NOPR Collection:

An ethnomedicinal appraisal of the Kurram Agency, tribal area, Pakistan

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Title: An ethnomedicinal appraisal of the Kurram Agency, tribal area, Pakistan Authors: Muhammad, Said; Hussain, Manzoor; Abbas, Zaheer; Saqib, Zafeer; Bussmann, Rainer W.; Shah, Ghulam Mujtaba Abstract: The present work was conducted at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the agency of Kurram (33° 49' 07'' N and 70° 10' 24'' E), an administrative part of the late federally administered tribal area (FATA) of Pakistan. Aim of the study was to document the medicinal flora based on local information, i.e., local classification, part used, drug preparation and dosage. Ethnomedicinal data was obtained through semi structured interviews after obtaining the respondents prior informed consent. During field visits 72 people were interviewed 150 plant species belonging to 131 genera in 86 families were documented. The documented plants were found to be effective for 64 disorders, from simple to complicated health issues. In a quantitative analysis, 31 plant species showed fidelity level ranges from 33-100% and relative frequency of citation from 0.03 to 0.28. Conservation issues related to plant use need to be investigated. Page(s): 631-647

In vitro antifilarial activity, antioxidant potential and phenolic constituents of Quisqualis indica L.

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Title: In vitro antifilarial activity, antioxidant potential and phenolic constituents of Quisqualis indica L. Authors: Rastogi, Subha; Pandey, Madan Mohan; Rawat, Ajay Kumar Singh; Kushwaha, Vikas; Murthy, P Kalpana Abstract: Quisqualis indica L., commonly known as ‘Rangoon-ki-bel’ or ‘Madhumalti’, has been used by the traditional healers as it is active against some of the commonly occurring diseases like boils, fevers diarrhea and helminthiasis. However, no systematic and scientifically validated studies on antifilarial activity of Q. indica are available. In the present study, we report in vitro antifilarial activity of ethanolic and hydroethanolic extracts of the leaves (QILE and QILEW) and flowers (QIFE and QIFEW) of this plant on microfilariae (mf) and female adult worms of human lymphatic filariid Brugia malayi using motility and or 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT)-reduction assays. The hydroalcoholic extract of flowers (QIFEW) was found effective as it killed adult female worms (LC_100: 62.5 µg/mL) and mf (LC₁₀₀: 125 µg/mL); IC₅₀ values for the respective parasite stages were 34.50 and 31.88 µg/mL. SI values recorded with respect to motility of female parasite and mf was more than 20. The active principle(s) responsible for antifilarial activity may thus be present in QIFEW. The antioxidant activity results also indicated QIFEW to possess better antioxidant potential than the other extracts studied. HPLC analysis showed that the 02 keyphenolics present in hydroalcoholic extract of the flowers (QIFEW) were gallic acid and ellagic acid. In the different extracts, the concentration of gallic acid was found to vary from 26.9 mg/g to 2.50 mg/g while ellagic acid ranged between 11.5 mg/g to 6.77 mg/g. It was also observed that the leaves were rich in flavonoids whereas the flowers were rich in phenolics. The findings indicate that active molecule (s) of hydroalcoholic extractfrom Q. indica flowers may help in providing new leads for developing antifilarial agents. We believe that this is the first systematically studied report on the in vitro antifilarial activity of the hydroalcoholic extract of Q. indica flowers. Page(s): 648-654

In silico bioprospection analysis for identification of herbal compound targeting Clostridium difficile

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Title: In silico bioprospection analysis for identification of herbal compound targeting Clostridium difficile Authors: Tanwar, Ankit; Zaidi, Ayesha Ali; Kaur, Harvinder; Rana, Navjot; Chawla, Raman; Basu, Mitra; Arora, Rajesh; Khan, Haider Ali Abstract: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), the occurrence has been increasing in the community as well as hospital-care facilities, resulting in higher morbidity and mortality rate. C. difficile, anaerobic pathogen greatly associated with antibiotic resistance and majorly linked to the irrational antibiotic use, which accelerate the alarming situation causing endemic as well epidemic globally. It is the budding menace and one of the major sources of nosocomial infection, i.e., hospital-acquired infection. The prevailing risk to public health by the antibiotics and their resistance majorly has driven the urge for utilizing the traditional herbal medicine into a sophisticated approach as a Modern/Ayurvedic Medicinal System (AMS). The current study aims to find out the promising herbals to combat the threat caused by C. difficile by applying herbal informatics as a holistic approach. Total 44 plants were elucidated against the virulence factors of the bacterium using the systematic bioprospection approach, out of which 5 plants were optimized that may be futher validated at the preclinical level. Page(s): 655-661

A modern formulation of traditional medicine: Jujube) Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) fruit syrup

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Title: A modern formulation of traditional medicine: Jujube) Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) fruit syrup Authors: Sobhani, Zahra; Emami, Seyed Ahmad; Bazzaz, Bibi Sedigheh Fazly; Rajabi, Omid Abstract: Ziziphus jujuba Mill.,commonly called jujube (Rhamnaceae) has been known for its health benefits and used to cure different diseases such as asthma, cough and anxiety. The aim of this study is a formulation of its syrup and evaluation of physicochemical properties in accelerated stability conditions. The isosbestic point of spinosin (as marker) and its stability kinetic was studied in different buffers (pH range: 3-8). The isosbestic point was 259 nm that was different from _max(334 nm). It was found that spinosin was more stable at pH of 7. So, the pH of the syrup was adjusted to 7. The syrup was a brown viscous liquid with jujube fruit flavor. Dry residue, pH, density and viscosity of the syrup were found to be 0.8 g/mL, 7, 1.29 g/mL and 0.14 Pa/s, respectively. During accelerated stability studies no significant changes were observed in physical properties and 3.2% decrease in spinosin content was seen that is acceptable. The preservative effectiveness test showed that the free preservative formulation met the USP criteria. In conclusion, Z. jujuba fruit syrup has a suitable potential to be manufactured on the mass production for traditional herbal medicine markets. Page(s): 662-669