeasia salicifolia & Toona ciliata and aqueous fraction of Aesculus indica are suitable candidates for the development of novel antibacterial compounds.

Effect of ZnO Nanoparticles on Brassica nigra Seedlings and Stem Explants: Growth Dynamics and Antioxidative Response

Nanoparticles (NPs) have diverse properties when compared to respective chemicals due to their structure, surface to volume ratio, morphology, and reactivity. Toxicological effects of metallic NPs on organisms including plants have been reported. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is still not any report on the effect of NPs on in vitro culture of plant explants. In this study, ZnO NPs concentration ranging from 500 to 1500 mg/L adversely affects the Brassica nigra seed germination and seedling growth and also lead to an increase in the antioxidative activities and non-enzymatic antioxidants. While, culturing the stem explants of B. nigra on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium at lower concentration of ZnO NPs (1–20 mg/L) resulted in the production of white thin roots with thick root hairs. At 10 mg/L ZnO NPs, shoots emergence is also observed. The developed calli/roots showed 79% DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl) radical scavenging activity at 10 mg/L. The total antioxidant and reducing power potential also significantly affected in presence of ZnO NPs. Moreover, an increase in non-enzymatic antioxidative molecules, phenolics (up to 0.15 μg GAE/mg FW) and flavonoids (up to 0.22 μg QE/mg FW), depending on NPs concentration is also observed. We conclude that ZnO NPs may induce roots from explants cultured on appropriate medium that can be used for production of valuable secondary metabolites.

Extraction optimization of medicinally important metabolites from Datura innoxia Mill.: an in vitro biological and phytochemical investigation

BackgroundThe present study aims to probe the impact of polarity dependent extraction efficiency variation on pharmacological spectrum of Datura innoxia Mill. in order to reconnoiter its underexplored therapeutic potential.MethodsA range of solvent extracts was subjected to phytochemical and biological assays to find the most proficient solvent system and plant part for each type of bioactivity. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined colorimetrically and specific polyphenols were quantified by HPLC-DAD analysis. The samples were biologically evaluated by employing multimode antioxidant, cytotoxic, protein kinase inhibition and antimicrobial assays.ResultsAmong all the solvents used, maximum percent extract recovery (33.28 %) was obtained in aqueous leaf extract. The highest amount of gallic acid equivalent phenolic and quercetin equivalent flavonoid content was obtained in the distilled water and ethyl acetate-ethanol extracts of leaf i.e., 29.91 ± 0.12 and 15.68 ± 0.18 mg/g dry weight (DW) respectively. Reverse phase HPLC-DAD based quantification revealed the presence of significant amounts of catechin, caffiec acid, apigenin and rutin ranging from 0.16 to 5.41 mg/g DW. Highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (IC50 = 16.14 μg/ml) was displayed by the ethyl acetate-acetone stem extract. Maximum total antioxidant capacity and reducing power potential were recorded in the aqueous leaf and ethyl acetate stem extracts i.e., 46.98 ± 0.24 and 15.35 ± 0.61 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/g DW respectively. Cytotoxicity against brine shrimps categorized 25 % of the leaf, 16 % of the stem and 8.3 % of the fruit extracts as highly potent (LC50 ≤ 100 μg/ml). Significant cytotoxicity against human leukemia (THP-1) cell line was exhibited by the chloroform and n-hexane fruit extracts with IC50 4.52 and 3.49 μg/ml respectively. Ethyl acetate and methanol-chloroform extracts of leaf and stem exhibited conspicuous protein kinase inhibitory activity against Streptomyces 85E strain with 22 mm bald phenotype. A noteworthy antimicrobial activity was exhibited by leaf extracts against Micrococcus luteus and n-hexane fruit extract against Aspergillus niger (MIC 3.70 and 12.5 μg/ml respectively).ConclusionMultiple solvent system is a crucial variable to retrieve pharmacological potential of medicinal plants and D. innoxia can be envisaged as a novel source of natural antioxidants, antimicrobials and anticancer compounds.

Detection of jamming attacks in 802.11b wireless networks

The work in this paper is about to detect and classify jamming attacks in 802.11b wireless networks. The number of jamming detection and classification techniques has been proposed in the literature. Majority of them model individual parameters like signal strength, carrier sensing time, and packet delivery ratio to detect the presence of a jammer and to classify the jamming attacks. The demonstrated results by the authors are often overlapping as most of the jamming regions are closely marked, and they do not help to clearly distinguish different jamming mechanisms. We investigate a multi-modal scheme that models different jamming attacks by discovering the correlation between three parameters: packet delivery ratio, signal strength variation, and pulse width of the received signal. Based on that, profiles are generated in normal scenarios during training sessions which are then compared with test sessions to detect and classify jamming attacks. Our proposed model helps in clearly differentiating the jammed regions for various types of jamming attacks. In addition, it is equally effective for both the protocol-aware and protocol-unaware jammers. The reported results are not based on simulations, but a test-bed was established to experiment real scenarios demonstrating significant enhancements in previous results reported in the literature.

ZnO nanostructure fabrication in different solvents transforms physio-chemical, biological and photodegradable properties

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures are synthesized in various organic solvents (acetone, chloroform, ethyl acetate, ethanol and methanol) and water via coprecipitation process using zinc acetate as precursor. The resultant ZnO nanoparticles, nano rods and nano sheets are characterized by UV-vis spectrophotometric analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The variable size and geometry of nanoparticles depend upon medium used for synthesis. The synthesized ZnO nanostructures exhibit minor to moderate antioxidative (DPPH based free radical scavenging activity, total antioxidative potential and total reducing power) response. Mild to moderate antibacterial and antifungal activities, excellent antileishmanial potential (IC50 up to 3.76), and good cytotoxic perspective (LD50 up to 49.4) is also observed by the synthesized ZnO NPs. The nanoparticles also exhibit moderate α-amylase inhibition response. Furthermore the nanostructures are evaluated for methylene blue photodegradation response within 60min time period. It is found that organic solvent alters shape, size and other physio-chemical properties of ZnO that ultimately modulate the biological, chemical, and environmental properties.

Expression of rol genes in transgenic soybean (Glycine max L.) leads to changes in plant phenotype, leaf morphology, and flowering time

Soybean (Glycine max L.) cultivar NARC-4 was transformed with constructs carrying rolA, rolB, or rolC genes, each under the control of the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 70S promoter. Cotyledonary nodes of soybean seeds were infected with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404 carrying one of the three rol genes, along with nptII in the plasmid pLBR. The efficiency of the transformation varied slightly among the three constructs, with frequencies of 6, 7, and 5% for the rolA, rolB, and rolC genes, respectively, being observed. Southern blot analysis confirmed the integration of rol genes in the soybean genome with varying numbers of copies of the transgene. All transformed plants showed enhanced rooting, but the number of adventitious roots was higher for transformants carrying the rolB transgene. rolA and rolC transformants showed dwarf phenotypes, clustered branching, and variations in leaf morphology. Furthermore, these plants flowered within a short period of time and produced lower numbers of flowers. rolB transformants showed variations in phenotype, including dwarf to semi-dwarf and shrubby growth, abnormal stem growth, short internodes, variations in leaf morphology, and greenish to yellowish-green colored leaves. These plants also flowered early, but dwarf plants produced low numbers of flowers, while shrubby plants produced high numbers of flowers, but these were mostly infertile.

Regeneration of Centella asiatica plants from non- embryogenic cell lines and evaluation of antibacterial and antifungal properties of regenerated calli and plants

BackgroundThe threatened plant Centella asiatica L. is traditionallyused for a number of remedies. In vitro plant propagation and enhanced metabolite production of active metabolites through biotechnological approaches has gained attention in recent years.ResultsPresent study reveals that 6-benzyladenine (BA) either alone or in combination with 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) supplemented in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium at different concentrations produced good quality callus from leaf explants of C. asiatica. The calli produced on different plant growth regulators at different concentrations were mostly embryogenic and green. Highest shoot regeneration efficiency; 10 shoots per callus explant, from non-embryogenic callus was observed on 4.42 μM BA with 5.37 μM NAA. Best rooting response was observed at 5.37 and 10.74 μM NAA with 20 average number of roots per explant. Calli and regenerated plants extracts inhibited bacterial growth with mean zone of inhibition 9-13 mm diameter when tested against six bacterial strains using agar well diffusion method. Agar tube dilution method for antifungal assay showed 3.2-76% growth inhibition of Mucor species, Aspergillus fumigatus and Fusarium moliniformes.ConclusionsThe present investigation reveals that non-embryogenic callus can be turned into embryos and plantlets if cultured on appropriate medium. Furthermore, callus from leaf explant of C. asiatica can be a good source for production of antimicrobial compounds through bioreactor.

PVP and PEG doped CuO nanoparticles are more biologically active: Antibacterial, antioxidant, antidiabetic and cytotoxic perspective

Search for biologically active nanoparticles is prerequisite for biomedical applications. CuO nanoparticles synthesized by co-precipitation method are capped by polyethylene-glycol (PEG) and polyvinyl-pyrrolidone (PVP) on the surface by simple adsorption. Physical and chemical properties carried out by SEM, XRD and FTIR confirm nanometer in size and efficient capping of PVP and PEG on CuO NPs. Biological assays reveal higher activities of CuO-PEG and CuO-PVP as compared to the uncapped CuO nanoparticles. CuO-PEG shows better antitumor activity against Streptomyces as compared with CuO-PVP and CuO NPs. Both the capped NPs are significantly active for α-amylase inhibition assay. CuO-PVP demonstrates significantly better activity against bacterial strains followed by CuO-PEG and uncapped CuO. PVP coated CuO NPs also shows strong DPPH based free radical scavenging activity, total reducing power potential, total antioxidative potential and also carries flavonoid and phenolics properties determines to querecetin and gallic acid equivalence, respectively. It can be concluded that PVP and PEG capped CuO NPs are more capable to be used in biomedical applications as drug and diagnostic carrier molecules.

In vitro propagation of Caralluma tuberculata and evaluation of antioxidant potential

Present study describes rapid in vitro propagation of Caralluma tuberculata, a traditional medicinal plant, and antioxidant potential of calli and plants extracts. The highest callus induction rate (93.3%) with maximum weight of calli 5.2 g was achieved from shoot tip explants on MS medium supplemented with 9.04 μM 2,4-D and 4.44 μM BA. The maximum shoot induction rate (71.1%) with mean number of shoots 3.66 ± 1.53 and 4.6 cm average shoot length was observed on 13.32 μM BA, 4.52 μM 2,4-D and 2.89 μM GA3 appended in MS medium. The developed shoots were best rooted in the presence of 5.07 μM IAA with 3.0 ± 0.15 roots per plantlet. The plants were successfully acclimatized under in vivo conditions. The plants and calli extracts exhibited good antioxidant activities, however, plant extract activities were more pronounced. The phenolic compounds in plant and calli extracts were 0.16% and 0.057%, respectively. While the flavonoids were 0.092% in plant and 0.039% in calli extract. Total Phenolics, flavonoids; DPPH radical scavenging activity and reducing power potential distributed among different fractions depending upon polarity of the solvent. The highest DPPH scavenging activity and reducing power was exhibited by water fractions; 4.95 mg/mL and 0.729 OD at 10 mg/mL, respectively. The micropropagation protocol can be successfully used for large-scale multiplication and conservation of germplasm of this threatened plant. Furthermore, antioxidant value describes importance of this valuable plant as food and medicine.

Hormonal regulation for callogenesis and organgenesis of Artemisia absinthium L

Callus cultures were induced from leaf and stem explants of Artemisia absinthium, at different auxin and cytokinin concentrations. Moderate concentrations of growth regulators either in combination or in single in MS medium produced friable, light green and non-embryogenic callus from both explants. These totipotent cells gave rise to shoots when transferred to same or different growth regulator containing medium as second subculture. Complete rooting was achieved on full and half strength basal MS medium supplemented with different auxin concentrations. Synergetic effect of plant growth regulator plays an important role in callus induction and cell differentiation.