Antibacterial Effects of the Essential Oils of CommonlyConsumed Medicinal Herbs Using an In Vitro Model.

The chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oils from 10 commonly consumed herbs: Citrus aurantium, C. limon, Lavandula angustifolia, Matricaria chamomilla, Mentha piperita, M. spicata, Ocimum basilicum, Origanum vulgare, Thymus vulgaris and Salvia officinalis have been determined. The antibacterial activity of these oils and their main components; i.e. camphor, carvacrol, 1,8-cineole, linalool, linalyl acetate, limonene, menthol, a-pinene, b-pinene, and thymol were assayed against the human pathogenic bacteria Bacillus subtilis, Enterobacter cloacae, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Micrococcus flavus, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis, S. epidermidis, S. typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus. The highest and broadest activity was shown by O. vulgare oil. Carvacrol had the highest antibacterial activity among the tested components

Revealing the astragalin mode of anticandidal action.

Due to limited arsenal of systemically available antifungal agents, infections caused by Candida albicans are difficult to treat and the emergence of drug-resistant strains present a major challenge to the clinicians worldwide. Hence further exploration of potential novel and effective antifungal drugs is required. In this study we have explored the potential of a flavonoid, astragalin, in controlling the growth of C. albicans, in both planktonic and biofilm forms by microdilution method; and in regulating the morphological switch between yeast and hyphal growth. Astragalin ability to interfere with membrane integrity, ergosterol synthesis and its role in the regulation of genes encoding for efflux pumps has been addressed. In our study, astragalin treatment produced good antimicrobial and significant antibiofilm activity. Anticandidal activity of astragalin was not related to ERG11 downregulation, neither to direct binding to CYP51 enzyme nor was linked to membrane ergosterol assembly. Instead, astragalin treatment resulted in reduced expression of CDR1 and also affected cell membrane integrity without causing cytotoxic effect on human gingival fibroblast cells. Considering that astragalin-mediated decreased expression of efflux pumps increases the concentration of antifungal drug inside the fungal cells, a combinatorial treatment with this agent could be explored as a novel therapeutic option for candidiasis

First record of the presence of pathogenic and toxigenic fungi in Norway rat populations from urban and suburban habitats in Serbia

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mebipred: identifying metal-binding potential in protein sequence

Motivation: metal-binding proteins have a central role in maintaining life processes. Nearly one-third of known protein structures contain metal ions that are used for a variety of needs, such as catalysis, DNA/RNA binding, protein structure stability, etc. Identifying metal-binding proteins is thus crucial for understanding the mechanisms of cellular activity. However, experimental annotation of protein metal-binding potential is severely lacking, while computational techniques are often imprecise and of limited applicability. Results: we developed a novel machine learning-based method, mebipred, for identifying metal-binding proteins from sequence-derived features. This method is over 80% accurate in recognizing proteins that bind metal ioncontaining ligands; the specific identity of 11 ubiquitously present metal ions can also be annotated. mebipred is reference-free, i.e. no sequence alignments are involved, and is thus faster than alignment-based methods; it is also more accurate than other sequence-based prediction methods. Additionally, mebipred can identify protein metalbinding capabilities from short sequence stretches, e.g. translated sequencing reads, and, thus, may be useful for the annotation of metal requirements of metagenomic samples. We performed an analysis of available microbiome data and found that ocean, hot spring sediments and soil microbiomes use a more diverse set of metals than human host-related ones. For human microbiomes, physiological conditions explain the observed metal preferences. Similarly, subtle changes in ocean sample ion concentration affect the abundance of relevant metal-binding proteins. These results highlight mebipred's utility in analyzing microbiome metal requirements.Fil: Aptekmann, Ariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Rutgers University; Estados UnidosFil: Buongiorno, J.. Maryville College; Estados UnidosFil: Giovannelli, D.. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Italia. Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II; Italia. Rutgers University; Estados UnidosFil: Glamoclija, M.. Rutgers University; Estados UnidosFil: Ferreiro, Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Bromberg, Y.. Rutgers University; Estados Unido

Antibacterial Effects of the Essential Oils of CommonlyConsumed Medicinal Herbs Using an In Vitro Model.

The chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oils from 10 commonly consumed herbs: Citrus aurantium, C. limon, Lavandula angustifolia, Matricaria chamomilla, Mentha piperita, M. spicata, Ocimum basilicum, Origanum vulgare, Thymus vulgaris and Salvia officinalis have been determined. The antibacterial activity of these oils and their main components; i.e. camphor, carvacrol, 1,8-cineole, linalool, linalyl acetate, limonene, menthol, a-pinene, b-pinene, and thymol were assayed against the human pathogenic bacteria Bacillus subtilis, Enterobacter cloacae, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Micrococcus flavus, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis, S. epidermidis, S. typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus. The highest and broadest activity was shown by O. vulgare oil. Carvacrol had the highest antibacterial activity among the tested components

EFFECT OF METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS ON THE PRODUCTION OF NS SOYA BEAN SEED

The perspective of our society cannot be imagined without the quality production and marketing of seeds in the country and abroad. On average, seed soya bean was annually planted on area of 7,151.8 ha in the period 2002-2007. Area under NS soya bean seed showed an annual trend rate of growth (9.21% with certain oscillations). In the research period, soya bean seed yield was 2.29 t ha-1 with a highly stable growth rate of 2.66%, while NS soya bean seed production in Serbia was 15,993 t with an annual growth rate of 12.59% with certain oscillations. Permanent growing trend of soya bean production is a result of increased area and yield. The increase of production was also affected by weather conditions. Such production volume fully meets domestic needs, while significant amount of seed still remains for export

Nutrients and non-nutrients composition and bioactivity of wild and cultivated Coprinus comatus (O.F.Müll.) Pers.

Mushrooms have been reported as sources of biomolecules with various potential. Coprinus comatus was studied to obtain information about this species, comparing cultivated and wild samples. Free sugars, fatty acids, tocopherols, organic acids and phenolic acids were analyzed by chromatographic techniques coupled to different detectors. C. comatus methanolic extract was tested for its antioxidant potential (reducing power, radical scavenging activity and lipid peroxidation inhibition) and antimicrobial properties (tested towards Gram positive and negative bacteria, and microfungi). The toxicity for liver cells was tested in porcine liver primary cells. Both studied samples revealed similar nutritional value and energy contribution. The cultivated sample revealed the highest content in free sugars, monounsaturated fatty acids and tocopherols, while the wild mushroom was richer in saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, organic acids and phenolic compounds. The cultivated species also revealed the highest antioxidant potential and antimicrobial activity (with exception towards Gram negative bacteria and Aspergillus ochraceus). Both species revealed no toxicity towards porcine liver cells. The present study proved that cultivated and wild mushrooms from the same species could be excellent options as food and as sources of nutritional and bioactive compounds. Furthermore, differences in wild and cultivated samples were comparatively investigated for the first time