Preliminary Screening of Antimicrobial Properties of Few Medicinal Plants

Crude extracts were prepared from the leaves of ten medicinal plants viz., Alpinia galanga, Artabotrys uncinatus, Commelina benghalensis, Costus igneus, Euphorbia cyathopora, Justicia gendarussa, Kalanchoe pinnata, Panicum antidotale, Sauropus androgynous and Hibiscus using methanol as solvent and screened for their antibacterial activity against ten bacterial pathogens. The tested gram positive bacterial strains were Bacillus cerus, Bacillus megaterium, Micrococcus leuteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus lactis, and gram negative strains were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella typhimurium. Among the ten plants tested, the methanol extracts of Alpinia galanga, Artabotrys uncinatus, Costus igneus and Yellow Hibiscus exhibited higher antibacterial activity when compared to the other plant extracts. These four plant extracts were further used for the phytochemical analysis. Results of the phytochemical analysis indicated the presence of alkaloids, phenolic compounds and flavanoids. The antibacterial activities of the leaves were due to the presence of various secondary metabolite

Ocean Dwelling Actinobacteria as Source of Antitumor Compounds

ABSTRACT Extending over decades, research has been of great focus and enormous progress on exploring the ocean for natural products from marine actinobacteria. Attraction towards alternative medicine has led to improvements in natural product discovery. With great potential to survive in extreme environments, marine actinobacteria, efficiently produce an array of metabolites with diverse bioactivity by evolving the secondary metabolic pathways. Exploiting the secondary metabolite producing potential of actinobacteria, many compounds with antitumor, antibacterial, antifungal, antimalarial, antiprotozoal, antiparasitic, antiviral, anti-parasitic, anti-inflammatory activities has been discovered. Efforts in bioprospecting alternative sources of natural products have thus led to several explorations and improvements in technologies which has decreased the bottle neck difficulties in the drug discovery process. Emphasizing on the recent advancements in bioactive compound production in actinobacteria, this paper comprises a review of the available literature, compiles the antitumor compounds from marine actinobacteria with brief discussions and the perspectives to develop better antitumor compounds which would stimulate further research

Cytotoxic Effect on Cancerous Cell Lines by Biologically Synthesized Silver Nanoparticles

The biosynthesis of nanoparticles has been proposed as an environmental friendly and cost effective alternative to chemical and physical methods. Silver nanoparticles are biologically synthesized and characterized were used in the study. The invitro cytotoxic effect of biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles against MCF-7 cancer cell lines were assessed. The cytotoxic effects of the silver nanoparticles could significantly inhibited MCF-7 cancer cell lines proliferation in a time and concentration-dependent manner by MTT assay. Acridine orange, ethidium bromide (AO/EB) dual staining, caspase-3 and DNA fragmentation assays were carried out using various concentrations of silver nanoparticles ranging from 1 to 100 μg/mL. At 100 μg/mL concentration, the silver nanoparticles exhibited significant cytotoxic effects and the apoptotic features were confirmed through caspase-3 activation and DNA fragmentation assays. Western blot analysis has revealed that nanoparticle was able to induce cytochrome c release from the mitochondria, which was initiated by the inhibition of Bcl-2 and activation of Bax. Thus, the results of the present study indicate that biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles might be used to treat breast cancer. The present studies suggest that these nanoparticles could be a new potential adjuvant chemotherapeutic and chemo preventive agent against cytotoxic cells. However, it necessitates clinical studies to ascertain their potential as anticancer agents

TOXICOLOGICAL PROFILING OF METHANOLIC AND AQUEOUS EXTRACTS OF AMORPHOPHALLUS COMMUTATUS VAR. WAYANADENSIS - ENDANGERED MEDICINAL PLANT IN RODENT MODELS

Objective: Amorphophallus commutatus var. wayanadensis (ACW) is exclusive endemic of Wayanad has been used among the traditional medicinal healers of tribal communities of Wayanad for the treatment of various ailments. Our aim of the study is to evaluate the toxicity profile of ACW is by acute and sub-acute in rodents.  Methods: In acute toxicity studies, mice were orally administered of single doses of 1000 and 2000mg/kg of methanolic and aqueous extract and sub-acute toxicity studies were performed by administration of 200 and 400mg/kg orally for 28 days. Results: In acute toxicity studies, administration of methanolic and aqueous extract didn't observe any signs of mortality or toxicity upto 2000mg/kg body weight. No significant change in the physical, biochemical, hematological and histopathology analysis were observed for methanolic and aqueous extracts by sub-acute toxicity studies. Conclusion: The methanolic and aqueous extract of Amorphophallus commutatus var. wayanadensis is relatively safe for long term oral administration fulfilling the basic priority for its use in traditional medicinal therapies

Bioactivity Assessment of Indian Origin—Mangrove Actinobacteria against Candida albicans

Actinobacteria is found to have a potent metabolic activity against pathogens. The present study reveals the assessment of potent antifungal secondary metabolites from actinobacteria isolated from Indian marine mangrove sediments. The samples were collected from the coastal regions of Muthupet, Andaman and the Nicobar Islands. Identification was carried out using 16S rRNA analysis and biosynthetic genes (Polyketide synthase type I/II and Non-ribosomal peptide synthase) were screened. Actinobacteria were assayed for their antifungal activity against 16 clinical Candida albicans and the compound analysis was performed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry GC-MS. The 31 actinobacterial strains were isolated and 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that this ecosystem is rich on actinobacteria, with Streptomyces as the predominant genus. The PCR based screening of biosynthetic genes revealed the presence of PKS-I in six strains, PKS-II in four strains and NRPS in 11 strains. The isolated actinobacteria VITGAP240 and VITGAP241 (two isolates) were found to have a potential antifungal activity against all the tested C. albicans. GC-MS results revealed that the actinobacterial compounds were belonging to heterocyclic, polyketides and peptides. Overall, the strains possess a wide spectrum of antifungal properties which affords the production of significant bioactive metabolites as potential antibiotics