Anticancer, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of extracts from Scrophularia striata and Elaeagnus angustifolia, growing in Ilam and Kurdistan provinces in Iran

Emerging evidence of the impact of plant compounds on growth inhibition of micropathogens and cancer cells has opened new areas to evaluate plants’ treatment properties. Here, we aimed to investigate in vitro antioxidant, antibacterial and anticancer effects of the secondary metabolites isolated from different extracts produced by Elaeagnus angustifolia and Scrophularia striata. Antibacterial activity was evaluated against human and plant pathogenic bacteria by 3 methods of tubular dilution, well and disc diffusion. The anticancer effect of E. angustifolia extract was assessed by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Biochemical experiments showed the presence of compounds such as phenol, flavonoids, resins, quinones, steroids, terpenoids and alkaloids in extracts, with the highest antioxidant activity of the methanolic extracts. For both plants’ strains, the disc method was more effective than the well diffusion method. The highest yields were obtained from Methanolic, ethanolic and hydroalcoholic extracts for E. angustifolia and aqueous extract for Scrophularia striata. The most sensitive bacteria for E. angustifolia were Bacillus subtilis and Xanthomonas campestris against pit extracts and Clavibacter michiganensis against pulp extracts. The most sensitive bacteria for S. striata were Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus. Methanolic and aqueous solvents showed the maximum bacterial inhibitory and bactericidal activities in the Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) tests respectively. Additionally, E. angustifolia showed anticancer effects toward MCF7 breast cancer cells. These findings provided a better understanding of the widespread application of these plants as potential antioxidants, antibacterial and anticancer sources and safe natural medicines in health maintenance and disease treatment

Nanobiosensors-their Applications in the Medicinal Plants Industry

For centuries, herbal drugs have been the only accessible resource for treatment of pain and passions. Today, despite remarkable progress and development of synthetic drugs, medicinal plants and their derived drugs are used massively. So that, in some countries medicinal plants is inseparable from drugs and treatment systems. More ever, their marketing and economical aspects are more flourishing than other chemical drugs. Monitoring of medicinal plant products is necessary in drug industry. There is increasing demand for development of analytical equipments for the production process, from crude materials to final products. In this case, biosensors can be excellent analytical tools in order to analysis of medicinal plants and their products. This review is going to explain nano-biosensor technology briefly and so their potential application in medicinal plant industry. Some of these applications are monitoring of environment and fast identification of pathogens, determination of toxicities, measurement of different types of secondary metabolites, herbal pharmacology and others

A review on the application of hairy roots in removing phenolic compounds from aqueous solutions

Background and Objective: The presence of toxic compounds, including phenol, due to industrial development, poses a threat to the environment. Utilizing hairy roots has emerged as a potential method to remove these toxins. This review aims to explore the efficacy of hairy roots in absorbing phenol pollutants and the influencing parameters. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted using a descriptive-review method based on existing literature gathered from databases such as Science Direct, PubMed, and Google Scholar. The focus of the study was on the purification of phenol using hairy roots. Keywords such as Phytoremediation, Hairy root, Phenol, and Transgenic roots were used for data collection. Results: Results show successful phenol removal by hairy roots, potentially attributed to abundant production of peroxidase enzymes. Various factors, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), incubation time, pH, plant species, and pollutant concentration, impact phenol removal efficiency. Notably, plants like Brassica napus, rich in peroxidase enzymes, exhibit high efficiency in removing phenol pollution up to 500 mg/L, with H2O2 and within a pH range of 4-9. Conclusion: In conclusion, hair roots possess significant adsorption capacity for phenol. However, phenol concentration, contact time, pH, and temperature influence their performance. Therefore, further research is required to explore optimal conditions for phenol removal

Identification, Cloning and Structural Analysis of Major Genes from Portulaca oleracea L. Hairy Roots that Involved in the Biosynthesis of Dopamine

Dopamine is one of the important medications of Portulaca oleracea L. To optimize the production of dopamine, one of the methods is the identification and engineering of metabolite pathways. To investigate the tyrosine decarboxylase (TDC) and tyrosinase, which seem to be the most important genes in dopamine synthesis pathway, hairy roots were produced from Portulaca oleracea using Agrobacterium rhizogenes and total RNA was extracted from hairy roots. A cDNA library was synthesized using RT-PCR. Then, the twogenes were amplified, isolated and cloned in a pTG 19-T vector. Bioinformatics' databases were used to predict the details of the structural, functional and biological characteristic of these genes. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that the cloned cDNAs expressed TDC and tyrosinase, and contained a single open reading frame of 1800 bp and 1750 bp, respectively. TDC has the most similarity with TDC of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh.,but tyrosinase has 98% similarity withtyrosinase of Agaricus bisporus. Because of More negatively charged amino acids the TDC has hydrophobic properties, therefore affinity and hydrophilic chromatography can be used for purification of TDC. But tyrosinase has hydrophilic properties and hydrophobicity chromatography can be used for its purification. There were two peroxisomal signal peptide (KLAKEFEQL) and (KIEGRPLHL) in the TDC and tyrosinase, respectively. Therefore, they are biologically active in the peroxisomes, and included in biosynthesis dopamine through the transformation of L-lysine to L-dopa and finally to the dopamine. In conclusion, increasing the expression of TDC and tyrosinase through the genetic engineering can increase dopamine production in the Portolaca

Increasing Scopolamine content in Hairy Roots of Atropa belladonna using Bioreactor

The aim of this study was to use the, hairy root system for increasing the scopolamine content in Atropa belladonna. Agrobacterium rhizogenes ATCC15834 was utilized to produce hairy roots. The culture was carried out in a 1.5-l bioreactor using the inoculum size of 0.5 g fr. wt of 10-day-old hairy roots and various parameters, including agitation, aeration, conductivity and the consumption of sucrose were evaluated. Results revealed that the highest amount of scopolamine production (1.59 mg/g-1 dry wt) occurred in the bioreactor with aeration and agitation 1.25 vvm (volume per volume per minute) and 70 rpm, respectively. Study of conductivity and the consumption of sucrose showed that the highest amount of sucrose consumption and the highest amount of minerals consumption also was at 1.25 vvm and 70 rpm. Transgenic hairy root lines were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)