Studies on Buddleja asiatica antibacterial, antifungal, antispasmodic and Ca++ antagonist activities

Crude extract of Buddleja asiatica Lour and its fractions, chloroform (F1), ethyl acetate (F2) and nbutanol (F3) were evaluated for antibacterial, antifungal, antispasmodic and Ca++ antagonist activities. The antibacterial activity was performed against 11 types of bacteria. The crude extract and fractions F2 and F3 exhibited significant activity, while F1 showed low activity in killing the Shigella flexenari, Sternostoma boydi and Escherichia coli. In the rest bacteria, the crude extract and all the fractions (F1 to F3) revealed minimum to nil inhibitory effect. The fungicidal activity of the crude extract and all the fractions (F1 to F3) was also performed against six different fungi. The crude extract and fractions F1 and F3 displayed significant activity, while fraction F2 showed moderate activity against Fusarium solani. In the case of Microsporum canis, the crude extract and fraction F3 showed high activity but in the other four fungi, the inhibition area exhibited optimum to nil activity in crude extract and all the fractions (F1 to F3). In isolated rabbit jejunum preparations, B. asiatica crude extract caused concentration-dependent (0.03 to 1.0 mg/ml) relaxation of spontaneous and high K+ (80 mM)-induced contractions. The results indicate the antibacterial, antifungal, antispasmodic and Ca++ antagonist potential of B. asiatica Lour

Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the plant Heliotropium strigosum

Heliotropium strigosum is an important medicinal plant and belongs to the Boraginaceae family. Traditionally, this plant is used as laxative and diuretic. The juice of the plant is used to treat gum boils, sore eyes and also as a cure for stings of nettles, insects and snake bites. The current study was carried out to evaluate the  medicinal properties of this plant. The plant was collected from Malakand, Pakistan. It was dried in shade and  crushed into powder. The shade dried plant powder was macerated for 15 days. A crude extract and ethyl  acetate, n-hexane, chloroform and aqueous fractions were obtained. The crude extract and fractions were  screened for antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant properties. The plant showed excellent antimicrobial  activity. Chloroform and n-hexane fractions inhibited the growth of all four fungal strains that were used in the  antifungal assays. Crude extract showed antifungal activity against all fungal strains except Aspergillus flavus. The aqueous and ethyl acetate fractions had no antifungal activity. The plant exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus epidermidis, moderate activity against  methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Bacillus subtillus but was inactive against   Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia. The plant showed excellent diphenyl picryl hydrazine (DPPH)  scavenging activity. Antioxidant activity was shown by ethyl acetate, n-hexane and aqueous fractions. Crude extract and chloroform fractions were lacking in DPPH scavenging activity.Key words: Heliotropium strigosum, antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant

Effect of electrolyte (NaCl) and temperature on the mechanism of cetyl trimethylammonium bromide micelles

In the last few decades, surfactants and electrolyte interaction has gained considerable attention of researchers due to their industrial and domestic applications. In this work, the effects of electrolyte (NaCl) on the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the cationic surfactant cetyltrymethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) at different temperatures were investigated through different techniques such as conductometry, surface tensiometer and viscosimeter. The results showed that the values of CMC of CTAB decreased with the increase in temperature as well as with the addition of NaCl. The value of CMC for pure CTAB was calculated 0.98M at 303K, which was observed to decrease as temperature increased and got value of 0.95M at 318K. Moreover the addition of electrolyte NaCl into the surfactant lead to lowering of the CMC and obtained value of 0.90M at 3M of NaCl, indicating significant electrostatic interactions between surfactant and electrolyte. Moreover the degree of ionization(α) calculated for pure cationic surfactant CTAB was 0.219, which tends to increase with the addition of electrolyte, while that of counter ion binding values (β) was observed to decrease from 0.780 to 0.201. Furthermore, the conductivity of charged micelle of surfactant and free ions of electrolyte contributed to electric conductivity of aqueous micellar solution of surfactant. The results can be helpful to develop better understanding about interaction between electrolyte and surfactant

An effective deep learning approach for the classification of Bacteriosis in peach leave

Bacteriosis is one of the most prevalent and deadly infections that affect peach crops globally. Timely detection of Bacteriosis disease is essential for lowering pesticide use and preventing crop loss. It takes time and effort to distinguish and detect Bacteriosis or a short hole in a peach leaf. In this paper, we proposed a novel LightWeight (WLNet) Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model based on Visual Geometry Group (VGG-19) for detecting and classifying images into Bacteriosis and healthy images. Profound knowledge of the proposed model is utilized to detect Bacteriosis in peach leaf images. First, a dataset is developed which consists of 10000 images: 4500 are Bacteriosis and 5500 are healthy images. Second, images are preprocessed using different steps to prepare them for the identification of Bacteriosis and healthy leaves. These preprocessing steps include image resizing, noise removal, image enhancement, background removal, and augmentation techniques, which enhance the performance of leaves classification and help to achieve a decent result. Finally, the proposed LWNet model is trained for leaf classification. The proposed model is compared with four different CNN models: LeNet, Alexnet, VGG-16, and the simple VGG-19 model. The proposed model obtains an accuracy of 99%, which is higher than LeNet, Alexnet, VGG-16, and the simple VGG-19 model. The achieved results indicate that the proposed model is more effective for the detection of Bacteriosis in peach leaf images, in comparison with the existing models

Antiglycation, antiplatelets aggregation, cytotoxic and phytotoxic activities of Nepeta suavis

Nepeta suavis Stapf. (Lamiaceae), one of the ignored species for testing biological activities, was studied. In present research, the Nepeta suavis fractions: chloroform (FC), ethyl acetate (FE) and aqueous (FW) were evaluated for platelet aggregation, antiglycation, cytoxicity, and phytotoxicity. FE showed 65.60% antiglycation activity against the protein glycation while the other fractions showed less than 50% inhibitory potential. The FW inhibited arachidonic acid (AA) and platelet activating factor (acetyl-glyceryl-ether-phosphorylcholine, PAF) induced platelet aggregation. FE showed significant cytotoxicity against brine shrimp larvae with LD50 of 41.3 μg/ml. Phytotoxic studies of FC, FE and FW against Lemna minor showed 77.5-100% inhibitory effects at 1000 μg/ml. However, at lower concentration (10 μg/ml) enhancing effects were observed in FC and FE, as compared to control. FW remained in a uniform pattern of inhibitory effects in all three concentrations (10,100 and 1000 μg/ml). FE showed highest inhibitory activities against formation of glycation, while FW showed significant inhibitory effects against platelet aggregation and Lemna minor. Both of these fractions are recommended for further study to identify and isolate active chemical compounds.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Antibacterial, Antifungal, Cytotoxic, Phytotoxic, Insecticidal, and Enzyme Inhibitory Activities of Geranium wallichianum

The present study describes the phytochemical investigations of the crude extracts of rhizomes and leaves of Geranium wallichianum. The crude extracts were fractionated to obtain n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and n-butanol fractions, which were subjected to different biological activities and enzyme inhibition assays to explore the therapeutic potential of this medicinally important herb. The results indicated that the crude extracts and different fractions of rhizomes and leaves showed varied degree of antimicrobial activities and enzyme inhibitions in different assays. Overall, the rhizome extract and its different fractions showed comparatively better activities in various assays. Furthermore, the purified constituents from the repeated chromatographic separations were also subjected to enzyme inhibition studies against three different enzymes. The results of these studies showed that lipoxygenase enzyme was significantly inhibited as compared to urease. In case of chemical constituents, the sterols (2–4) showed no inhibition, while ursolic acid (1) and benzoic ester (6) showed significant inhibition of urease enzymes

Bovine Theileriosis: Prevalence, Estimation of Hematological Profile and Chemotherapy in Cattle in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan

Theileriosis in cattle is one of the major constraints to the development of livestock enterprise in Pakistan and in most parts of the world. The disease causing agent is transmitted by Ixodid ticks having complicated life cycle. Prominent signs exhibited by cattle are; anorexia, fever, enlarged lymph nodes, occulonasal discharges and diarrhoea. The current study was planned to investigate the prevalence of theileriosis in cattle in and around district Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. For the determination of prevalence of theileriosis, a total of 384 animals, as calculated through statistical method, of different age and sex groups were screened. For detection of Theileria parasite, blood samples were collected from peripheral veins and microscopic examination of Giemsa stained blood smears revealed 14.32% (55/384) prevalence of Theileria parasite in cattle.For hematological investigations, blood samples were collected from jugular veins of 55 affected animals in ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) coated vacutainers and complete blood count (CBC) was estimated through standard procedures. The hematology revealed significant (p<0.05) reduction in the RBCs count, haemoglobin level and packed cell volume i.e. 3.28x106/μL, 5.32 g/dL and 20.98%, respectively. For chemotherapy, positive animals were treated with the combination of buparvaquone @2.5mg/Kg and oxytetracycline @10mg/kg body weight. The efficacy of the treatment was estimated in terms of number of positive animals 5 days post treatment showing 92.72% (51/55) treatment efficacy