Bromelain as an anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer compound

Inflammation is a complicated problem for today’s human beings. Large numbers of people have been diagnosed with arthritis along with inflammation. This is beside the others that suffer inflammation caused by an injury. There are alternatives that can be considered as temporary or permanent treatments of chronic inflammatory diseases. Plants, as well as other biological resources, are most welcomed to the therapeutic area. Using the plants’ compounds with high potential as novel techniques are today’s bio-pharmacologist concern. Bromelain has been more attractive due to its characteristics. This review is an overview of anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effect of bromelain as a confident treatment for all inflammatory disease

Decolorisation of Cashew Leaves Extract by Activated Carbon in Tea Bag System for Using in Cosmetics

Abstract: With the concern of using herbal extract, some undesirable issues like greenish color is a very critical item in producing cosmetic. The plant extracts which are normally dark green might spoil the appearance of the products if they are added in cosmetic formulation. In order to solve this problem, an activated carbon granule tea bag system was assembled and batch experiments were conducted as a mechanism to eliminate the intense colour of plant extract without affecting activities. The system was tested with different concentration of cashew leaves extract (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%) in contact with (10 g, 15 g, 20 g and 25 g) granular activated carbon (GAC) from 0 to 6 hours. The study shows that the best condition for decolorisation is 15 g GAC using 20% cashew leaves extract (CLE). Therefore, this study suggests that the tea bag system is suitable to be used for decolorisation of CLE for cosmetic application

Antioxidant properties of cashew leaves' extracts before and after treatment with activated carbon used in cosmetics

Natural ingredients such as cashew leaves extract could be an attractive candidate in cosmetic formulation. However, the plant extracts are normally dark brown and greenish color that might spoil the appearance of the products if they are added in cosmetic formulation. In order to solve this problem, use of activated carbon was tested to eliminate the intense color of plant extract without affecting the cosmeceutical properties. Ethanol and water extracts of cashew leaves were compared for the cosmeceutical properties mainly antioxidants. The system was tested with different concentrations of cashew leaves extract (CLE-5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30%) for solid and liqufied form of cashew leaves extract (CLE) before treatment with activated carbon and after treatment with (10, 15, 20 and 25g). The study shows that 15g activated carbon using 20%CLE (water) produces 0.13 radical scavenging activity (RSC%) antioxidant. Moreover, using a similar system, 25%CL (ethanol) produces 0.10(RSC%) antioxidants

Cosmeceutical values, antimicrobial activities and antioxidant properties of cashew leaves extract

With the increasing concern of public health and consumers’ awareness, non-chemical cosmetics are booming worldwide. Plants are important in formulating natural and non-chemical cosmetic products, thus making the plant materials highly potential to be developed into cosmetic formulating ingredients. However, colour interference is a very critical item in producing cosmetic. The plant extracts which are normally dark brown and greenish colour, might spoil the appearance of the products if they are added in cosmetic formulation. In order to solve this problem, an activated carbon granule tea bag system was assembled and batch experiments were conducted as a mechanism to eliminate the intense colour of plant extract without affecting activities. The system was tested with different concentration of cashew leaves extract (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30%) in contact with (10, 15, 20 and 25 g) granular activated carbon (GAC) from 0 to 6 h. Ethanol and water extracts of cashew leaves were compared for the cosmeceutical properties, mainly the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. This study therefore suggests that cashew leaf extract is suitable to be used with ethanol for cosmetic application

Labisia pumila : a review on its traditional, phytochemical and biological uses

Labisia pumila is traditionally used by Malay woman to maintain healthy female reproductive function and as postpartum medicine. In vitro and in vivo studies indicated that Labisia pumila exerts a wide range of biological activities such as phytoestrogenic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-aging, anti-microbial and anti-carcinogenic activities. These biological activities are related to the presence of the bioactive phytochemical constituents comprising of phenolic, flavonoid and other antioxidant compounds. In addition, saponin, alkenyl compounds and benzoquinone derivatives are also present and these compounds are known to be linked with useful biological activities. In this article, we carried out a critical review on the current knowledge on the traditional usage, phytochemical constituents and biological activities of Labisia pumila

New approaches in topical delivery through using various permeation barrier enhancers

Topical delivery of drug is an appealing ways of conservative way in administrating for systematic therapeutics. Human skin is refractive to most molecules, particularly hydrophilic ones, in spite of the existence of trans-barrier route. Overcoming the logical obstacle of skin transportation has become one of issue to design delivery systems of transdermal drug. The crucial of preserving this protective barrier after breaching nano- sized (5 nm - 10 μm) skin surface is for purposes of transdermal drug delivery. Alternatively, sufficient deformable and stable nano-sized carriers can help in achieving controlled and reliable drug delivery across skin barrier. Their ability to act as drug carriers on, in and ideally below skin barrier(s) must be preserved. A proper design of self-regulating, ultra-adaptable and stable hetero-aggregates can overt spontaneously and deliver drugs through primary skin barrier and minimizing the cutaneous drug clearance; this grants deep/targeted deposition and prolonged action of the carrier-transported drugs. Therapeutic products based on ultra- adaptable self-regulating, nano-sized (~100nm) carriers are under development. In meantime, there is tremendous potential to overcome the skin barrier in enhancing transport of drug molecules offered by chemicals. However, single chemicals are limited in their efficiency to interfere low concentration’s skin barrier and will cause skin irritation at most for high concentration’s skin barriers. However, chemical mixtures made up by many components resulted in supplying lofty potency to permeate the skin in contrast with single chemicals that not necessary cause irritation. This write-up is an overview on systems of chemical mixtures’ employed synergistic offering a better process of enhancing permeation of skin

Mediating effects of affective organizational commitment and psychological contract in the relationship between strategic training practices and knowledge sharing

This study contributes to the development of the knowledge management and strategic compensation literatures through developing the linkages between them. The study sample comprised of 301 employees from universities of medical sciences in Iran. Multiple and simple linear regression and path analysis were used to test the direct and mediated relationships among the variables. Results highlighted significant relationships between (a) strategic compensation practices and affective organizational commitment, (b) affective organizational commitment and knowledge sharing, (c) strategic compensation practices and psychological contract, and (d) psychological contract and knowledge sharing. Results revealed that strategic compensation practices are positively related to affective organizational commitment and psychological contract. In addition, the results provided evidence that affective organizational commitment and psychological contract have a significant mediating effect on the relationship between strategic compensation practices and knowledge sharing. Managerial and practical implications of the findings are highlighted

In vitro antiproliferative activity of fresh pineapple juices on ovarian and colon cancer cell lines

The main component that contributes to the high value of pineapple is bromelain which is a proteolytic enzyme and has been scientifically identified as a therapeutic agent. This study was conducted to obtain high quantity of bromelain from pineapple and to investigate the anticarcinogenic activity of fresh pineapple juices against A2780 ovarian and HT29 colon cancer cell lines. It was found that homogenization, ultrafiltration, precipitation and dialysis contributed to heavy loss of bromelain. Therefore, fresh pineapple juices from the flesh (PJ-F), core (PJ-C) and stem (PJ-S) were selected as a source of crude bromelain. Various bromelain concentrations of PJ-F, PJ-C and PJ-S (1 mu g/ml, 10 mu g/ml, 100 mu g/ml and 1000 mu g/ml) were exposed to the cancer cells and the cell viability was determined using Methylthiazol Tetrazolium Assay (MTT assay) after 24, 48 and 72 h. Besides, IC50 values were measured. Using normal cell (HSF1184) comparison, it was found that a 100 mu g/ml concentration of bromelain would efficiently inhibit the cancer cells without affecting the surrounding normal cells. Microscopic examinations were carried out to elucidate the modes of cell death on the basis of morphological alterations using florescent and inverted phase contrast microscopes. Furthermore, the colony forming abilities of fresh pineapple juices on A2780 and HT29 cells were examined. The results demonstrated that PJ-F, PJ-C and PJ-S effectively suppressed the colony formation in cancer cells. The findings suggest that PJ-F, PJ-C and PJ-S may have the potential to induce anticarcinogenic effects through an apoptosis to A2780 and HT29 cells in vitro