Inventory of poisonings and toxicological studies carried out on Atractylis gummifera L.: A review

Atractylis gummifera L. belongs to the family Asteraceae is widely used in traditional Moroccan medicine for its therapeutic effects (diuretic, purgative, emetic, abortive), but it causes serious and fatal poisonings, hence the objective of this work is to describe the current state of intoxication caused by A. gummifera in the Mediterranean and to summarize the toxicological studies carried out on this plant. The working methodology we adopted consisted in collecting data published in Arabic, French and English in specialized articles, books and on websites. Research results showed that the Centre Anti Poison and Pharmacovigilance of Morocco declared A. gummifera was in second place in the occurrence of poisonings in between January 1980 and December 2008. The synthesis of experimental work on plant toxicology showed that the lethal dose of A. gummifera varies according to the animal model used (rat or mouse), the route of administration (intraperitoneal, oral or intravenous) and the part of the plant used. The root has been found to be the most toxic part of the plant. The toxicity of A. gummifera is due to atractyloside and gummiferine, which are inhibitors of oxidative phosphorylation that prevent the formation of ATP from ADP in intracellular organelles. This study shows the interest in raising public awareness of the toxicity of A. gummifera and in rationalizing its use in traditional medicine

In vitro study of the antimitotic power and in vivo acute toxicity of aqueous and organic extracts of the aerial part of Haloxylon scoparium Pomel. and evaluation of the correlation between the chemical profile and their biological activities

The present study was conducted on the extracts from the aerial part of Haloxylon scoparium Pomel. The current research has focused on the evaluation of the antimitotic activity with the Lepidium sativum phytotest on aqueous (decocted, infused, macerated) and organic extracts (methanolic extract, methanolic macerated, ethyl acetate extract, chloroform extract and petroleum ether extract) extracts of the aerial portion of Haloxylon scoparium. In order to visualise the correlation between the content of chemical compounds in the aqueous and organic extracts with the results of the Lepidium sativum phytotest, we have used the principal component analysis (PCA). Then, we were interested in studying the acute in vivo toxicity of the methanolic extract and the decocted of Haloxylon scoparium. Antimitotic activity has shown that the methanolic extract exhibited high inhibition of Lepidium sativum germination (IC50=128.16±3.89 µg/mL) than colchicine (IC50=474.66±1.86 µg/mL). The decocted also showed high inhibition compared to the other aqueous extracts (IC50=1359.00±106.69 µg/mL). The correlation study showed that there is a strong correlation between Lepidium sativum phytotest and total polyphenol (r=0.9453) and flavonoid (r=0.9884) composition. In addition, the MLD50 of the methanolic extract and the decocted was estimated at 2000 mg/kg. The present study shows that Haloxylon scoparium could be a potential antimitotic of low toxicity

Phytochemical screening and in vitro evaluation of alpha amylase, alpha glucosidase and beta galactosidase inhibition by aqueous and organic Atractylis gummifera L. extracts

Diabetes is a chronic condition which is increasingly progressing throughout the world. To treat it, several methods are used, among which is medicinal plants that still have an unknown mechanism of action. The objective of this work is to evaluate the in vitro hypoglycemic effect of the extracts of the underground part of Atractylis gummifera, a member of Asteraceae used in traditional Moroccan medicine. A phytochemical study of the aqueous extracts (decocted, infused and macerated) and organic extracts (methanol, methanol macerate, chloroformic, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether), and a phytochemical screening of the different secondary metabolites was done. The antidiabetic power of the extracts of A. gummifera by testing the inhibitory activity of ?-amylase, ?-glucosidase and ?-galactosidase, which are enzymes responsible for the digestion of polysaccharides was determined. The extracts of A. gummifera are very rich in flavonoids and tannins, and are inhibitory to?-amylase and ?-glucosidase, mainly the macerate of methanol with IC50 values of 0.557 ± 0.013 and 0.743 ± 0.017 mg / mL respectively. Higher ?-galactosidase inhibitory potential than quercetin was observed for aqueous macerates and methanol with IC50 values of 2.23 ± 0.012 and 2.443 ± 0.071 mg / mL respectively. The extracts of A. gummifera possess a significant inhibitory activity of the alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase and beta-galactosidase enzymes, in particular the macerate of methanol followed by the aqueous macerate, among the eight extracts tested

In vivo anti-diabetic effect of aqueous and methanolic macerated extracts of Atractylis gummifera

The anti-diabetic effect of Atractylis gummifera (plant used in traditional Moroccan medicine) has been evaluated in type 2 diabetic mice model. The mice were divided into five groups: Normal control, diabetic control, diabetic treated with aqueous macerate (500 mg/kg), diabetic treated with methanol macerate (500 mg/kg) and diabetic treated with metformin (300 mg/kg). The treatment of the mice was performed by daily gastric gavage for 5 weeks. The monitoring of the mice was carried out weekly by fasting glucose and measurement of biochemical parameters at the end of treatment. The aqueous macerate of A. gummifera was most effective that reduced the fasting blood glucose with 62.7%. In addition, this extract restored the biochemical parameters of diabetic mice to normal

Effects of Na2SO4 on the optical and structural properties of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films synthesized using co-electrodeposition technique

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Annealing Effect on One Step Electrodeposited CuSbSe2 Thin Films

The purpose of this work is to study the influence of the annealing temperature on the structural, morphological, compositional and optical properties of CuSbSe2 thin films electrodeposited in a single step. CuSbSe2 thin films were grown on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/glass substrates using the aqueous electrodeposition technique, then annealed in a tube furnace under nitrogen at temperatures spanning from 250 to 500 °C. The resulting films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis, Raman spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The annealing temperature plays a fundamental role on the films structural properties; in the range 250–350 °C the formation of pure CuSbSe2 phase from electrodeposited binary selenides occurs. From 400 to 500 °C, CuSbSe2 undergoes a preferential phase orientation change, as well as the increasing formation of copper-rich phases such as Cu3SbSe3 and Cu3SbSe4 due to the partial decomposition of CuSbSe2 and to the antimony losses