Chemical Constituents of Donkey Dung (Anbarnasara): Questioning the Recent Claims Concerning Therapeutic Effects

Background: Various animal excrements have been used as a medicine for the treatment of different diseases in the past. Today, people still use some of these excrements, especially female donkey dung (Anbarnasara,) by smelling the smoke of burnt dung for some ailments like sinusitis and bronchitis. Recently, some studies have focused on the therapeutic activities of Anbarnasara but no one has studied the active ingredients of it.Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the chemical constituents and antibacterial activities of Anbarnasara and its smoke.Materials and Methods: Female donkey dungs were collected from Shahreza in May 2017. The substance was burnt and the smoke was led to a beaker of methanol by a distillation apparatus. Then, the methanolic extract was dried via a rotary evaporator. Antibacterial activity of the smoke and also the total methanolic extract of Anbarnasara were tested on Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli via well diffusion method. Chemical constituents were analyzed through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) .Results: The results showed that Anbarnasara and its smoke have a very weak antibacterial activity. Regarding chemical constituents, both total methanolic extract and smoke extract predominantly contained toluene, xylene, and dibutyl phthalate.Conclusion: Previous studies showed xylene as one of the major components of the smoke of Anbarnasara. These articles also reported the presence of some plant-based compounds such as glyoxal, syringol, and limonene in the smoke. The presence of these compounds is probably due to the donkeys’ diet. In our study, the presence of dibutyl phthalate, an industrial plasticizer, among the components is probably due to environmental factors. These evidences suggested that Anbarnasara is under the influence of environmental factors like vegetation and pollutions and therefore, should be used as a medicine with caution. Recent claims regarding the antibacterial, cytotoxic, and wound healing activities of Anbarnasara should be considered independent of these environmental factors

Design, Synthesis and Radiolabeling of Peptide GPRPILE with 18FDG as Fibrin Imaging Agent for Thrombosis Detection

Background: The radionuclide of choice for routine clinical PET imaging is 18-F. As direct fluorination of peptides with 18-F is not possible, indirect methods using fluorinated prosthetic groups have been developed. Due to the availability of 18FDG in most PET centers, there is potential for 18FDG as a fluorinated prosthetic group. In this study, the linear peptide GPRPILE with an aminooxy group was designed, synthesized and radiolabeled with 18FDG as fibrin imaging agent. Material and Methods: Docking studies were conducted done using AutoDock 4.1 and HEX software programs. Aoe-GPRPILE peptide was designed, synthesized through Fmoc method and radiolabeled with 18FDG. The radiochemical purity, stability of radiolabeled and cold peptide in PBS and human plasma was determined using chromatographic methods. The solubility ratio of the radiolabeled peptide in lipid to water (LogP) was determined. Results: Docking and pharmacophore studies using HEX software revealed high affinity of designed peptide to fibrin (E Total=-0.01). The identity and structure of peptide were determined by LC-Mass. Peptide was stable over 24 hr in human plasma and PBS buffer. The optimum conditions of radiolabeling were 0.2 mg peptide, 1 mCi 18FDG, 90°C for 30 min, pH=5. The radiochemical purity was over 95%. The stability of radiolabeled peptide in human plasma for 2 hr was over 95%. The partition coefficient (LogP) was 1.5. Conclusion: 18FDG has a high potential to be used as a prosthetic group for radiolabeling of peptides with 18-F. In this study, peptide Aoe-GPRPILE with aminooxy was synthesized and labeled with 18FDG with high yield and radiochemical purity. Aminooxy is conjugated to peptide sequence as a prosthetic group in the last step with minimal effect on peptide properties and selectively forms stable oxime bond with the aldehyde group of 18FDG