Phytoalexins: Sources and Their Pharmacological Potential

Background: Plants are easily prone towards microbial infections on exposure to microorganisms and pathogens. In order to defense, plants produce low molecular weight secondary metabolites which were later known as “Phytoalexins”. These molecules have vast therapeutic potential also. Purpose: The purpose of this review is to explore the phytoalexins and their pharmacological effects.Methods: The data included from the articles were published from Web of Science, PubMed, Medline, Scopus, and Embase by using relevant keywords including plants possessing phytoalexins and their specific biological applications.Results: The review insights the potential of phytoalexins in various diseases and to explore phytoalexins applications in human health and disease control. Conclusions: On the basis of this review it may be concluded that phytoalexins have tremendous potential in the treatment and prevention of various life-threatening diseases like diabetes mellitus, cancer, brain damage, and heart attack

Clinical Symptoms and Therapies for Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic form, progressive and immune mediated central nervous system disorder that affects both adults and children. MS is characterized by the development of multiple lesions with the nerve fibers in the spinal cord, optic nerves and brain. Multiple sclerosis affects the approximately 2.5 million people worldwide. A triad of symptoms characterize the disease: fatigue, changes in sensation, ataxia, muscle weakness, dysarthria, dysphagia, visual problems, chronic or acute pain, difficulties of bladder and bowel. The diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis is made on the foundation of the signs and symptoms, with magnetic resonance imaging and additional laboratory tests playing a helpful role. Every tests are non precise and simply supply supportive indication for diagnosis. A few people have a inadequate number of “relapses” or “attacks” and remain fairly healthy for decades, others may worsen rapidly from the time of analysis, through shortened lifespan and poor excellence of the life. The  prognosis  is problematical to forecast; it depends on the initial symptom, subtype of the illness, the individual patient’s disorder characteristics. The substantial variability in multiple sclerosis manifestations leads to elevated figure of misdiagnoses each year, but advances in knowledge and pharmaceuticals are leading to more exact identification and successful management. Early diagnosis and management is essential in reducing the severity of disease

ANTIOXIDANT AND FREE RADICAL SCAVENGING POTENTIAL OF ETHANOLIC FRACTION OF ADHATODA VASICA IN A549 CELL LINE

Objective: To characterize and standardize the ethanolic extract of Adhatoda vasica (AV) and evaluate its antioxidant potential in vitro, and to studyits free radical scavenging effect in A549 cell line.Methods: Antioxidant activity of AVE through DPPH, ABTS, superoxide radical scavenging activity, H2O2, NO and Lipid peroxidation assays werecarried out.Results: In A549 cell line, the NO scavenging ability of AVE was analysed through NO production measurement. IC values of ethanolic extract throughDPPH, ABTS, superoxide radical scavenging activity, H2O250, NO and lipid peroxidation assays were found to be 64, 200, 54, 62, 40 and 340 µg/ml,respectively. The reducing power was found to increase in a concentration dependent manner. AVE (1 - 2µg/ml) scavenged NO radicals (11% and28% in comparison to control).Conclusion: The present study showed the ethanolic extract of AV to be a good oxygen radical scavenger and a natural source of antioxidants. AVEshowed significant nitric oxide radical scavenging activity in A549 cell line.Keywords: Adhatoda vasica, Phytochemicals, Flavonoids, Tannins, Antioxidant potential

FREE RADICAL SCAVENGING AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF FICUS LACOR BUCH. HUM.

Objectives: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the antioxidant potential of ethanol extract from aerial roots of  Ficus lacor. Methods: Ethanol extract of aerial roots of Ficus lacor was used to study their total phenolic and flavonoids contents, in vitro antioxidant including radical scavenging of 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and nitric oxide (NO). Results: The ethanol extract showed significant results Total phenolic contents were estimated to be equivalents to 46.65 ± 1.75 mg of gallic acid equivalent and total flavonoids contents were 38.42 ± 2.46 mg of catechin/g equivalent. The percentage of DPPH and NO scavenging activity increased with increasing various concentration of extract. Conclusions: The results concluded that the extract have potential source of antioxidants of natural origin that could have great importance as therapeutic agents for biological system liable to free radical mediated reactions.Key words: Antioxidant, Ficus lacor, DPPH, NO, phenolic content, flavanoid conten

Modern Herbal Nanogels: Formulation, Delivery Methods, and Applications

This study examined the most recent advancements in nanogel production and drug delivery. Phytochemistry is a discipline of chemistry that studies herbal compounds. Herbal substances have aided in the development of innovative remedies for a wide range of illnesses. Several of these compounds are forbidden from being used in medications due to broad medical characteristics and pharmacokinetics. A variety of new technical approaches have been investigated to ameliorate herbal discoveries in the pharmaceutical sector. The article focuses on the historical data for herb-related nanogels that are used to treat a variety of disorders with great patient compliance, delivery rate, and efficacy. Stimulus-responsive nanogels such as temperature responsive and pH-responsive systems are also discussed. Nanogel formulations, which have been hailed as promising targets for drug delivery systems, have the ability to alter the profile of a drug, genotype, protein, peptide, oligosaccharide, or immunogenic substance, as well as its ability to cross biological barriers, biodistribution, and pharmacokinetics, improving efficacy, safety, and patient cooperation

Lyotropic Liquid Crystal System for Drug Delivery of Astaxanthin: Physical Characterization and Enhanced Antioxidant Potential

Astaxanthin is a xanthophyll carotenoid, well known for its potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, owing to its unsaturated molecular structure. Aquatic plants and animals contain the hydrophobic carotenoid astaxanthin, which is thought to possess a number of advantageous biological traits. However, due to its weak bioavailability and low water solubility, its use as a nutraceutical in food is currently restricted. Cubosomal encapsulation has been considered an effective alternative for improving the bioavailability and solubility of hydrophobic bioactives. The current paper aimed to conquer these issues by encapsulating astaxanthin in lyotropic liquid crystal nano-formulations prepared via the fabrication method. The physicochemical properties of astaxanthin-loaded cubosomes (AST-LC) have also been analyzed, in order to know the morphology of the prepared formulations and their bioavailability in the biological system. The formulation has been tested for particle size, thermal behavior, zeta potential, crystallinity, encapsulation efficiency, and drug-polymer interactions. The observed experimental results showed the particle size and zeta potential of astaxanthin-loaded cubosomes (AST-LC) as 199 ± 0.23 nm −27.4 ± 4.67 mV, with a small polydispersity index (0.283 ± 1.01). The cubic structure and nano-range size of the ideal formulation were verified by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and (HRTEM) high-resolution transmission electron microscopic examination. The formulation exhibits a higher encapsulation efficiency with good yield. Results from X-ray diffraction and diffraction scanning calorimetry demonstrated an amorphous state of astaxanthin incorporated into the formulation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of AST-LC showed the absence of astaxanthin main peaks, indicating its complete encapsulation inside the formulation. The drug–excipient interaction was carried out with diffraction scanning calorimetry DSC and FTIR, resulting in no interaction between them. These results offered important details about increasing astaxanthin bioavailability by incorporating it into cubosomes. Furthermore, the astaxanthin loaded into cubosomes has been evaluated for antioxidant potency, compared with astaxanthin extract using 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazylassay (DPPH assay)

Revisiting Therapeutic Strategies for H. pylori Treatment in the Context of Antibiotic Resistance: Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies

The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection remains significant worldwide and it depends on many factors: gender, age, socio-economic status, geographic area, diet, and lifestyle. All successful infectious diseases treatments use antibiotic-susceptibility testing, but this strategy is not currently practical for H. pylori and the usual cure rates of H. pylori are lower than other bacterial infections. Actually, there is no treatment that ensures complete eradication of this pathogen. In the context of an alarming increase in resistance to antibiotics (especially to clarithromycin and metronidazole), alternative and complementary options and strategies are taken into consideration. As the success of antibacterial therapy depends not only on the susceptibility to given drugs, but also on the specific doses, formulations, use of adjuvants, treatment duration, and reinfection rates, this review discusses the current therapies for H. pylori treatment along with their advantages and limitations. As an alternative option, this work offers an extensively referenced approach on natural medicines against H. pylori, including the significance of nanotechnology in developing new strategies for treatment of H. pylori infection

COMPARISON AND EVALUATION OF PHARMACOPOEIAL METHODS FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF POTENCY OF ANTIBIOTICS

The detection and assessment of potency of antibiotics are crucial for the pharmaceutics. The valid methods for microbiological assays in pharmacopoeias are mainly based on statistical comparison of the data obtained by measuring the cidal activity resulting from the treatment of the antibiotic active ingredient in the composition of the pharmaceutics with the target microorganism. However, it was seen that there is no validated microbiological method for some active ingredients. Due to microbiological assays are indispensable methods for determining the potency of some active ingredient groups, the calculation of the potency is performed logarithmically. In either turbidimetric or chromatographic methods, the statistical evaluation of the sample is compared with the standard reference material. Analysis data obtained by chromatographic and chemical methods are linear peak areas and spectrophotometer readings. In microbiological methods, the data obtained from the analyzes performed to determine the potency of antibiotics are the inhibition zone diameters or turbidimetric turbidity data. In this study, above-mentioned microbiological assays are compared in the context of the main pharmacopoeias EP, USP, CP, IP and BP, and evaluated in terms of the chromatographic method and classical microbiological method. It has been observed that chromatographic and chemical methods are not available to determine the potency of some pharmaceutical products containing antibiotics. The examinations made reveal the difficulty of analyzing some active ingredient groups according to chemical and chromatographic methods. For this reason, the importance of method validation studies is increasing in order to analyze active substances that do not have alternative analysis methods with microbiological and chemical methods. In this study, all validated microbiological methods were investigated, and it was aimed to determine alternative methods to chromatographic and chemical methods. It was concluded that the realization of new microbiological methods to be validated by evaluating the methods in all differences would facilitate the study.                    Peer Review History: Received: 18 May 2021; Revised: 15 June; Accepted: 28 June, Available online: 15 July 2021 Academic Editor: Dr. Asia Selman Abdullah,  Al-Razi university, Department of Pharmacy, Yemen, [email protected] Received file:                Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 6.5/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.5/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Dr. Iman Muhammad Higazy, National Research Center, Egypt, [email protected] Dr. George Zhu, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, [email protected] Similar Articles: AN OVERVIEW ON PHARMACOPOEIAS IN THE WORLD AND MONOGRAPH ELABORATION TECHNIQUE

EVALUATION OF MULTIFUNCTIONALITY IN COSMETICS

In recent years, developments in the field of cosmetic ingredients especially use of natural sources and carriers systems and the manufacturing methods resulted as an improvement in the effect and stability of cosmetics, and thus the performance and component-based multi-functionalities of cosmetic products. Those have partially contributed to the condition-dependent functionality, developments in the field of marketing, monitoring of expectations and their reflection on marketing and the creation of new ideas in the field of claim-driven multi-functionality. Multi-functionality in cosmetic products can be evaluated in four groups. These are performance-based multi-functionality, component-based multi-functionality, conditional multi-functionality and claim-driven multi-functionality. In the first two groups, performance related to formulation and manufacturing comes to the fore, while in the last two, safety becomes important and those are briefly given in this review.                    Peer Review History: Received: 12 May 2021; Revised: 11 June; Accepted: 25 June, Available online: 15 July 2021 Academic Editor: Ahmad Najib, Universitas Muslim Indonesia, Makassar, Indonesia, [email protected] UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency.  Received file:                Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 6.0/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.5/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Dr. Govind Vyas, Compliance & Regulatory Officer Inva-Tech Pharmaceuticals LLC, New-Jersey, USA, [email protected] Dr. Mohammad Bayan,  Faculty of Pharmacy, Philadelphia University, P.O. Box: 1 Philadelphia University 19392 Jordan, [email protected] Dr. Sally A. El-Zahaby, Pharos University in Alexandria, Egypt, [email protected]