Volume2,Issue1

The investigation was conducted with crude methanolic extract of leaf of Abutilon indicum for its cytotoxic and antimicrobial activity. Antimicrobial activity of the extract was evaluated against various Gram-positive, Gramnegative bacteria and fungi using disk diffusion technique. For cytotoxic activity, brine shrimp lethality bioassay was performed to estimate LC50 values. The average zone of inhibition produced by carbon tetrachloride extract was found 7-10 mm at a concentration of 400µg/disc. The chloroform extract exhibited no antibacterial activity except Sarcina lutea (8.4 mm). In brine shrimp lethality bioassay, LC50 obtained from the best-fit line slope were 0.419, 3.01, 5.62, 1.51, and 11.20 µg/ml for positive control (vincristine sulfate), n-hexane, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform and aqueous fraction respectively. The cytotoxicity exhibited by chloroform soluble fraction of methanol extract was promising. The carbon tetrachloride extract showed mild to moderate antimicrobial activity.

Ayurvedic medicine, Pancasama Churna known to be effective mainly on gastrointestinal tract (GIT), has been standardized by following modern scientific quality control procedures both for the raw material and the finished product. Pancasama Churna was subjected to macro-microscopic, Physico-chemical, preliminary phytochemical, TLC and HPTLC to fix the quality standards of this drug. This study results a set of diagnostic characters essential for its standardisation. TLC and HPTLC fingerprinting were employed to fix standards. The values obtained after physicochemical parameters study showed that these values should be helpful to develop new pharmacopoeial standards. This will be helpful to overcome batch to batch variations in traditional preparation of Pancasama churna. The physicochemical constituents found to be present in raw material used for the preparation of Pancasama churna possibly facilitate the desirable therapeutic efficacy of the medicinal formulation.

Determination of heavy metals including Pb, Cd, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu in Taraxacum Officinale from polluted and unpolluted areas of Peshawar was performed by atomic absorption spectrometry. High concentration of iron was found in flowers of plants from polluted area (67.30 mg kg-1), leaves (31.91 mg kg-1), roots (20.06 mg kg-1) and stem (11.75 mg kg-1) followed by lead in flowers (8.05 mg kg-1), leaves (4.96 mg kg-1), roots (4.71 mg kg-1) and stem (2.86 mg kg- 1 ). The concentration of other metals was also high in some parts of the plant. The results showed that the plant exposed to pollution contained greater amount of heavy metals than plant growing in unpolluted area. The implication of the investigation was to make awareness among the public about the use of T. officinale containing high level of heavy metals and their adverse toxic effects.

The present study was carried out to investigate the effects of Polyherbal extract (PHE) on liver fibrosis in rats induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) and to explore its possible mechanisms. Liver injury was induced in Male Wistar albino rats by injection with 50% CCl4 subcutaneously twice a week for 8 weeks. At the same time, Polyherbal extract (50, 100 and 150 mg/kg) was administered intragastrically. Upon pathological examination, the Polyherbal extract-treated rats significantly reduced the liver damage and the symptoms of liver injury. Administration of Polyherbal extract (PHE) decreased CCl4- induced elevation of serum transaminase activities, hyaluronic acid, laminin and procollagen type III levels, and contents of hydroxyproline in liver tissue by approximately 30–60%. It also restored the decrease in SOD and GSH-Px activites and inhibited the formation of lipid peroxidative products during CCl4 treatment. Moreover, Polyherbal extract (100, 150 mg/kg, ig) decreased the elevation of TGF-β1 by 47.7% and 53.1%, respectively.These results suggested that Polyherbal extract significantly inhibited the progression of hepatic injury induced by CCl4, and the inhibitory effect of Polyherbal extract on hepatic injury might be associated with its ability to scavenge free radicals, decrease the level of TGF- β1.

The present study deals with the investigation of standardized and phytochemically evaluated aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts of the plant Boerhaavia diffusa Linn. The whole plants of Boerhaavia diffusa L. (Nyctaginaceae) are reported to have good medicinal values in traditional system of medicines. The present study deals with pharmacognostical examination of morphological and microscopical characters and phytochemical investigations of Boerhaavia diffusa plants including determination of loss on drying, ash values, TLC and extractive values. The preliminary phytochemical screening of powdered drug was also carried out. The qualitative chemical examinations revealed the presence of various phytoconstituents like carbohydrates, saponins, phenolic compounds and mucilages in the extracts.