Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical Products
Volume:8 Issue: 3, Sep 2013

Context: To provide an updated review of published literature on the anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties of honey..Evidence Acquisition: CINAHL, BioMed Central, Cochrane Library, Medline and Embase data bases and reference lists were used to find randomized controlled trials and review articles. Randomized controlled trials using honey with a comparator were reviewed, along with published review articles to determine the relative benefits of tropical honey. These methods were undertaken by three reviewers.. Honey has anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. It can be used as a wound dressing to promote rapid and improved healing. These effects are due to honey’s anti-bacterial action, secondary to its high acidity, osmotic effect, anti-oxidant content and hydrogen peroxide content. The use of honey leads to improved wound healing in acute cases, pain relief in burn patients and decreased inflammatory response in such patients. However, it has proven to be ineffective in chronic leg ulcers. Overall, studies have been done in favor of the use of honey in medicine.. Honey has almost equal or slightly superior effects when compared with conventional treatments for acute wounds and superficial partial thickness burns. More randomized controlled trials with significant statistical power comparing different kinds of honey, are required in order to create a strong body of evidence towards definite recommendations for medical use. There is biological plausibility..

The increased incidence of inflammatory diseases has necessitated the need to search for new topical dosage form of dexamethasone.. The purpose of the present study was the preparation and evaluation of novel microemulsion as a topical delivery system for dexamethasone by mixing appropriate amount of surfactant including Tween 80 and Labrasol, cosurfactant such as capryol 90 and oil phase including labrafac lipophile wl-transcutol P (10:1 ratio).. The prepared microemulsions were evaluated regarding their particle size, zeta potential, X-Ray scattering, conductivity, stability, viscosity, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), refractory index (RI), pH, and x-ray diffraction (XRD).. The results showed that the maximum oil was incorporated in microemulsion system that contained surfactant to cosurfactant ratio of 4:1. The mean droplet size range of microemulsion formulation was in the range of 5.09 to 159 nm, and its refractory index (RI) and pH were 1.44 and 7, respectively. Viscosity range was 57-226 cps. Drug release profile showed that 48.18% of the drug released in the 24 hours of experiment. Also, Hexagonal, cubic and lamellar structures were seen in the SEM photograph and XRD peak of microemulsions.. This study demonstrated that physicochemical properties and in vitro release were dependent upon the contents of S/C, water, and oil percentage in formulations. SAXS technique and SEM obtained important information about microstructure of microemulsions. W/O and bicontinuous microemulsion with different microstructures were found in formulations..

Use of antioxidants is a means of reducing rancidity of fats and oils in food stuffs. The commercial synthetic antioxidants in food industry have been suspected to cause negative health effects. Therefore as alternatives, there is a strong need in finding new effective and safe antioxidants from natural sources to prevent deterioration of foods, drugs and cosmetics.. In order to investigate the antioxidant activity from natural sources as alternatives of commercial antioxidants, the antioxidant activity of the extracts of leaves and fruits of six different species of Iranian common conifers: Cupressus arizonica, Pinus halepensis, Pinus nigra, Pinus brutia var. elderica, Pinus wallichiana and Cedrus deodara were investigated in the current study.. The leaves and fruits of these plants were collected from different areas of the country. Methanol extracts of leaves and fruits of Iranian common conifers (six species) were prepared. Antioxidant activity of the samples was measured using ferric thiocyante (FTC) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) tests.. The results of the study, using the two methods, showed that all methanol extracts of leaves and fruits of the six species possessed antioxidant activity. The antioxidant activity of the samples was compared with the antioxidant activities of butylatedhydroxytoluene (BHT), as a synthetic antioxidant and α-tocopherol as a natural antioxidant. Methanol extractions of Pinus spp. leaves and fruits showed the highest antioxidant activity (quite higher than α- tocopherol). Among the extracts examined, the leaves of P. halpensis methanol extract showed the lowest activity.. At this stage it can be concluded that methanol extracts of these plants can be considered as strong antioxidant agents. However more investigation is necessary in order to evaluate the antioxidant activity of the components separate from each extracted sample using several different antioxidant methods..

Atrazine (ATZ) is a widely used herbicide in most countries because of its low cost and good selectivity. The concentration of ATZ that the EPA considers safe to consume in drinking water is 3 ppb. Therefore, recently, there have been concerns about its determination in trace levels. This compound is not electro-active, so in this research indirect electrochemical method for its detection in low levels was proposed.. The main aim of this study is the indirect determination of ATZ in water samples by voltammetry using nano-particle modified electrode.. A nano-CuO modified carbon paste electrode (NMCPE) is constructed and its application for indirect square wave voltammetric (SWV) detection of ATZ is reported. The sensing performance mechanism of the nano-CuO modified carbon paste electrode toward atrazine is due to complexation of the analyte with Cu (II) ion. The peak current for copper (II) reduction decreases with increase in the ATZ concentration and is monitored for its determination. Instrumental and chemical parameters influencing the detection of ATZ were optimized.. The results revealed that decrease in peak current was proportional to ATZ concentration over the range of 5-75 ng/mL. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 2 ng/mL and 5.6 ng/mL (n = 20), respectively. The relative standard deviation (n = 10) for the determination of 10 and 50 ng/mL of ATZ solution was estimated as 4.9% and 4.2 %, respectively.. This easily fabricated electrode together with the fast and sensitive SW voltammetry was successfully applied for the determination of concentration of ATZ at trace levels, in different water samples..

Natural chalcones and also their synthetic derivatives have attracted increasing attention due to various pharmacological applications. Development and discovery of new chalcones with antioxidant activities is one of the attracting areas in medicinal and natural product chemistry.. In the present study, a new series of pyridine based chalcones was synthesized and their antioxidant capacity was evaluated by beta carotene bleaching (BCB), DPPH free radical scavenging, ferrous ion chelating (FIC) activity and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) methods.. All compounds were synthesized via an aldol condensation procedure in methanol or ethanol solvent at room temperature and characterization was carried out by 1HNMR, IR and MS spectroscopic methods. Related melting points were also measured for each compound.. Fortunately, compounds 3e (16.53 ± 1.21 µg/mL), 3g (58.85 ± 1.10 µg/mL) and 3i (58.73 ± 12.94 µg/mL) showed higher antioxidant activity (EC50 ± SD) in comparison with quercetin (87.24 ± 3.93 µg/mL) as reference agent in ferrous ion chelating method. Furthermore, compounds 3g (4.82 ± 0.11 µg/mL) and 3h (6.33 ± 0.30 µg/mL) also exhibited an acceptable antioxidant property compared to Trolox (3.83 ± 0.22 µg/mL) in TEAC method. None of synthesized compounds demonstrated significant antioxidant activity in DPPH free radical scavenging as well as beta carotene bleaching tests.. According to the obtained data, synthesized pyridine based chalcones (3a-3j) could be proposed as potential antioxidant lead compounds.

In recent years there have been considerable interests in the use of probiotic live cells for nutritional and therapeutic purposes. This strategy can be concomitant with some limitations such as survival of live cell during the GI-transit and their effective delivery to target tissues upon ingestion. Several attempts have been made to overcome these limitations such as their microencapsulation, spray-drying and lyophilization.. In this study extract of cultured probiotics without cells was evaluated for its antimicrobial effects, antioxidant activity, and its stability.. In this work the potential of lyophilized-cell-free-probiotic-extract (LPE) as a suitable alternative strategy for the preparation of probiotic-products was investigated. The main aim of this study was to find out the antibacterial and antioxidant activity of LPE and also its stability. LPE was obtained by centrifugation and subsequent lyophilization of the collected supernatant from culture media of Lactobacillus casei. An enzymatic reagent-kit was used for detection of its content of lactic acid. Antibacterial test was performed using agar cup-plat-method, the DPPH scavenging -assay was used to determine its antioxidant activity and during a storage course, LPE was under a long-term stability study.. Results showed that, LPE had more antipathogenic effects, antioxidant activity, and stability during storage-time when compared to fresh probiotic-extract.. Employing the LPE as a new approach, gives novel concept of probiotic-products in food and medical marketing.

Achillea kellalensis, which is frequently used by Chaharmahal va Bakhtiarians residing in, Southwest of Iran, as a traditional herbal medicine for the treatment of acute diarrhea, has been selected to examine its antiviral activities against bovine rotavirus and cell toxicity activity in MA-104 cells.. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxic and anti-rotavirus properties of crude extracts of A. kellalensis.. The dried and powdered flowers of Achillea kellalensis were extracted with hot water and ethanol 50% (v/v). The cell viability and toxicity of the extracts were evaluated on MA-104 cells using four methods; trypan blue dye, NR, crystal violet and MTT assay. The in vitro anti-rotavirus properties were determined via four different assays, in order to evaluate the direct inhibition and/or the inhibition of viral replication.. Cytotoxicity of two A. kellalensis extracts showed different concentrations. Hydro-alcoholic extract had low CC50 at 600 µg/mL by the NR assay while the aqueous extract had high CC50 at 1000µg/mL by the crystal violet method. In the simultaneous treatment assay and post treatment assay, the extracts were able to prevent viral replication and inhibit the viral CPE on MA-104 cells at 10 TCID50, but the extracts did not exhibit direct antiviral activity on rotavirus adsorption. The effective concentration (EC50) of both extracts was observed to be 100 µg/mL.. These results indicate that A. kellalensis extracts exert potent anti-rotaviral activity only after viral adsorption. The two extracts from A. kellalensis showed a good selectivity index. Also these results suggest that extracts prepared from the flowers of A. kellalensis may be potential anti-rotaviral agents in vivo and be useful in veterinary medicine..

Over one hundred different pharmaceutical dosage forms have been recorded in literatures of Traditional Persian Medicine among which nasal forms are considerable.. This study designed to derive the most often applied nasal dosage forms together with those brief clinical administrations.. In the current study remaining pharmaceutical manuscripts of Persia during 9th to 18th century AD have been studied and different dosage forms related to nasal application of herbal medicines and their therapeutic effects were derived.. By searching through pharmaceutical manuscripts of medieval Persia, different nasal dosage forms involving eleven types related to three main groups are found. These types could be derived from powder, solution or liquid and gaseous forms. Gaseous form were classified into fumigation (Bakhoor), vapor bath (Enkebab), inhalation (Lakhlakheh), aroma agents (Ghalieh) and olfaction or smell (Shomoom). Nasal solutions were as drops (Ghatoor), nasal snuffing drops (Saoot) and liquid snuff formulations (Noshoogh). Powders were as nasal insufflation or snorting agents (Nofookh) and errhine or sternutator medicine (Otoos). Nasal forms were not applied only for local purposes. Rather systemic disorders and specially CNS complications were said to be a target for these dosage forms.. While this novel type of drug delivery is known as a suitable substitute for oral and parenteral administration, it was well accepted and extensively mentioned in Persian medical and pharmaceutical manuscripts and other traditional systems of medicine as well. Accordingly, medieval pharmaceutical standpoints on nasal dosage forms could still be an interesting subject of study. Therefore, the current work can briefly show the pharmaceutical knowledge on nasal formulations in medieval Persia and clarify a part of history of traditional Persian pharmacy.