Volume10,Issue7

Objective: This work is the first to investigate the in vitro anti-acne and cytotoxic activities of the leaves of Ludwigia peploides. With its important seasonal biomass production, this plant has great potential in several therapeutic and cosmetic applications. Methods: The antibacterial activity of the extract was screened against a consortium of skin microorganisms that cause acne vulgaris disease, using disc diffusion and broth microdilution methods. The antioxidant activity of methanolic leaf extract of L. peploides was evaluated by DPPH and NBT assays to assess the free radical scavenging activity of L. peploides, which in turn has a great importance related to its role in minimizing the oxidative stress linked to the pathophysiology of diseases like acne vulgaris. Its putative cytotoxicity was examined against human macrophage-like monocytic leukemia (THP-1) and human keratinocytes (HaCaT) cell lines. In addition, antiproliferative activity was screened against B16 cancer cell lines. Results: The extract displayed antioxidant effect by DPPH (IC₅₀= 58 ± 6.0 µg mL^-1) and NBT (IC₅₀= 30 ± 2.8 µg mL^-1) assays, and it was not toxic on HaCaT cells (IC₅₀ > 200 µg mL^-1). A strong inhibitory activity against Propionibacterium acnes (MIC = 1.9 µg mL^-1) was registered for the extract, which had a bactericidal effect against Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Salmonella enterica. Finally, the extract was shown to have an antiproliferative activity (IC₅₀=5.5 ± 2.3 µgmL^-1). Conclusion: The extract displays antioxidant and anti-acne effects as well as inhibition potential of B16 melanoma cells proliferation.

Diabetes mellitus is a worldwide fast growing non infectious, metabolic disorder. Hyperglycemia of this disease favors various infections. The choice of non antibiotic, antidiabetic drug metformin to treat diabetes mellitus which has antimicrobial activity was found to decrease the incidence and the severity of infections resulting in to improved outcome. It was found that metformin has antimicrobial activity against many Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, parasites, fungi and viruses. The most promising antimicrobial activity was found against mycobacterium tuberculosis. The possible mechanisms for this anti tubercular activity of metformin are activation of  AMPK and mitochondrial ROS production, acceleration of phagosome-lysosome fusion, improved immune response, increased CD 4 and CD 8 cells, rise in mycobacteria specific interferon secretion by CD 8 cells, reduced expression of inflammatory genes. Patients of diabetes mellitus with tuberculosis who received anti tubercular treatment along with metformin as an antidiabetic drug had better prognostic outcome than the similar group of patients who did not receive metformin. Metformin was also observed to increase survival in mice having endotoxemia  as a result  of the inhibition of mediators of the inflammation. Thus metformin was found to have promising antimicrobial activity which needs to be confirmed by meticulously planned human studies.

The frequent and indiscriminate use of antifungal drugs corroborates to the emergence of highly resistant micro-organisms, forcing the research and development of new compounds with fungicide activity. Among these are the phenylpropanoids, in particular the o-eugenol in, which its antifungal activity and in silico toxicology was evaluated in this study. The MIC and the MFC of the product against C. albicans LM 35 and ATCC 76645 were 64 and 128µg/mL respectively. However, the MIC and the MFC of the strain LM 45 was 64µg/mL. For the strains LM 102 and 233 the MIC, as well as the MFC was respectively 128µg/mL. For C. tropicalis LM 665 the MIC and the MFC were 128 and 256µg/mL respectively, and for the strain ATCC 13803 the MIC, as well as the MFC was 32µg/mL. In the in silico toxicology analysis was observed that the o-eugenol is similar to drugs with 27 possible activities with probability of being active superior to 70% (Pa ˃ 70%), as well as the absence of tumorigenic effects and damage to the reproductive system. Therefore, the o-eugenol showed antifungal activity against the strains used in this study and presents low risk of theoretical toxicity.

In current world Natural products from plants are of keen interest for the discovery of antimicrobial compounds in the field of medicine. The present study was aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activities against selected seven human respiratory tract infecting biota in three wild Solanum species namely Solanum indicum, Solanum trilobatum and Solanum xanthocarpum which are widely used in folk and traditional medicine to cure fever, whooping cough, bronchitis and common cold. The organic solvents such as Hexane, Acetone and Ethanol extract of leaves and fruits were used to find out the virulent activity of plant extracts on human pathogens. The standard disc diffusion assay was performed and the best five solvent extracts had chosen to perform TLC. Out of five solvents extracts three was chosen for direct bioautography study through agar overlay assay. All the extracts of the plants were tested against gram- positive and gram-negative microorganism to know there antimicrobial properties. Of these, leaf and fruit extracts of Solanum indicum, leaf of Solanum trilobatum exhibited maximum inhibition of the microbial growth than Solanum xanthocarpum extract.