Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical Products
Volume:8 Issue: 2, Jun 2013

Traditional medicines are among the oldest medicines and their extensive use in the recent years reflects the public’s interest in alternatives to conventional medicine.. The aim of this study was to investigate the genotoxicity of Dillsun herbal medicine in DNA damage of rat hepatocytes compared to sodium dichromate using a comet assay technique.. Male Wistar rats were caught and their liver was washed with a perfusion buffer, followed by another wash with collagenase buffer. Hepatocytes were isolated and transferred on to a petri dish which contained a washing buffer. Hepatocytes were then separated and the cells were filtered and centrifuged at 1500 rpm for 3 minutes. The hepatocytes were counted using neubauer slides and kept in a bioreactor for 30 minutes. Cells were then exposed to different doses of Dillsun such 0.2, 1, 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/mL. Sodium dichromate was the positive control and incubated buffer was used as a negative control. Cell suspensions were placed on slides pre-coated with low melting point agarose and were covered with agarose gel. Agarose gels were then lysed and electrophoresis was done, followed by neutralization and staining. Slides were analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. The size and extent of DNA damage visualized by this technique was evaluated by examining cells. Migration behavior was classified according to the Kobayashi pattern.. The results indicated that with an increase of Dillsun dose, the mutagenicity index slightly increased but compared to the positive control, there were significant differences, which suggests that the crude extract of Dillsun in vitro did not have mutagenic effects.. In conclusion the results showed that Dillsun has no mutagenic effects when compared to the positive control. Although by increasing the Dillsun dose, DNA damage also increased but this increase was not significant..

Nitrites are mainly used in food preservation. These materials could change to nitrosamine due to the effect of heat and gastric acid. Nitrosamine is absorbed in intestine and enters the liver and hepatocytes by portal venous system, and hampers the detoxification system of liver by interfering in cytochrome P450 enzymes, so, the liver gently proceeds to cirrhosis and cancer.. The current study aimed to investigate the hepatic and renal protective effects of aerial parts of Echinacea purpurea extract (EPE) on injury induced by diethylnitrosamine (DEN).. Twenty Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups. Groups were as follow: Control group (normal saline), DEN (200 mg/kg, IP, a single dose), EPE (100 mg/kg, orally, daily) and DEN + EPE which received as group DEN and EPE. After 30 days, Blood samples, and liver and kidney tissues were taken for further examination. Aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), BUN, Creatinine and total and direct bilirubin were estimated in serum.. DEN induced hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity in all the treated animals by elevated serum ALT, AST, ALP and BUN, creatinin and total and direct bilirubin levels. AST, BUN and total and direct bilirubin significantly decreased in DEN + EPE compared to DEN group. After 30 days of DEN administration, histopathological investigation revealed proliferation of hepatic stellate cells and early fibrosis which were partly improved by EPE administration.. The current study findings indicated that Echinacea purpurea extract played an important role in the protection against DEN toxicity in rats..

trans-Resveratrol (t-Res) is a natural phenolic compound with various biological activities such as antioxidant, anticancer, cancer chemopreventive, cardioprotective, and neuroprotective.. There is no comprehensive study about the stability of t-Res in human plasma. With respect to extensive use of t-Res in clinical trials and pharmacokinetic studies, in this study, we aimed to measure the plasma stability of t-Res at different conditions of lighting, pH, and temperature, and in the presence of routine antioxidant agents (BHT and VIT C).. t-Res stability in human plasma was evaluated at different conditions of lighting, pH and temperature, and in the presence of routine antioxidant agents (BHT and VIT C), and quantitatively determined using HPLC-UV method at 306 nm.. Our findings revealed that t-Res was quite stable in different temperatures ranging from -70 °C to 25 °C, and acidic pH conditions in plasma for a month, when protected from light, but it was unstable in alkali pH and in lighting conditions.. In lighting conditions, most of t-Res was isomerized to the other isomer cis-resveratrol. t-Res is unstable in alkali pH and when exposed to light. t-Res was quite stable at other conditions, and several freeze-thaw cycles did not have any effect on its stability..

It is necessary to develop novel, affordable, and accessible drugs with few side effects as alternatives of the currently available chemical agents for leishmaniasis.. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of these drugs on L. major under in vitro conditions.. In the current study, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 µg/mL concentrations of aqueous extract of Artemisia sieberi and chemical artemisinin were tested on promastigotes of Leishmania major (L. major), uninfected macrophages, and infected macrophages with intracellular amastigotes of L. major, by direct counting and 3-(4 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromid methods.. The results obtained for each drug were compared with other drugs and also with the results of the control groups. The results related to promastigote and amastigote assays showed that when the dose of both drugs increased, the parasite number is reduced in comparison with the control groups. Moreover, the parasitic burden in the test cultures decreased significantly. Macrophage assay results showed that the effects of both drugs on uninfected and healthy macrophages were very low.. These results indicate that both drugs have anti-Leishmania effects, which was higher in Artemisia sieberi compared with artemisinin. Thus, carrying out further studies on the effects of Artemisia sieberi in infected animals with L. major is recommended..

Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis and many antioxidant agents have been used for the treatment of this disease in animals.. To evaluate the antioxidant effects of pomegranate seed extract (PSE) on bleomycin treated rats.. Male Spraque – Dawley rats were divided into 5 groups: rats in groups I (bleomycin) and II (control) were given a single dose of bleomycin (7.5 IU/kg, intratracheally) in the bleomycin group and same amount of saline in the control, respectively. Treatment groups (III-V) were given PSE (100,200,400 mg/kg) orally a week before the bleomycin injection and this was continued for 3 weeks. At day 28, animals were sacrificed and lungs were removed for histological investigation.. Histological analysis showed that PSE could prevent pathological changes that were seen in the bleomycin group.. Results of the present study showed that hydroalcoholic extracts of pomegranate seeds had a significant protective effect against bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis by its antioxidant properties. The highest protective effect was observed for the 400 mg/kg dose..

Recently, biuret derivatives have been reported as showing moderate to good cytotoxic effect against certain cancer cell lines. In this study, a high-performance liquid chromatography method was developed for determination of 1-(2-phenylethyl)-5-(quinaldin-4-yl) biuret (PEQB) in rat plasma to use in future studies on this compound and related derivatives.. In this study, we describe a simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography method with UV detection for determination of 1-(2-phenylethyl)-6-(quinaldin-4-yl) biuret (PEQB) in rat plasma.. Separations were performed on a Nucleosil-100 CN HPLC column (125 × 4.0 mm) (5 µm), using a mixture of acetonitrile: methanol: potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer (0.05 M, pH 3.5) (10:10:80) as mobile phase delivered at a flow rate of 1 mL/minute. Detection of PEQB and internal standard (1-([[3-(1,3-benzothiazol-2-ylsulfanyl)propyl]carbamoyl]amino)-N-phenylformamide) was performed at 235 nm and ambient temperature. Plasma samples (200 µL) were prepared by addition of 40 µL internal standard (100 µg/mL), and 400 µL acetonitrile. After vortex mixing and centrifugation at 10000 g, 50 µL of the clear supernatant was directly injected onto the chromatography column. Calibration curves were constructed by fitting the peak area ratio of the biuret to internal standard against concentration of biuret to a power model using generalized least squares nonlinear regression method.. Under the above chromatography condition, biuret compound (PEQB) and the internal standard were detected at 4.5 and 13.5 minutes, respectively. Limit of quantitation of the PEQB was 0.1 µg/mL. Accuracy of the method over the concentration range of 0.1-100 µg/mL was between 88-109%. Inter- and intraday precisions were 4-19% and 6-8%, respectively. A good relationship in the form of a power model was found for two separate concentration ranges of 0.1-1 and 2.5-100 µg/mL (R 2> 0.99).. The presented simple HPLC method is sufficiently accurate, precise and sensitive for the quantitation of 1-(2-phenylethyl)-5-(quinaldin-4-yl) biuret in rat plasma..

Different methods have been studied for targeting drugs to the colon, such as pH-based, time dependent and bacterially degradable systems. However, due to variations in physiological conditions of patients, one system alone could not be completely reliable on colonic drug delivery.. The aim of this study was preparation and evaluation of a novel colon-specific drug delivery system for 5-ASA (mesalazine) pellets using pectin as a microbially degradable polymeric carrier and Eudragit RS (ERS) and Eudragit RL (ERL) as time-dependent polymers.. Formulations were constructed based on a multilevel full factorial design. Pellets were prepared via extrusion - spheronization and evaluated for physicochemical properties, image analysis, SEM, FT-IR, DSC and in vitro drug release studies in the simulated gastric fluid with pH = 1.2 (SGF), simulated intestinal fluid with pH = 6.8 (SIF) and simulated colonic fluid with pH = 6.8 in presence of pectinolytic enzyme (SCF).. It was shown that in the presence of pectin, formulations without ERL had a relative resistance to drug release in SGF. Pellets containing pectin and the least amount of ERS had the highest burst release effect in SCF. On the other hand, increasing in amount of ERS in the formulations caused a sustained drug release. Presence of pectin in formulations containing ERS and ERL caused sensitivity of formulations to pectinolytic enzyme which can suitable for a colon specific drug delivery system.. It was shown that combination of pectin and eudragits can relatively control drug release in the upper GI. On the other hand, pectin degraded in the presence of pectinase and formulations were susceptible to the colonic media..

Aloe vera L. is an important pharmaceutical plant from which several medicinal and cosmetic compounds are extracted. Aloe is naturally propagated through offset, which is a slow and expensive labor cost method with low economical income.. In this study, the effect of different media on shoot proliferation of the shoot tip of Aloe vera L. was investigated.. In vitro techniques are some of the suggested methods for rapid propagation of Aloe. In this experiment, the shoot tips of mother plants were grown in a greenhouse. After surface sterilization of the explants, they were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (1962) (MS) medium containing different concentrations of kinetin and naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). The experiment was carried out in the form of a randomized complete design with three replications.. The results showed that MS media containing 1.5 mg/L kinetin along with 0.15 or 0.3 mg/L NAA produced the highest percentage of proliferated shoots. In addition, the percentage of proliferated shoots in MS medium containing 2.0 or 2.5 mg/L benzylaminopurine (BAP) + 0.15 mg/L NAA was significantly higher than the other treatments.. Analysis of the interactive effects of NAA, kinetin and BAP on shoot proliferation showed that most of the proliferated shoots produced in MS medium containing 1.0 mg/L BAP + 1.0 mg/L kinetin + 0.15 mg/L NAA were significantly different from other treatments. Rooting quality was greater in MS media containing 1.0 mg/L IBA than a 1.0 mg/L NAA treatment..