Ethnobotany Study of Seaweed Diversity and Its Utilization in Warambadi, Panguhalodo Areas of East Sumba District

This paper reports the ethnobotany study of seaweed diversity in Warambadi –Panguhalodo areas of East Sumba District, the island of Sumba. The study recorded19 genera of 54 species of seaweed, which were utilized as food or edible seaweed.The group consisted of 17 species of green algae, 17 species of red algae, and 20species of brown algae. The study also reported that 18 genera of 38 species weretraditionally utilized for medicinal purposes as herbal medicine. The herbal speciesconsisted of 7 species of green algae, 13 species of red algae, and 18 species ofbrown algae.Seaweed is traditionally consumed as food in various forms: raw as salad and vegetable,as pickle with sauce of allspice or with vinegar, as relish or sweetened jellies and alsocooked for vegetable soup. As herbal medicine seaweed is usually used for traditionalcosmetics, as antipyretic and antiseptic, as vermifuges, and treatments for cough andasthma, hemorrhoid, nosebleed and boils, goiter and scrofula, stomach ailments andurinary diseases.Indigenous knowledge on seaweed still exist and are continually employed bypeople living in particular areas such as the Sumba and Sabu ethnic groups. Yet,the knowledge is gradually decreasing due to localities, socio-economic change andcultural development

Diversity of Antibacterial Compounds From Eucheuma Serra, Halimeda Opuntia, and Hydroclathrus Clathratus

Fourteen compounds were isolated from acetone extracts of three species of seaweeds (Eucheuma serra, a red seaweed, Halimeda opuntia, a green seaweed, and Hydroclathrus clathratus, a brown seaweed) using bioautographic TLC methods and identified using GC-MS. From Eucheuma serra were isolated 8 compounds (3 fatty acids, 3 steroids, and 2 aldehyds). Only two compounds of fatty acid camefrom Halimeda opuntia, whereas Hydroclathrus clathratus produced 6 compounds (4 fatty acids, one compound each of steroid and ether). All isolated single compoundswere tested for their antibacterial activities by the agar diffusion method against the Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcusfaecalis, and the Gram-negative bacteria Echerichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhimurium. All 14 compounds showed activity against Gram-positivebacteria, especially Bacillus subtilis, and only 2 compounds showed activity against Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli. Nine compounds showed activity against Staphylococcus aureus, and 4 compounds showed activity against Streptococcusfaecalis. All compounds were not active against Pseudomonas aeruginosa andSalmonella typhimurium bacteria. This study indicated that there is indeed a diversityboth in kinds and in molecular structures of the antibacterial substances

Food-associated cues alter forebrain functional connectivity as assessed with immediate early gene and proenkephalin expression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cues predictive of food availability are powerful modulators of appetite as well as food-seeking and ingestive behaviors. The neurobiological underpinnings of these conditioned responses are not well understood. Monitoring regional immediate early gene expression is a method used to assess alterations in neuronal metabolism resulting from upstream intracellular and extracellular signaling. Furthermore, assessing the expression of multiple immediate early genes offers a window onto the possible sequelae of exposure to food cues, since the function of each gene differs. We used immediate early gene and proenkephalin expression as a means of assessing food cue-elicited regional activation and alterations in functional connectivity within the forebrain.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Contextual cues associated with palatable food elicited conditioned motor activation and corticosterone release in rats. This motivational state was associated with increased transcription of the activity-regulated genes <it>homer1a</it>, <it>arc</it>, <it>zif268</it>, <it>ngfi-b </it>and c-<it>fos </it>in corticolimbic, thalamic and hypothalamic areas and of proenkephalin within striatal regions. Furthermore, the functional connectivity elicited by food cues, as assessed by an inter-regional multigene-expression correlation method, differed substantially from that elicited by neutral cues. Specifically, food cues increased cortical engagement of the striatum, and within the nucleus accumbens, shifted correlations away from the shell towards the core. Exposure to the food-associated context also induced correlated gene expression between corticostriatal networks and the basolateral amygdala, an area critical for learning and responding to the incentive value of sensory stimuli. This increased corticostriatal-amygdalar functional connectivity was absent in the control group exposed to innocuous cues.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results implicate correlated activity between the cortex and the striatum, especially the nucleus accumbens core and the basolateral amygdala, in the generation of a conditioned motivated state that may promote excessive food intake. The upregulation of a number of genes in unique patterns within corticostriatal, thalamic, and hypothalamic networks suggests that food cues are capable of powerfully altering neuronal processing in areas mediating the integration of emotion, cognition, arousal, and the regulation of energy balance. As many of these genes play a role in plasticity, their upregulation within these circuits may also indicate the neuroanatomic and transcriptional correlates of extinction learning.</p