ANTIDEPRESSANT-LIKE ACTIVITY OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF WITHANIA QARAITICA IN MICE

Objective: The goal of the present study was to assess the antidepressant-like action of Withania qaraitica in two behavioral animal models, the forced-swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST) in mice. Methods: Witania qaraitica methanolic extract was prepared by the maceration. The antidepressant activity was measured by the forced-swimming test (FST) using C57BL/6 mice and the tail suspension test (TST) using BALB/c mice. Mice were divided into three groups: control (DMSO), standard (citalopram and desipramine), and Withania qaraitica methanolic extract (n = 6 per group). Drugs were injected (1 ml/100 g) intraperitoneally (i.p.). Data were evaluated using analysis of variance, followed by LSD post-hoc tests, where * p < 0.001 was considered significantly different from the vehicle control. The data are expressed as mean±SEM. Results: In both the FST and the TST, antidepressant positive controls citalopram and desipramine significantly reduced the time of immobility compared to vehicle control (p<0.001). The methanolic extract of Withania qaraitica at the dose of 40 mg/kg significantly reduced the immobility times with respect to vehicle control as well as lower doses of the same extract (10 and 20 mg/kg) in FST (p<0.001). In a similar fashion, the methanolic extract of Withania qaraitica at the dose of 40 mg/kg significantly decreased the duration of immobility in TST (p<0.005). Conclusion: The current results show the antidepressant-like activity of Withania qaraitica in mice. This observation warrants additional studies to identify the underlining mechanism by which Withania qaraitica  produces antidepressant-like effects

Isolation, fractionation and identification of chemical constituents from the leaves crude extracts of Mentha piperita L grown in Sultanate of Oman

Objective: To analyze and identify the chemical compositions of different organic plants crude extracts of Mentha piperita (M. piperita) grown in Sultanate of Oman by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Methods: The powder sample was extracted with methanol by using Soxhlet extractor. Methanol crude extracts of M. piperita and its derived fractions of hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and butanol were prepared. Results: Qualitative analyses of various organic plant crude extracts of M. piperita by using GC-MS showed that majority of these compounds are bioactive. Conclusions: According to the results of the present study, the plant crude extracts could be used as medicine for the treatment of different diseases. The analysis and identification of the chemical compounds in the plant crude extracts by using GC-MS was the first time

Comparative study of phytochemical screening, antioxidant and antimicrobial capacities of fresh and dry leaves crude plant extracts of Datura metel L

The aim of this work is to investigate and compare the phytochemical screening, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of different crude extracts from dry and fresh leaves of Datura metel L. Different organic solvents including methanol, chloroform, hexane, ethyl acetate and butanol were used to prepare the crude extracts from the fresh and dry leaves. Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of different crude extracts from dry and fresh leaves of D. metel were determined by DPPH method and agar disc diffusion method with minor modification. In vitro phytochemical screening for all crude extracts from both dry and fresh leaves was tested and shown positive result for alkaloid, flavonoid, saponin and tannin compounds. However, all the crude extracts did not show positive results for steroids and triterpenoid compounds. The antioxidant activity results of both fresh and dry crude extracts showed that when gradually increasing the samples concentration there was an increase in the absorbance. Therefore the antioxidant activity of dry crude extracts as equivalent to DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) was in the order of butanol > chloroform > ethyl acetate extract > methanol > hexane extract. However, the order of antioxidant activity for fresh organic crude extracts to DPPH was in order of methanol > hexane > chloroform > ethyl acetate extract > butanol. The methanol crude extract and its derived fractions from dry and fresh leaves showed small and moderate antibacterial potential with one gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and three gram negative(Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria in the range of 0–17%. In conclusion, all organic crude extracts from both fresh and dry leaves could be used as potential sources of new antioxidant and antimicrobial agents

Biomarker profiling of essential oil and its antibacterial and cytotoxic activities of Cleome austroarabica

The primary role of plants and its products in the treatment of illness is demonstrated by their employment in all the major health care systems of medicine irrespective of the original philosophical evidence. The particular plant species is used in Oman for the treatment of several diseases including eye drops to treat cataracts. The present study is to isolate the essential oil from the selected plant Cleome austroarabica (C. austroarabica) which is grown in Oman and characterize the biomarkers by using Gas chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The essential oil was isolated by hydro-distillation method which was collected from Birkat Al Mouz and Tanuf. The percentage of major biomarkers was analyzed by GC-MS and they are as follows: diterpenes 53.1%, sesquiterpenes 41.8% and monoterpenes 5.1%, respectively. Among them, the major biomarkers were thunbergol (51.1%), elemol (9.4%), γ-eudesmol (6.1%), β-eudesmol (6.1%), α-eudesmol (4.3%), 6-epi-shyobunol (2.7%), 3-(z) cembrene (2.0%), β-bisabolene (1.8%), δ-cadinene (+)- (1.8%), ledol (1.4%), eremophilene (1.2%), sabinen (1.2%), caryophellene (1.0%) and guaiol (1.0%). The antibacterial potential of the plant essential oil (125–1000 μg/ml) was examined against six bacterial strains including Gram (+and –) by using disc diffusion method. All the tested Gram (+and –) bacterial strains displayed slight to moderate antibacterial potential (6–7 mm) against all concentrations of essential oil. The cytotoxic potential of the plant essential oil at different concentrations does not display any mortality against the brine shrimp larvae. In conclusion, based on the biomarkers and antibacterial potential of the isolated essential oil from the species it could be used as medicine to treat infectious diseases