A review on antidepressant effect of medicinal plants

Depression is a life-threatening, debilitating, and common disease affecting different segments of community. Chemical and synthetic drugs available to treat this disease cause many adverse effects and may lead to complete recovery in only 50% of patients. At the same time, medicinal plants have been reported to exert optimal pharmacological effects in treating depression in different models. In this review, the relevant articles indexed in the reliable databases PubMed, PubMed central, Scopus and Web of Science were review-ed. The review indicated that most medicinal plants exerted antidepressant effects through synaptic regulation of serotonin, noradrenaline, and dopamine, regulating activity of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, reinfor-cing anti-oxidant defense system, and decreasing inflammatory mediators. The medicinal plants and their active compounds can relieve depression through different pathways and hence are considered a new source to produce antidepressants

Protection of biodiesel based on sunflower oil from oxidative degradation by natural antioxidants

Biodiesel as an alternative diesel fuel obtained by transesterification of vegetable fats and oils, using alcohol in the presence of a catalyst, has some advantages such as reduced emissions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, sulfates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and particular matter but its drawback, of being more prone to oxidation than petroleum-based diesel fuel, can cause the fuel to become acidic (cause fuel system corrosion) and to form insoluble gums and sediments and consequently increase its viscosity. In this study, in order to increase the stability of biodiesel based on high oleic acid sunflower oil against oxidation process during the storage and distribution, different percents S0.01%, 0.02%, 0.05%, 0.1%, and 0.2% (w/v)C of maize flour contaminated by mycotoxins, thus useless for human consumption, were added as natural antioxidants. The antioxidant effect increased with concentration up to an optimal level. Above the optimal level the increase in antioxidant effect with its concentration was relatively small. Oxidative stability of biodiesel was determined using two parallel methods, the Schaal oven storage test (at 70°C) and the Rancimat method (at 110°C). The induction times obtained by the Rancimat method were more similar to the values determined by the oven test. The highest protective effect was observed in samples containing 0.1% (w/ v) of added antioxidants

Peganum harmala L.'s anti-growth effect on a breast cancer cell line

This research was done to evaluate the induction of apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line by Peganum harmala's extract, in which a significant amount of \u3b2-carbolines is included. The apoptosis incidence was assessed through Annexin-V-Flous kit. The expressions of genes through which intrinsic apoptosis pathway are involved, Bax, Bcl-2, Bid, and Puma, over the genes the expressions of which are linked to extrinsic apoptosis pathway, TRAIL, Caspase8, p21, and p53, were examined by RT-PCR and Real-time PCR. The results demonstrate that the extract decreases the growth rate of the cancer cell line through inducing apoptosis mechanism. As long as the expression of anti-apoptosis Bcl-2 gen reduced dramatically, an over-expression in Bax and Puma genes was monitored indicating activation of intrinsic apoptosis pathway. A notable over-expression observed with TRAIL and Caspase8 genes as well as Bid gene. The latter is an intermediate for both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways of apoptosis. \ua9 2015 The Author

Half-Seed Analysis for Comparing Linolenic Acid Synthesis Between High and Low Oleic Acid Sunflower Inbred Lines

The modification of fatty acid composition of two sunflowers inbred lines, HA89 and R978, low oleic acid (normal) and high oleic acid (mutant) respectively, in seeds and during the first stages of growth (A1-B2) was studied under controlled conditions. Enzymatic mechanisms have great effect on the catabolism of seed stored lipids. Temperature and oxygen regulation influence developing sunflower seeds. For simultaneous study of seed and developing seed, half-seed analysis technique was used. The behavior of the fatty acids during the germination in cotyledon of seed showed the increase of linolenic acid in both lines, demonstrating the activity of linoleic acid desaturase (\uc46-desaturase). But linoleic acid as a substrate for linoleate desaturase increased during all stages of developing only in mutant line that revealed higher activity of oleic acid desaturase (\uc412-desaturase) in transforming oleic acid to linoleic acid in this line, and lower activity of this enzyme in low oleic acid line, the reasons probably being the low availability of substrate of this enzyme in low oleic acid line and the complexity of enzymatic mechanisms. The modification of fatty acids in developing sunflower, depends not only on ambient conditions such as temperature and oxygen regulation as described by many authors, but also on the genotype. \ua9 2004, by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston. All rights reserved

Anti-amnesic activity of Citrus aurantium flowers extract against scopolamine-induced memory impairments in rats

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurological disorder that mostly affects the elderly population. Learning and memory impairment as the most characteristic manifestation of dementia could be induced chemically by scopolamine, a cholinergic antagonist. Cholinergic neurotransmission mediated brain oxidative stress. Citrus aurantium (CA) has traditionally been used for the treatment of insomnia, anxiety and epilepsy. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of Citrus aurantium on scopolamine-induced learning and memory deficit in rats. Forty-two Wistar rats were divided into six equal groups. (1) Control (received saline), (2) SCOP (scopolamine at a dose of 1 mg/kg for 15 days), (3) and (4) SCOP + CA (scopolamine and CA extract at doses of 300 and 600 mg/kg per day for 15 days), (5) and (6) intact groups (CA extract at 300 and 600 mg/kg per day for 15 days, respectively). Administration of CA flower extract significantly restored memory and learning impairments induced by scopolamine in the passive avoidance test and also reduced escape latency during trial sessions in the Morris water maze test. Citrus aurantium flower extract significantly decreased the serum malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Citrus aurantium flower extract has repairing effects on memory and behavioral disorders produced by scopolamine and may have beneficial effects in the treatment of AD

Aphthous ulcer and the effective factors on it's incidence among the students of Golestan Medical Sciences University in the north of Iran

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and probable predisposing factors of Aphthous ulcer among the medical students. This project was a cross-sectional and descriptive study, which was carried out on 485 students of Golestan University of medical sciences in the north of Iran. Data was collected by filling the questionnaire. The gathered informations entered into SPSS software and were analyzed by Chi square method. The mean age of the students was 21.8 years. 36.9% (179 persons) of subjects had positive history and 8.9% (43 persons) of them had present Aphthous ulcer at the time of interview. 70.6% of students with positive personal history of Aphthous ulcer had positive family history of Aphthous ulcer too. Internal labial mucosa was the commonest site of the lesion among the subjects with present Aphthous ulcer. We found that gender, positive family history, the field of study, the form of diet and stress had a major correlation with the incidence of Aphthous ulcer. © 2007 Asian Network for Scientific Information