Cytotoxicity of Libyan Juniperus phoenicea against Human Cancer Cell Lines A549, EJ138, Hepg2 and MCF7

Background: The current study was undertaken to assess the cytotoxicity of the leaves of Libyan Juniperus phoenicea (Cupressaceae) against human cancer cell lines. Methods: The cytotoxicity of the n-hexane, dichloromethane (DCM) and methanol (MeOH) extracts of the leaves of J. phoenicea (JP), obtained from sequential Soxhlet extractions, was assessed against four human cancer cell lines: EJ138 (human bladder carcinoma), HepG2 (human liver hepatocellular carcinoma), A549 (human lung carcinoma) and MCF7 (human breast adenocarcinoma) using the MTT assay. Results: The cell line A549 was the most sensitive to the JP extracts, with the highest level of cytotoxicity with the IC50 values of 16, 13 and 100 μg/mL for the DCM, n-hexane and MeOH extracts, respectively. However, generally the most potent cytotoxic extract across the other cells tested was the n-hexane extract, followed by the DCM extract, whilst the MeOH extracts showed little or no cytotoxicity. The percentage of viability of cells decreased as the concentration of test compounds increased. The cytotoxicity of various chromatographic fractions from the extracts was also studied against the A459 cells. For the n-hexane fractions, the IC50 values were 160, 62, 90, 30, 9.5 and 40 μg/mL for fractions 1 to 5 and 7, respectively. Fractions 4 and 5 showed the greatest effect. DCM fractions 2, 3 and 4 had the IC50 values of 60, 92 and 19 μg/mL, respectively, and DCM fractions 5 to 8 were non-cytotoxic. Fractions 1 and 2 of the MeOH extract were non-cytotoxic, whereas cytotoxicity was observed for fractions 3 and 4 with IC50 values of 50 and 85 μg/mL, respectively. Conclusion: The outcome of the present study suggested that the JP leaves possess cytotoxic activities. The high level of cytotoxicity of the n-hexane and DCM extracts suggested that lipophilicity might affect the cytotoxicity of JP, where the less polar compounds had the strongest cytotoxicity

Antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activity of ferula hermonis root oil in experimental animals

Ferula hermonis (Apiaceae) is a well known Middle-Eastern medicinal plant. It has long been used traditionally as an aphrodisiac agent. The antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of the root oil of F. hermonis were evaluated by the hot-plate test, the acetic acid-induced writhing test and the carragennan-induced rat paw edema test. In the hot-plate test, the root oil in oral doses of 400 and 800 mg/kg significantly increased the reaction time of animals to thermal pain, and in the acetic acid-induced writhing test, in similar oral doses it showed a considerable inhibition of acetic acid-induced writhing in mice in a dose-dependant manner. In the carrageenan induced paw oedema model, the oral administration of 50 and 100 mg/kg of F. hermonis root oil to adult Wister rats showed a statistically significant decrease in rat paw o induced by carrageenan 1 and 2 h after carrageenan injection.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Probabilistic micromechanics of clay compression and consolidation

In the light of new studies of physico-chemical analysis, fabric, and particle interaction, the consideration of the actual constitution of the soil media is required for actual prediction of the soil media performance under loads. This study has been restricted to the prediction of clay performance under compression loading.A micromechanics approach has been used in this research; a microelement scale has been introduced and a set of formulations (i.e., stress transfer, fluid flow equation, and volumetric constitutive equation) has been developed for this scale. The passage from the microelement to the global scale has been established by using evolution equations. These equations have been solved by using numerical techniques (finite difference and finite element). The prediction of the developed models is discussed