Journal of Medicinal Herbs
Volume:8 Issue: 1, Spring 2017

Combretaceae family is   known for efficacy in the management of sickle cell disorder (SCD). Based on   the earlier reports of anti-sickling property of Terminalia genus the study investigates in vitro antisickling properties of Terminalia arjuna and Terminalia   bellirica. Anti-sickling   assay of methanolic and aqueous extract of T. arjuna and T. bellirica   on sickled RBCs were evaluated at different concentrations. The osmotic   fragility test was done to explore the effect of extracts on haemoglobin S   solubility and sickle cell membrane stability. Additionally antioxidant   activity and phytochemical analysis of extracts was evaluated. Treatment with the plant extracts at different concentrations showed decrease in percentage of sickled cells. Extract of T. arjuna had a significantly higher (p < 0.05) antisickling activity at the tested concentrations of 10 mg/ml. The methanolic extract at 10 mg/ml showed the best cell membrane stability as compared to T. bellirica extract. It was observed that, T. bellirica extract was deficient of alkaloid and tannins. Moreover, all extracts/fractions showed antioxidant activity, although lesser as compared to the standard.  It was observed that the leaf extracts of T. arjuna has a significant antisickling effect, hence it can be potentially used in clinical management of SCD. The bioactive compounds can be used to supplement as well as management drug for sickle cell disease.

 The hot water extract of a mixture of Anogeissus leiocarpus and Prosopis africana is widely used in the northern part of Nigeria for the treatment and management of asthma. Since investigations of its pharmacological activities already justify its use, and the need for standardization of herbal medicine and develop appropriate dosage forms has continued to grow, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of some common channelling agents (sodium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate and sodium lauryl sulphate) on the compaction properties of the mixed stem bark extracts of Anogeissus leiocarpus and Prosopis africana. Granules of the mixed extracts (AA1) were produced using the wet granulation method of massing and screening. The micromeritics and flow properties of the extracts as well as the effects of the three common additives were studied, while the compaction properties of the extract formulated alone and in the presence of these additives were interrogated using the Heckel equation.   Our results showed that, all the formulations containing the channelling agents exhibited poor flow. Granules prepared using sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) exhibited plastic deformation during consolidation, those formulated using calcium carbonate (CaCO3) showed initial fragmentation before consolidation by plastic deformation and those formulated using sodium lauryl sulphate consolidated essentially by plastic deformation. Inclusion of additives modified the compressibility profiles of the formulations. Tensile strength of the formulations containing NaHCO3 and sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) were observed to be concentration dependent while those containing CaCO3 showed no appreciable increase in tensile strength with increased pressure. Generally, formulations containing 5% of the additives gave the highest tensile strength, however, those containing CaCO3 were found to be higher than the other two formulations.  Considering that, none of the channelling agents altered significantly the compaction properties of AA1, they might be useful in developing standardized and robust tablets of A. leiocarpus and P. africana admixtures for Asthma therapy.

Platychaete aucheri (Boiss.) Boissis one of the Persian endemic plants and it belongs to Asteraceae family. The present study was aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of crude methanolic extract and three sub-fractions of the flowering aerial parts of Platychaete aucheri against some gram-positive and gram-negative standard bacteria, Candida albicans and clinical Escherichia coli isolated from urinary tract infections (UTIs) and burn wounds. Total methanolic extract of P.aucheri was prepared by maceration method.Further chloroform, petroleum ether and aqueous fractions were obtained by using liquid-liquid extraction method. Antimicrobial effect examined by well diffusion and broth microdilution method based on the CLSI protocol. The standard tested microbial strains included Escherichia coli PTCC 1399, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PTCC 1430, Staphylococcus aureus PTCC1431, Bacillus cereus PTCC 1247 and Candida albicans PTCC 5027. Also, extract and fractions were tested against Escherichia coli isolates from urine samples and burn wounds of patients from Imam Khomeini and Shahid Motahari Hospitals of Tehran (Iran) during 2013 and 2014 respectively. Total extract and fractions had ability to prevent microbial growth. Total methanolic extract, chloroform and petroleum ether fractions demonstrated moderate antimicrobial activity against standard P.aeruginosa and E.coli with MIC values in the range of 35-42 mg/ml. MIC values against clinical isolates of E.coli were in the range of 60-72 mg/ml. The aqueous fraction showed lower antimicrobial activity in comparison to total extract and other fractions against standard and clinical isolates. Results confirmed that petroleum ether and chloroform fractions had relatively more anti bacterial activity than total methanolic extract and aqueous fraction. Based on the non toxicity results in future studies, this plant can be used as a natural antibacterial source for therapeutic products to help UTIs and wounds treatment.

 Dill “Anethum graveolens” is an annual medical plantin the celery family “Apiaceae”. It is the sole species of the genus “Anethum”.The health advantages of dill seed include its ability to increasedigestive health, as well as providingrelief from insomnia, hiccups, diarrhea, dysentery, menstrual disorders, respiratory disorders, and cancer. This experiment aimed to determine the effects of using different levels of Dill seeds on performance, some blood biochemical parameters and intestinal microbial population in Ross 308 broiler chicks.  300 one-day-old male broiler chickswere divided into the four treatments with six replicates and 15 birds each as randomized design. The treatments contained basal diet with no Dill seeds kept as control, and200,400 and 600 gof Dill seedsper each ton of diets respectively. The live bodyweightsgain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio of birdswere calculated weekly. At the end of the experimentfour male birdsform each replicates were slaughtered and dressing percentage were calculated. In addition, some carcass traits and chick’s visceral partwere weighed separately as percentage of carcass and some organs weight. Data indicated that using Dill seeds increased feed intake (FI) in treatmentscompared to control.Alsobody weight (BW) (g/d) and Pre-slaughter weight (g) were higher in groups that werefed by dill seedscompared to the control. Additionally, therewere significant differences (p<0.05) for feed conversation ratio (FCR) among treatments. In conclusion, increasing levels of Dill seeds improved performance and some blood biochemical parametersof broilers chicks.

Some knowledge about medicinal plants is available in old references or books. But important point is the information of traditional usage of medicinal plants from different parts of Iran will be worthwhile and in addition to encouraging people to it provides a good background for future examination about medicinal plants.The objectives of this study is to identify the medicinal plants along with local names, utilized parts, administration route, ailments treated, therapeutic effect and preparation methods.   So to get this information, we use semi-structured interviews. This research was conducted in the summer and spring of 2016. During this period around 150 individuals (75 men, 75 women; in an age group between 20 and 95 years) were interviewed in 6 villages. Number of questions in this survey was 15 questions. Ethno botanical data were analyzed by use-reports. In addition important indices like Informant Agreement Ratio (IAR), Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) and Cultural Importance (CI) were calculated. Furthermore, a traditional null hypothesis testing was adopted. These are the most popular indices in quantitative ethno botany. A total of 54 medicinal plants belonging to 22 families were identified. The most common families are Lamiaceae, Asteraceae, Apiaceae and Rosaceae, with 22, 17, 5 and 4%, respectively. The most common preparations methods were infusion (52%), eaten raw and decoction (13%). Also, between different parts of the plant, the leaves are mostly used. According to RFC and CI indices, the most important plant is Gallium verum. Nervous disease has the highest Informant Consensus Factor value with the rate of 0.80. Introduction of medicinal plants in each region, along with their use can be a great help to create jobs and Encouraging people to cultivate these plants.

According to globally development of stomach cancer especially in Ardabil, Iran, as the second major cause of mortality throughout the world, increased drug-resistant bacteria including Helicobacter pylori as the most important risk factors for stomach cancer, and side effects of antibiotics and chemical drugs normally used to treat. The current research was conducted to investigate the anticancer and antimicrobial effects of native herbs of liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) and pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) extractions for finding a solution with the lowest complications in control or treatment of stomach cancer.The extractions were firstly obtained using Soxhlet and methanol solvent and then their compounds were determined by GC/MS. Antimicrobial activity, MIC and MBC of the extractions were assessed respectively using agar diffusion and broth dilution test and the anticancer effect on stomach cancer (cell line AGS) was assessed by MTT assay. H. pylori ATCC 26695 was respectively revived and purified on Brucella broth containing 7% citrated horse serum and Columbia agar. The analysis showed thatliquorice extract contains 15 compositions, mainly consists of 26.48% Nonane, 23.38% Ethylcyclohexan, 8.29% 3-Bromodecane, 10.31% trans-2-Heptenal, 8.93% 9-Octadecenamide and 4.68% β-pregna and pennyroyal extract contains 17 compositions, mainly including 3.36% Camphor, 22.79% Pulegone, 4.92% Paramenth-3-n8-l, 8.06% Menthoforan, 7.54% Cis-Isopulegon and 24.58% α-Selinene. The bacteria were resistant or semi-sensitive to common antibiotics, whereas had considerable sensitivity to herbal extracts and liquorice showed almost three times more antibacterial effect. Pennyroyal extract had no cytotoxic effects, but the anticancer effect was observed in liquorice extract with optimal concentration of 25 μg/ml after 48 hours.  In conclusion, liquorice extract due to the significant health benefits of anticancer and antibacterial activity can be selective and highly effective herbal medicine as an alternative to antibiotics and other chemical drugs.

A new sustainable tissue-based system is presented by plant hairy roots, preserving all of the several specialized types of cell with critical roles in allowing bioactive secondary molecules to be synthesized more consistently as usual. The system is also essential for studying the production of alkaloid in culture. The Atropa komarovii leaves were wounded and infected with soil gram-negative bacterium Agrobacterium rhizogenes ATCC15834. After three weeks, the transformation roots and control roots without infection, appeared, and for confirming that T-DNA Ri plasmid fragments were transformed and integrated to plant genome, the rolB gene region, was amplified using PCR. HPLC method was then used for assaying how two tropane alkaloids such as atropine (hyosciamine) and scopolamine (hyoscine) were produced in hairy roots,control roots, leaves and roots of plantlet. The data indicated that diagnostic 500bp rol B product amplification was exhibited to be present by all the transformed hairy roots. Scopolamine content in hairy roots was considerably greater than that in control roots but greatest (Hyoscyamine) atropine content was observed in control roots. Analysis of DW, FW and root length showed that fresh and dry root weight increased in hairy roots compared with that in non transformed root. The present study demonstrated that secondary metabolite production using medicinal plants concerns many researchers worldwide today and hairy root culture is a useful method for producing tropane alkaloids in solanaceae.

 Family Zingiberaceae is worldwide in   distribution. Plants of the zingiberaceae family are used in traditional   herbal folk medicine besides their uses in spices, cosmetic, ornamental, food   preservatives etc. In Uttarakhand the herbs grow from sub-tropical to   temperate region. Globba sessiliflora Simsrhizomes were collected at maturity stage in November from   Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, India. In present communication the medicinal   use of various zingiberaceous herb provoked us to study the chemical   diversity and pharmacological activity determination of this important   traditional herb. The essential oil was extracted using hydrodistillation   method and analyzed by GC-MS. Anti-inflamatory, anti-nociceptive and   antipyretic activities of essential oil were experimently determined using   mice model. The major compounds identified were β-eudesmol (27.6%), (E)-β-caryophyllene (24.3%), α-humulene   (3.0%), (6E)-nerolidol (4.1%),   caryophyllene oxide (9.7%), γ-eudesmol (6.4%) and τ-muurolol (8.3%) besides   other minor constituents. Essential oil of G. sessiliflora rhizome showed good anti-inflamatory,   anti-nociceptive and antipyretic activities at the dose level of 100 mg/kg   body weight. The oral administration of the essential oil exhibited no toxicity at 400, 600 and 800 mg/kg   b.wt. concentration. Ibuprofen, indomthacin and paracetamol were used as   standard drugs for comparison. G. sessiliflora essential oil can be used as herbal remedy for its nontoxicityanti-inflamatory, anti-nociceptive and antipyretic activities.