Hypoglycemic activity of Lagerstroemia speciosa L. extract on streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat: Underlying mechanism of action

The hypoglycemic effect of Lagerstroemia speciosa L. leaves hot water extract on chemically induced diabetes in rat was investigated. Experimental result showed that, streptozotocin significantly (p<0.001) elevated the normal blood sugar level whereas treatment with hot water extract depressed the streptozotocin-induced high blood sugar level about 43.20% as compare to diabetic controls. Treatment with hot water extract increased the activity of shunt enzyme glucose–6-phosphate dehydrogenase (33.81%) and glutathione level (31.25%) and depression of the activity of hepatic gluconeogenic enzymes glucose-6-phasphatase (31.63%) and fructose–1,6-bisphosphatase (27.40%). These studies thus strongly suggest that the hot water extract of L. speciosa leave attributed its prominent hypoglycemic activity on experimental diabetic rats through suppression of gluconeogenesis and stimulation of glucose oxidation using the pentose phosphate pathway

Keywords: Diabetes

Hypoglycemic activity of Lagerstroemia speciosa L. extract on streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat: Underlying mechanism of actio

Nutritional characterization and antioxidant properties of various edible portions of Cucurbita maxima: A potential source of nutraceuticals

Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) is a widely grown vegetable in Bangladesh and is known as the sole supplier of various nutrients. Many studies evidence the nutritional value of flesh and seed while peel, flower, and leaves were reported scarcely with limited information. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the nutritional composition and antioxidant properties of flesh, peel, seed, leaves, and flowers of Cucurbita maxima. The seed had a remarkable composition of nutrients and amino acids. Flowers and leaves possessed higher content of minerals, phenols, flavonoids, carotenes, and total antioxidant activity. The order of IC50 value (peel > seed > leaves > flesh > flower) indicates higher DPPH radicals scavenging activity of the flower. Moreover, a significant positive relationship was observed among these phytochemical constituents (TPC, TFC, TCC, TAA) and DPPH radicals scavenging activity. It could be concluded that these five parts of the pumpkin plant have an intense potency to be an exigent component of functional food or medicinal herbs

Biosynthesis of Bixa orellana seed extract mediated silver nanoparticles with moderate antioxidant, antibacterial and antiproliferative activity

Biosynthesis of metallic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has gained much interest and offers an attractive alternate to physical and chemical approaches. In recent year several safe, easy, cost-effective, reproducible, and environmentally friendly synthesis approaches for silver nanoparticles have been developed. In this research work, a simple, cheap, and unexplored method was applied on green synthesis of AgNPs using secondary metabolites extracted from Bixa orellana seeds. The seeds are rich of flavonoids and phenolic compounds which presumably responsible for the fast reduction and stabilization of silver ion into silver nanoparticles. The biosynthesis process is very likely to be able to reduce silver ions under simple physiological conditions. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) that was appeared at 420 nm in UV–vis spectrum, had confirmed the formation of AgNPs. Moreover, the functional groups in secondary metabolite that act as reducing, capping and stabilizing agents for silver nanoparticles, are identified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. An X-ray diffraction analysis generated four peaks for Bixa orellana seed extract mediated AgNPs positioned at 2θ angles of 38.1°, 44.2°, 64.6°, and 77.5° corresponding to crystal planes (111), (200), (220), and (311). Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images confirmed the formation of nanosized silver particles. The z-average of the synthesized particles measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS) was found to be 92.9 nm. AgNPs synthesized exhibited remarkable antioxidant activity, antibacterial and antiproliferative activity against human breast (MCF-7) cell line. On the basis of our results, we conclude that biologically synthesized AgNPs exhibited favorable characteristics and have the potential to be used in biomedical fields