Search results for: Syzygium aromaticum extract

Authors: Hadj Abd El Kader Benghenia, Fethi Bereksi Reguig

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In clinical medicine, blood pressure, raised blood hemodynamic monitoring is rich pathophysiological information of cardiovascular system, of course described through factors such as: blood volume, arterial compliance and peripheral resistance. In this work, we are interested in analyzing these signals to propose a detection algorithm to delineate the different sequences and especially systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and the wave and dicrotic to do their analysis in order to extract the cardiovascular parameters.

Keywords: blood pressure, SBP, DBP, detection algorithm

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Authors: Hajir, B. Abdllha, , Alaa, I. Mohamed, Khansa, A. Almoniem, Naga, I. Adam, Wdeea, Alhaadi, Ahmed, A. Elshikh, Ahmed, J. Ali, Ismail, G. Makuar, Anas, M. Elnazeer, Nagat, A. Elrofaei, Samir, F. Abdoelftah, Monier, N. Hemidan

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The present study was designed to investigate antimicrobial, and antioxidant activities of five species from Acacia (Acacia albidia, Acacia mellifera, Acacia nubica, Acacia seyal var.seyal and Acacia tortilis). Phytochemical study was piloted to detect the bioactive compounds, which have been responsible from the biological activities. The ethanol, chloroform and acetone plant extracts were seasoned against standard bacteria strains of gram +ve bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) ,Gram -ve bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) and standard fungi Candida albicans (ATCC 90028), using cup-plate method. The antioxidant activities were conducted via DPPH radical scavenging and metal chelating assays. Prospective activity against the five species was observed in acetone extract. Ethanol extract showed highest activities against Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans. Potential antioxidant activity was presented by ethanol. Cholorophorm and acetone extracts via DPPH, the radical scavenging activities were found to be 91±0.03, 88±0.01 and 85±0.04 respectively. The results of phytochemical screening showed that all extracts of studied plant contain flavonoids, saponins, terpenoids, steroids, alkaloids, phenols and tannins. This study give rise to antioxidant, antimicrobial properties of studied plant, and showed interesting correlation with the phytochemical constituents and biological activities.

Keywords: antimicrobial, Antioxidant, Acacia albidia, Acacia mellifera, acacia nubica, acacia seyal var.seyal, Acacia tortilis

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Authors: Valiollah Babaeipour, Mahdi Rahaie

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food supplements are rich in specific nutrients and bioactive compounds that eliminate free radicals and improve cellular metabolism. The major bioactive compounds are found in bran and cereal sprouts. Secondary metabolites of these microorganisms have antioxidant properties that can be used alone or in combination with chemotherapy and radiation therapy to treat cancer. Biologically active compounds such as benzoquinone derivatives extracted from fermented wheat germ extract (FWGE) have several positive effects on the overall state of human health and strengthen the immune system. The present work describes the discontinuous fermentation of raw wheat germ for FWGE production through the simultaneous culture process using the probiotic strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lactobacillus plantarum, and the possibility of using solid waste. To increase production efficiency, first to select important factors in the optimization of each fermentation process, using a factorial statistical scheme of stirring fraction (120 to 200 rpm), dilution of solids to solvent (1 to 8-12), fermentation time (16 to 24 hours) and strain to wheat germ ratio (20% to 50%) were studied and then simultaneous culture was performed to increase the yields of 2 and 6 dimethoxybenzoquinone (2,6-DMBQ). Since 2 and 6 dimethoxy benzoquinone were fermented as the main biologically active compound in wheat germ extract, UV-Vis analysis was performed to confirm the presence of 2 and 6 dimethoxy benzoquinone in the final product. In addition, 2,6-DMBQ of some products was isolated in a non-polar C-18 column and quantified using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Based on our findings, it can be concluded that the increase of 2 and 6 dimethoxybenzoquinone in the simultaneous culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae - Lactobacillus plantarum compared to pure culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (from 1.89 mg / g) to 28.9% (2.66 mg / g) Increased.

Keywords: wheat germ, FWGE, saccharomyces cerevisiae, lactobacillus plantarum, co-culture, 2, 6-DMBQ

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Authors: Karem H. Alzoubi, Ahmad S. Alkofahi, Omar F. Khabour, Nizar M. Mhaidat

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Herbal medicinal products represent a major focus for drug development and industry and it holds a significant share in drug-market all over the globe. In here, selected medicinal plant extracts from Jordan with high antioxidative capacity were tested for their protective effect against oxidative DNA damage using in vitro 8-hydroxydeoxyguanisine and sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) assays in cultured human lymphocytes. The following plant extracts were tested Cupressus sempervirens L., Psidium guajava (L.) Gaerth., Silybum marianum L., Malva sylvestris L., Varthemia iphionoides Boiss., Eminium spiculatum L. Blume, Pistachia palaestina Boiss., Artemisia herba-alba Asso, Ficus carica L., Morus alba Linn , Cucumis sativus L., Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh., Salvia triloba L., Zizyphus spina-christi L. Desf., and Laurus nobilis L. A fractionation scheme for the active plant extracts of the above was followed. Plants extract fractions with best protective properties against DNA damage included hexane fraction of S. marianum L. (aerial parts), chloroform fractions of P. palaestina Boiss. (Fruits), ethanolic fractions of E. camaldulensis Dehnh (leaves), S. triloba L. (leaves), and ethanolic fractions of Z. spina-christi L. Desf. (Fruits/leaves). On the other hand, the ethanolic extracts of V. iphionoides Boiss was found to increase oxidative DNA damage. Results of the SCEs are undergoing. In conclusion, plant extracts with antioxidative DNA damage properties might have clinical applications in cancer prevention.

Keywords: medicinal plants extract, fractionation, oxidative DNA damage, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanisine, SCEs, Jordan

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Authors: Hozaifa Zaki, Ghada Soliman

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In this paper, we introduced an approach for Automated Dotted Arabic Expiration Date Extraction using Optimized Convolutional Autoencoder (ARABEX) with bidirectional LSTM. This approach is used for translating the Arabic dot-matrix expiration dates into their corresponding filled-in dates. A custom lightweight Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network (CRNN) model is then employed to extract the expiration dates. Due to the lack of available dataset images for the Arabic dot-matrix expiration date, we generated synthetic images by creating an Arabic dot-matrix True Type Font (TTF) matrix to address this limitation. Our model was trained on a realistic synthetic dataset of 3287 images, covering the period from 2019 to 2027, represented in the format of yyyy/mm/dd. We then trained our custom CRNN model using the generated synthetic images to assess the performance of our model (ARABEX) by extracting expiration dates from the translated images. Our proposed approach achieved an accuracy of 99.4% on the test dataset of 658 images, while also achieving a Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) of 0.46 for image translation on our dataset. The ARABEX approach demonstrates its ability to be applied to various downstream learning tasks, including image translation and reconstruction. Moreover, this pipeline (ARABEX+CRNN) can be seamlessly integrated into automated sorting systems to extract expiry dates and sort products accordingly during the manufacturing stage. By eliminating the need for manual entry of expiration dates, which can be time-consuming and inefficient for merchants, our approach offers significant results in terms of efficiency and accuracy for Arabic dot-matrix expiration date recognition.

Keywords: computer vision, deep learning, image processing, character recognition

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Authors: Karishma Sebastian, Pavethra A., Manjula B. S., K. N. Satheeshan, Jenita Thinakaran

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Red Banana is a popular variety of banana with strong market demand. Its ripe fruits are less resistant to transportation, complicating logistics. Moreover, as it is a climacteric fruit, its post-harvest shelf life is limited. The current study aimed to increase the postharvest shelf life of Red Banana fruits by adopting different postharvest treatments. Fruit bunches of Red Banana were harvested at the mature green stage, separated into hands, precooled, subjected to 12 treatments, and stored in Corrugated Fibre Board boxes till the end of shelf life under ambient conditions. Fruits coated with 10% bee wax + 0.5% clove oil (T₄), fruits subjected to coating with 10% bee wax and packaging with potassium permanganate (T₉), and fruits dipped in hot water at 50°C for 10 minutes and packaging with potassium permanganate (T₁₁) registered the highest shelf life of 18.67 days. The highest TSS of 26.33°Brix was noticed in fruits stored with potassium permanganate (T₈) after 12.67 days of storage, and lowest titratable acidity of 0.19%, and the highest sugar-acid ratio of 79.76 was noticed in control (T₁₂) after 11.33 days of storage. Moreover, the highest vitamin C content (7.74 mg 100 g⁻¹), total sugar content (18.47%), reducing sugar content (15.49%), total carotenoid content (24.13 µg 100 g-¹) was noticed in treatments T₇ (hot water dipping at 50 °C for 10 minutes) after 17.67 days, T₁₀ (coating with 40% aloe vera extract and packaged with potassium permanganate) after 13.33 days, T₄ (coating with 10% bee wax + 0.5% clove oil) after 18.67 days and T₉ (coating with 10% bee wax + potassium permanganate) after 18.67 days of storage respectively. Furthermore, the lowest fungal and bacterial counts were observed in treatments T₂ (dipping in 30ppm sodium hypochlorite solution), T₇ (hot water dipping at 50 °C for 10 minutes), T₉ (coating with 10% bee wax + potassium permanganate), and T₁₀ (coating with 40% aloe vera extract + potassium permanganate).

Keywords: bee wax, post-harvest treatments, potassium permanganate, Red Banana, shelf life

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Authors: Dawang D. N., Dasat G. S., Nden D.

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Endophyte means “in the plant” are referred to all microorganisms that live in the internal tissues of stems, petioles, roots and leaves of plants causing no apparent symptoms of disease. Secondary metabolites from fungal endophytes have an enormous potential applications as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer and antidiabeties. Thus, this study aimed to determine the antimicrobial activity of these metabolites against some clinical isolates. The fungi were subjected to fermentation medium and the metabolites were extracted using ethyl acetate. The fungal extracts showed both antibacterial and antifungal activities with maximum zone of inhibition diameter of 10.5mm against Aspergillus fumigatus. Staphylococcus aureus was inhibited by all the five crude extracts with inhibition zone diameter of 4mm. Endophytic fungal crude extract2 (EDF2) exhibited antimicrobial effect against all the test organisms used, EDF4 was active against all test organisms except on Penicillium chrysogenum and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Antibacterial standard of ciprofloxacin which is 15mm is comparable to the effect of endophytic extract of EDF1 and EDF2. Klebsiella pneumoniae was resistant to EDF4 and EDF5. EDF3 showed a wide range of antimicrobial activity against all the test organisms used. The highest inhibition zone diameter of 10.50mm recorded against Aspergillus fumigatus is comparable to antifungal standard of fluconazole (15.5mm). The result of this study suggests that endophytic fungi associated with the roots of Irish potato could be a promising source of novel bioactive compounds of pharmaceutical and industrial importance.

Keywords: endophyte, fungal extract, antimicrobial, potato

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Authors: András Fülöp, Lejla Heilmann, Zsolt Szabó, Ákos Koós

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Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) present a sustainable biotechnological solution to future energy demands. The aim of this study was to construct soil based, single cell, membrane-less MFC systems, operated without treatment to continuously power on-site monitoring and control systems during the soil bioremediation processes. Our Pseudomonas aeruginosa 541 isolate is an ideal choice for MFCs, because it is able to produce pyocyanin which behaves as electron-shuttle molecule, furthermore, it also has a significant antimicrobial effect. We tested several materials and structural configurations to obtain long term high power output. Comparing different configurations, a proton exchange membrane-less, 0.6 m long with 0.05 m diameter MFC tubes offered the best long-term performances. The long-term electricity production were tested from starch, yeast extract (YE), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with humic acid (HA) as a mediator. In all cases, 3 kΩ external load have been used. The two best-operated systems were the Pseudomonas aeruginosa 541 containing MFCs with 1 % carboxymethyl cellulose and the MFCs with 1% yeast extract in the anode area and 35% hydrogel in the cathode chamber. The first had 3.3 ± 0.033 mW/m2 and the second had 4.1 ± 0.065 mW/m2 power density values. These systems have operated for 230 days without any treatment. The addition of 0.2 % HA and 1 % YE referred to the volume of the anode area resulted in 1.4 ± 0.035 mW/m2 power densities. The mixture of 1% starch with 0.2 % HA gave 1.82 ± 0.031 mW/m2. Using CMC as retard carbon source takes effect in the long-term bacterial survivor, thus enable the expression of the long term power output. The application of hydrogels in the cathode chamber significantly increased the performance of the MFC units due to their good water retention capacity.

Keywords: microbial fuel cell, bioremediation, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, biotechnological solution

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Authors: Kang-Hyun Leem, Myung-Gyou Kim, Hye Kyung Kim

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Deer antler, traditionally used as a tonic and valuable drug in oriental medicine, has been considered to possess bone-strengthening activity. The upper section, mid section, and base of the antler has been known to exhibit different biological properties. Present study was performed to examine the effects of different parts of deer antler extract (DH) on osteogenic gene expressions in MG-63 cells and longitudinal bone growth in adolescent male rats. The expressions of osteogenic genes, collagen, alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, and osteopontin, were measured by quantitative real-time PCR. Longitudinal bone growth was measured in 3-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats using fluorescence microscopy. To examine the effects on the growth plate metabolism, the total height of growth plate and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) were measured. Collagen and osteocalcin mRNA expressions were increased by all three parts of the DH treatment while osteopontin gene expression was not affected by any of the DH treatment. Alkaline phosphatase gene expression was increased by upper and mid part of DH while base part of DH fails to affect alkaline phosphatase gene expression. The upper and mid parts of the DH treatment enhanced longitudinal bone growth and total height of growth plate. The induction of BMP-2 protein expression in growth plate assessed by immunostaining was also promoted by upper and mid parts of the DH treatment. These results suggest that DH, especially upper and mid parts, stimulate osteogenic gene expressions and have the effect on bone growth in adolescent rats and might be used for the growth delayed adolescent and inherent growth failure patient.

Keywords: bone morphogenetic protein-2, deer antler, longitudinal bone growth, osteogenic genes

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Authors: Chengliang Xie, Jinhyun Ryu, Hyun Joon Kim, Gyeong Jae Cho, Wan Sung Choi, Sang Soo Kang, Kye Man Cho, Dong Hoon Lee

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Obesity has become a global health problem and a source of major metabolic diseases like type-2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver and cancer. Synthetic anti-obesity drugs are effective but very costly and with undesirable side effects, so natural products such as soybean are needed as an alternative for obesity treatment. Lactobacillus Plantarum P1201is a probiotic bacterial strain reported to produce conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and increase the ratio of aglycone-isoflavone of soybean, both of which have anti-obesity effect. In this study, the anti-obesity effect of the fermented soybean extract with P1201 (FSE) will be evaluated compared with that of the soybean extract (SE) by 3T3-L1 cells as an in vitro model of adipogenesis. 3T3-L1 cells were treated with SE and FSE during the nine days of the differentiation, lipid accumulation was evaluated by oil-red staining and triglyceride content and the mRNA expression level of adipogenic or lipogenic genes were analyzed by RT-PCR and qPCR. The results showed that formation of lipid droplets in differentiated 3T3-L1 cells was inhibited and triglyceride content was reduced by 23.1% after treated with 1000 μg/mL of FSE compared with control. For SE-treated groups, no delipidating effect was observed. The effect of FSE on adipogenesis inhibition can be attributed to the down-regulation of mRNA expressionof CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP-α), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), adiponectin, adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein (aP2), fatty acid synthesis (FAS) and CoA carboxylase (ACC). Our results demonstrated that the anti-obesity effect of soybean can be improved by fermentation with P1201, and P1201can be used as a potential probiotic bacterial strain to produce natural anti-obesity food.

Keywords: fermentation, Lactobacillus plantarum P1201, obesity, soybean

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Authors: Kahlouche Amal, Touzene F. Zohra, Betatache Fatihaet Nouani Abdelouahab

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The development of the world production of the cheese these last decades, as well as agents' greater request cheap coagulants, accentuated the search for new surrogates of the rennet. What about the interest to explore the vegetable biodiversity, the source well cheap of many naturals metabolites that the scientists today praise it (thistle, latex of fig tree, Cardoon, seeds of melon). Indeed, a big interest is concerned the search for surrogates of vegetable origin. The objective of the study is to show the possibility of extracting a protease coagulant the milk from the cake of Sunflower, available raw material and the potential source of surrogates of rennet. so, the determination of the proteolytic activity of raw extracts, the purification, the elimination of the pigments of tint of the enzymatic preparations, a better knowledge of the coagulative properties through study of the effect of certain factors (temperature, pH, concentration in CaCl2) are so many factors which contribute to value milk particularly those produced by the small ruminants of the Algerian dairy exploitations. Otherwise, extracts coagulants of vegetable origin allowed today to value traditional, in addition, although the extract coagulants of vegetable origin made it possible today to develop traditional cheeses whose Iberian peninsula is the promoter, but the test of 'pressed paste not cooked' cheese manufacturing led to the semi-scale pilot; and that, by using the enzymatic extract of sunflower (Helianthus annus) which gave satisfactory results as well to the level of outputs as on the sensory level,which, statistically,did not give any significant difference between studied cheeses. These results confirm the possibility of use of this coagulase as a substitute of rennet commercial on an industrial scale.

Keywords: characterization, cheese, Rennet, sunflower

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Authors: Shraddha Chaudhary, Raksha Agarwal, Niladri Chatterjee

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This work demonstrates a web crawler-based generalized end-to-end open domain Question Answering (QA) system. An efficient QA system requires a significant amount of domain knowledge to answer any question with the aim to find an exact and correct answer in the form of a number, a noun, a short phrase, or a brief piece of text for the user's questions. Analysis of the question, searching the relevant document, and choosing an answer are three important steps in a QA system. This work uses a web scraper (Beautiful Soup) to extract K-documents from the web. The value of K can be calibrated on the basis of a trade-off between time and accuracy. This is followed by a passage ranking process using the MS-Marco dataset trained on 500K queries to extract the most relevant text passage, to shorten the lengthy documents. Further, a QA system is used to extract the answers from the shortened documents based on the query and return the top 3 answers. For evaluation of such systems, accuracy is judged by the exact match between predicted answers and gold answers. But automatic evaluation methods fail due to the linguistic ambiguities inherent in the questions. Moreover, reference answers are often not exhaustive or are out of date. Hence correct answers predicted by the system are often judged incorrect according to the automated metrics. One such scenario arises from the original Google Natural Question (GNQ) dataset which was collected and made available in the year 2016. Use of any such dataset proves to be inefficient with respect to any questions that have time-varying answers. For illustration, if the query is where will be the next Olympics? Gold Answer for the above query as given in the GNQ dataset is “Tokyo”. Since the dataset was collected in the year 2016, and the next Olympics after 2016 were in 2020 that was in Tokyo which is absolutely correct. But if the same question is asked in 2022 then the answer is “Paris, 2024”. Consequently, any evaluation based on the GNQ dataset will be incorrect. Such erroneous predictions are usually given to human evaluators for further validation which is quite expensive and time-consuming. To address this erroneous evaluation, the present work proposes an automated approach for evaluating time-dependent question-answer pairs. In particular, it proposes a metric using the current timestamp along with top-n predicted answers from a given QA system. To test the proposed approach GNQ dataset has been used and the system achieved an accuracy of 78% for a test dataset comprising 100 QA pairs. This test data was automatically extracted using an analysis-based approach from 10K QA pairs of the GNQ dataset. The results obtained are encouraging. The proposed technique appears to have the possibility of developing into a useful scheme for gathering precise, reliable, and specific information in a real-time and efficient manner. Our subsequent experiments will be guided towards establishing the efficacy of the above system for a larger set of time-dependent QA pairs.

Keywords: web-based information retrieval, open domain question answering system, time-varying QA, QA evaluation

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Authors: Nikat Parveen, M. Ananthi

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Big data is one of the emerging technology, which collects the data from various sensors and those data will be used in many fields. Data retrieval is one of the major issue where there is a need to extract the exact data as per the need. In this paper, large amount of data set is processed by using the feature selection. Feature selection helps to choose the data which are actually needed to process and execute the task. The key value is the one which helps to point out exact data available in the storage space. Here the available data is streamed and R-Center is proposed to achieve this task.

Keywords: big data, key value, feature selection, retrieval, performance

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Authors: Adeleke G. E., Bello M. A., Abdulateef R. B., Olasinde T. T., Oriaje K. O., AransiI A., Elaigwu K. O., Omidoyin O. S., Shoyinka E. D., Awoyomi M. B., Akano M., Adaramoye O. A.

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Hymenocardia acidatul belongs to the genus, Hymenocardiaceae, which is widely distributed in Africa. Both the leaf and stem bark of the plant have been used in the treatment of several diseases. The present study examined the chemical constituents of the H. acida stem bark extract (HASBE) and its effects on some antioxidant indices and esterase enzymes in female Wistar rats. The HASBE was obtained by Soxhlet extraction using methanol and then subjected to Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) for elemental analysis, and Fourier-Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy, for functional group analysis, while High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and Gas Chromatography-Flame ionization detection (GC-FID) were carried out for compound identification. Forty-eight female Wistar rats were assigned into eight groups of six rats each and separately administered orally with normal saline (Control), 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 mg/kg of HASBE twice per week for eight weeks. The rats were sacrificed under chloroform anesthesia, and kidneys and heart were excised and processed to obtain homogenates. The levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, Malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and carboxylesterase (CE) were determined spectrophotometrically. The AAS of HASBE shows the presence of eight elements, including Cobalt (0.303), Copper (0.222), Zinc (0.137), Iron (2.027), Nickel (1.304), Chromium (0.313), Manganese (0.213), and Magnesium (0.337 ppm). The FT-IR result of HASBE shows four peaks at 2961.4, 2926.0, 1056.7, and 1034.3 cm-1, while UV analysis shows a maximum absorbance (0.522) at 205 nm. The HPLC spectrum of HASBE indicates the presence of four major compounds, including orientin (77%), β-sitosterol (6.58%), rutin (5.02%), and betulinic acid (3.33%), while GC-FID result shows five major compounds, including rutin (53.27%), orientin (13.06%) and stigmasterol (11.73%), hymenocardine (6.43%) and homopterocarpin (5.29%). The SOD activity was significantly (p < 0.05) lowered in the kidney but elevated in the heart, while catalase was elevated in both organs relative to control rats. The GPx activity was significantly elevated only in the kidney, while MDA was not significantly (p > 0.05) affected in the two organs compared with controls. The activity of AChE was significantly elevated in both organs, while CE activity was elevated only in the kidney relative to control rats. The present study reveals that Hymenocardia acida stem bark extract majorly contains orientin, rutin, stigmasterol, hymenocardine, β-sitosterol, homopterocarpin, and betulinic acid. In addition, these compounds could possibly enhance redox status and esterase activities in the kidney and heart of Wistar rats.

Keywords: hymenocardia acida, elemental analysis, compounds identification, redox status, organs

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Authors: Odunayo Christy Atewolara-Odule, Olapeju O. Aiyelaagbe

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The search for new natural anti-oxidants has grown tremendously over the years because reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and oxidative stress have been linked to a large number of human degenerative diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, inflammation, and diabetes. Tapinanthus bangwensis, a parasitic plant commonly known as mistletoe belonging to the Loranthaceae family, is mostly employed traditionally to treat inflammation, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension to mention a few. In this study, air-dried pulverized leaves and stem of Tapinanthus bangwensis were successively extracted with n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol to give the corresponding crude extracts. The extracts were purified by column chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography to give the isolated compounds. Structural elucidation was done using mass spectrometry, Fourier transform infra-red, 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy. The antioxidant activity of the compounds was evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ascorbic acid as standard. Three compounds; Friedelin, Eudesmic acid (3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoic) and Methyl-3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoate were isolated from the extracts of Tapinanthus bangwensis. Friedelin was isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of the stem while the two other compounds were isolated from the methanol extract of the leaves. The percentages of free radical scavenging activities of the compounds are as follows: Friedelin, 73.69%, methyl-3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoate, 79.33% and eudesmic, 87.68% anti-oxidant activity which were quite comparable to 93.96% given by ascorbic acid. We are reporting, to our best knowledge, for the first time the occurrence of friedelin and eudesmic acid in Tapinanthus bangwensis. The high anti-oxidant activity of these compounds supports the use of this plant in the management of diabetes and hypertension as they will be useful in combating complications arising from the disease.

Keywords: column chromatography, eudesmic acid, friedelin, Tapinanthus bangwensis

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Authors: Hichem Sebai, Mohamed Amine Jabri, Kais Rtibi, Haifa Tounsi, Lamjed Marzouki

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Artemisia campestris has been widely used in Tunisian traditional medicine for its health beneficial effects. However, the present study aims at evaluating the antiulcer effects of Artemisia campestris aqueous extract (ACAE) as well as the mechanism of action involved in such gastroprotection. In this respect, male Wistar rats were divided into seven groups: control, aspirin (ASPR), ASPR + various doses of ACAE (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg, b.w.), ASPR+ famotidine and ASPR+ caffeic acid. Animals were pre-treated with ACAE extract during 10 days. We firstly showed that aspirin administration was accompanied by an oxidative stress status assessed by an increase of malondialdehyde (MDA) level, a decrease of sulfhydryl -(SH) groups content and depletion of antioxidant enzyme activities such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Pre-treatment with ACAE protected against aspirin-induced gastric oxidative stress. More importantly, aspirin administration increased plasma and tissue hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), free iron and calcium levels while the ACAE pre-treatment reversed all aspirin-induced intracellular mediators disturbance. The results of the present study clearly indicated that AEAC gastroprotection might be related, at least in part, to its antioxidant properties as well as to various gastric mucosal defense mechanisms, including the protection of gastric sulfhydryls and an opposite effect on some intracellular mediators such as free iron, hydrogen peroxide, and calcium. However, our data confirm the use of Artemisia campestris extracts in the Tunisian traditional folk medicine for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases.

Keywords: gastric ulcer, Artemisia campestris, oxidative stress, sulfhydryl groups, Fenton reaction, rat

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Authors: Sandeep Goyal, Sandeep Saluja

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Natural antioxidants have major role in maintenance of health. Green tea extract principally contains epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), as its abundant antioxidant constituent. Green tea is consumed daily worldwide as antioxidant to combat CNS diseases and has traditional importance also. EGCG has neuroprotective potential in various animal models of Parkinson disease, Alzheimer’s disease etc. but its exact mechanism has not been ruled out. The present study has been designed to investigate the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and mitochondrial modulating mechanism of neuroprotective effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate against rodent model of rotenone induced Parkinson’s disease (PD). The behavioural alterations were assessed by using open field test apparatus, Chatilon’s grip strength test apparatus and elevated plus maze for determining the locomotor activity, grip strength and cognition respectively. Biochemically, various parameters to assess oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and neurochemical estimations were performed on rat brain homogenates. A histological examination of rat brain striatum was done to check the neurodegeneration. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) at 10 & 20 mg/kg, were investigated for their neuroprotective potential along with levodopa as a standard agent. Minocycline, a microglial activation inhibitor, was administered alone and in combination with EGCG. EGCG and minocycline produced ameliorative effect against rotenone induced PD like symptoms by significantly reduced behavioral, biochemical and histological alterations. Results of our study reveal the neuroprotective effect of EGCG and minocycline against rotenone induced PD. Results of our study indicate that EGCG exerted neuroprotective effect against rotenone induced PD via its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and mitochondrial modulating mechanisms and substantiate its previously reported and traditional claims for its use in CNS diseases.

Keywords: antioxidants, neurotoxicity, rotenone, EGCG

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Authors: Uraporn Vongvatcharanon, Kochakorn Sukjan, Wandee Udomuksorn, Ekkasit Kumarnsit, Surapong Vongvatcharanon

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Sarcopenia is a loss of muscle mass, and strength frequently found in menopause. Estrogen replacement has been shown to improve such a loss of muscle functions. However, there is an increased risk of cancer that has to be considered because of the estrogen replacement therapy. Thus, phytoestrogen supplementation has been suggested as an alternative therapy. Pueraria mirifica (PM) is a plant in the family Leguminosae, that is known to be phytoestrogen-rich and has been traditionally used for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. It contains isoflavones and other compounds such as miroestrol and its derivatives. Parvalbumin (PV) is a calcium binding protein and functions as a relaxing factor in fast twitch muscle fibers. A decrease of the PV level results in a reduction of the speed of the twitch relaxation. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of an ethanolic extract from Pueraria mirifica on the estrogen levels, skeletal muscle functions and PV levels in the extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and gastrocnemius of ovariectomized rats. Twelve-week old female Wistar rats (200-250 g) were divided into 6 groups: SHAM (un-ovariectomized rats, that received double distilled water), PM-0 (ovariectomized rats, OVX, receiving double distilled water), E (OVX, receiving an estradiol benzoate dose of 0.04 mg/kg), PM-50 (OVX receiving PM 50 mg/kg), PM-500 (OVX receiving PM 500 mg/kg), PM-1000 (OVX receiving PM 1000 mg/kg) all for 90 days. The PM-0 group had estrogen levels, uterus weights, muscle mass, myofiber cross-section areas, peak tension, fatigue resistance, speed of relaxation and parvalbumin levels of both EDL and gastrocnemius that were significantly reduced compared to those of the SHAM group (p<0.05). Also the α and β estrogen receptor immunoreactivities and the parvalbumin immunoreactivities of both EDL and gastrocnemius were decreased in the PM-0 group. In contrast the E, PM-50, PM-500 and PM-1000 group had estrogen levels, uterus weights, muscle mass, myofiber cross-section areas, peak tension, fatigue resistance, speed of relaxation of both EDL and gastrocnemius that were significantly increased compared with PM-0 group (p<0.05). In addition, the α and β estrogen receptor immunoreactivities and parvalbumin immunoreactivity of both the EDL and gastrocnemius were increased in the E, PM-50, PM-500 and PM-1000 group. In addition the extract of Pueraria mirifica replacement group at 50 and 500 mg/kg had significantly increased parvalbumin levels in the EDL muscle but in the gastrocnemius, only the dose of 500 mg/kg increased the parvalbumin levels (p<0.05). These results have demonstrated that the use of the Pueraria mirifica extract as a replacement therapy for estrogen produced estrogenic activity that was similar to that produced by the estradiol benzoate replacement. It seems that the phytoestrogens could bind with the estrogen receptors and stimulate the transcriptional activity to synthesise muscle protein that caused an increase in muscle mass and parvalbumin levels. Thus, muscle synthesis may restore parvalbumin levels resulting in an enhanced relaxation efficiency that would lead to a shortened latent period before the next contraction.

Keywords: Puereria mirifica, Parvalbumin, estrogen, ovariectomized rats

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Authors: Narmeen Mehmood

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The current study was conducted to evaluate the pharmacognostic parameters, phytochemical analysis and antibacterial activity of the plant. Microscopic studies were carried out to determine various Pharmacognostic parameters. Section cutting of the leaf was also done. The study of the ariel parts of Beaumontia grandiflora resulted in the identification of fatty acids mixture and unsaponifiable matters. For the separation of various constituents of the plant, successive solvent extraction was carried out in a laboratory. Material and Methods: The study was carried out with all three extracts of Beaumontia grandiflora i.e. Petroleum ether, Chloroform and Methanol. For the separation of various constituents of the plant, successive solvent extraction was carried out in the laboratory. Raw data containing the measured zones of inhibition in mm was tabulated. Results: The microscopic studies showed the presence of Upper epidermis in surface view, Part of Lamina in section view, cortical parenchyma in longitudinal view, Parenchyma with collapsed tissues, Parenchyma Cells, Epidermal cells with a part of covering trichome, starch granules, reticulated thickened vessels, Transverse Section of leaf of Beaumontia grandiflora showed Upper Epidermis, Lower Epidermis, Hairs, Vascular Bundles, Parenchyma. Phytochemical analysis of leaves of Beaumontia grandiflora indicates that Alkaloids are present. There is a possibility of the presence of some bioactive components in the crude extracts due to which it shows strong activity. Petroleum ether extract shows a greater zone of inhibition at low concentrations. Conclusion: The alkaloids possess good antibacterial activity so the presence of alkaloids may be responsible for the antibacterial activity observed in the crude organic extract of Beaumontia grandiflora.

Keywords: successive solvent extraction, zone of inhibitions., microscopy, phytochemical analysis

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Authors: Benjaporn Buranrat, Nootchanat Mairuae

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Cratoxylum formosum (Jack) Dyer (CF) has been used for the traditional medicines in South East Asian and Thailand. Normally, northeast Thai vegetables have proven cytotoxic to many cancer cells. Therefore, the present study aims to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying CF-induced cancer cell death and apoptosis on breast and liver cancer cells. The cytotoxicity and antiproliferative effects of CF on the human breast MCF-7 and liver HepG2 cancer cell lines were evaluated using sulforhodamine B assay and colony formation assay. Cell migration assay was measured using wound healing assay. The apoptosis induction mechanisms were investigated through reactive oxygen species formation, caspase 3 activity, and JC-1 activity. Gene expression by real-time PCR and apoptosis related protein levels by Western blot analysis. CF induced MCF-7 and HepG2 cell death by time- and dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, CF had the greater cytotoxic potency on MCF-7 more than HepG2 cells with IC50 values of 85.70+4.52 μM and 219.03±9.96 μM respectively, at 24 h. Treatment with CF also caused a dose-dependent decrease in colony forming ability and cell migration, especially on MCF-7 cells. CF induced ROS formation, increased caspase 3 activities, and decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential, and causing apoptotic body production and DNA fragmentation. CF significantly decreased expression of the cell cycle regulatory protein RAC1 and downstream proteins, cdk6. Additionally, CF enhanced p21 and reduced cyclin D1 protein levels. CF leaf extract induced cell death, apoptosis, antimigration in both of MCF-7 and HepG2 cells. CF could be useful for developing to anticancer drug candidate for breast and liver cancer therapy.

Keywords: cratoxylum formosum (jack) dyer, breast cancer, liver cancer, cell death

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Authors: Sineenat Kempubpha, Phornpa-Ngan Muadmuang, Putthamas Phetmuangprab, Surin Promphet, Sopita Bandit

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Introduction: Discarded pericarp of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) is a benefit to be developed as veterinary phytopharmacal products since it made up of abundance pharmacological active compounds. The active compounds of mangosteen pericarp not only act as an antihistamine, an anti-inflammatory, heart disease and HIV therapeutic substances but also act as antibacterial and antifungal agents. Aim: This study was an in vitro procedural attempt to determine the antibacterial effects of mangosteen pericarp 95% ethanol extract on the main causative pathogen of canine superficial pyoderma, Staphylococcus pseudintermedius. Methods: S. pseudintermedius were collected from various sites of the skin of canine superficial pyoderma dogs and were revived and lawn cultured. The S. pseudintermedius growth inhibition study was determined by disc diffusion technique, the mangosteen pericarp crude extracted was dissolved in 3 types of solvents (95% ethanol, 2% DMSO and distilled water, respectively). The micro broth dilution technique was used for determining both minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values. Statistical analysis was done by calculating the mean of the zones of inhibition of tested microorganisms. Results: S. pseudintermedius growth inhibition study showed that the inhibition efficacy of 95% ethanol was greater than the inhibition efficacy of 2% DMSO and distilled water (9.10±0.18 mm, 6.95±0.60 mm and 6.80±0.18 mm, respectively). The MIC value was 125 µg/ml and the MBC value was 1 mg/ml. Conclusion: Mangosteen pericarp extract dissolved with 95% ethanol showed the highest zone of inhibition against the tested microorganisms. The MIC value was 125 µg/ml and the MBC value was 1 mg/ml which suggests its potent antibacterial action against S. pseudintermedius. However, further analytical studies are needed to isolate the key molecules of mangosteen pericarp for higher effect on canine superficial pyoderma microorganism therapeutic products.

Keywords: mangosteen, Garcinia mangostana, Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, canine superficial pyoderma, in vitro study

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Authors: Rafik Balti, Mohamed Ben Mansour, Abdellah Arhaliass, Anthony Masse

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Unfortunately, shrimps are highly perishable and they start deteriorating immediately after death owing to their high water content and nutritional components. Currently, there has been an increasing interest in bioactive edible films and coatings to preserve the freshness and quality of foods. In this study, active edible coatings from microalgal exopolysaccharides (EPS) enriched with different concentrations of Red Seaweed Extract (RSE) (0.5, 1 and 1.5 % (w/v)) were developed and their effects on the quality changes of white shrimp during refrigerated storage (4 ± 1 °C) were examined over a period of 8 days. The control and the coated shrimp samples were analyzed periodically for microbiological (total viable bacteria, psychrotrophic bacteria, and enterobacteriaceae counts), chemical (pH, TVB-N, TMA-N, PV, TBARS), textural and sensory characteristics. The results indicated that the coating with a mixture of EPS and RSE could significantly decrease the total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), trimethylamine (TMA) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) (p < 0.05). With storage, EPS coatings containing RSE at both levels (1 and 1.5 %) were more effective in inhibiting the microbial species studied, specially psychrotrophic bacteria. Also, EPS + RSE coated samples had lower polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity and lipid oxidation (p < 0.05) toward the end of storage. Textural and color properties of coated shrimp were generally more acceptable. Sensory scores indicated no significant changes in all samples during storage. The obtained results indicate that the edible EPS coating solutions enriched with RSE have noticeable effects on the quality and shelf life of shrimps when compared to control group. Finally, the present work demonstrates the effectiveness of EPS enriched coatings, offering a promising alternative to preserve more better the quality characteristics and to extend the shelf life of shrimp during the refrigerated storage

Keywords: active coating, exopolysaccharides, red seaweed, refrigerated storage, white shrimp

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Authors: Hadjer Didouh, Mohammed Hadj Melliani, Izzeddine Sameut Bouhaik

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Corrosion is a serious problem in industrial installations or metallic transport pipes. Corrosion is an interfacial process controlled by several parameters. The presence of microorganisms affects the kinetics of corrosion. This type of corrosion is often referred to as bio-corrosion or corrosion influenced by microorganisms (MIC). The action of a microorganism or a bacterium is carried out by the formation of biofilm following its attachment to the metal surface. The formation of biofilm isolates the metal surface from its environment and allows the bacteria to control the parameters of the metal/bacteria interface. Biofilm formation by sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) X52 steel poses substantial challenges in the oil and gas industry SONATRACH of Algeria. This research delves into the complex attachment mechanisms employed by SRB biofilm on X52 carbon steel and investigates innovative strategies for effective mitigation using biocides. The exploration commences by elucidating the underlying mechanisms facilitating SRB biofilm adhesion to X52 carbon steel, considering factors such as surface morphology, electrostatic interactions, and microbial extracellular substances. Advanced microscopy and spectroscopic techniques provide support to the attachment processes, laying the foundation for targeted mitigation strategies. The use of 100 ppm of Moringa Oleifera extract biocide as a promising approach to control and prevent SRB biofilm formation on X52 carbon steel surfaces. Green extracts undergo evaluation for their effectiveness in disrupting biofilm development while ensuring the integrity of the steel substrate. Systematic analysis is conducted on the biocide's impact on the biofilm's structural integrity, microbial viability, and overall attachment strength. This two-pronged investigation aims to deepen our comprehension of SRB biofilm dynamics and contribute to the development of effective strategies for mitigating its impact on X52 carbon steel.

Keywords: attachment, bio-corrosion, biofilm, metal/bacteria interface

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Authors: Rita Chattopadhyay, Vivek Anand Thoutam

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Speech is the most acceptable means of communication where we can quickly exchange our feelings and thoughts. Quite often, people can communicate orally but cannot interact or work with computers or devices. It’s easy and quick to give speech commands than typing commands to computers. In the same way, it’s easy listening to audio played from a device than extract output from computers or devices. Especially with Robotics being an emerging market with applications in warehouses, the hospitality industry, consumer electronics, assistive technology, etc., speech-based human-machine interaction is emerging as a lucrative feature for robot manufacturers. Considering this factor, the objective of this paper is to design the “Audio-Visual Co-Data Processing Pipeline.” This pipeline is an integrated version of Automatic speech recognition, a Natural language model for text understanding, object detection, and text-to-speech modules. There are many Deep Learning models for each type of the modules mentioned above, but OpenVINO Model Zoo models are used because the OpenVINO toolkit covers both computer vision and non-computer vision workloads across Intel hardware and maximizes performance, and accelerates application development. A speech command is given as input that has information about target objects to be detected and start and end times to extract the required interval from the video. Speech is converted to text using the Automatic speech recognition QuartzNet model. The summary is extracted from text using a natural language model Generative Pre-Trained Transformer-3 (GPT-3). Based on the summary, essential frames from the video are extracted, and the You Only Look Once (YOLO) object detection model detects You Only Look Once (YOLO) objects on these extracted frames. Frame numbers that have target objects (specified objects in the speech command) are saved as text. Finally, this text (frame numbers) is converted to speech using text to speech model and will be played from the device. This project is developed for 80 You Only Look Once (YOLO) labels, and the user can extract frames based on only one or two target labels. This pipeline can be extended for more than two target labels easily by making appropriate changes in the object detection module. This project is developed for four different speech command formats by including sample examples in the prompt used by Generative Pre-Trained Transformer-3 (GPT-3) model. Based on user preference, one can come up with a new speech command format by including some examples of the respective format in the prompt used by the Generative Pre-Trained Transformer-3 (GPT-3) model. This pipeline can be used in many projects like human-machine interface, human-robot interaction, and surveillance through speech commands. All object detection projects can be upgraded using this pipeline so that one can give speech commands and output is played from the device.

Keywords: OpenVINO, automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, object detection, text to speech

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Authors: Gary Pattemore, Michael Edgar, Andrew Job, Marina Auad, Kathryn Job

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As critical commodities become more scarce, significant time and resources have been used to better understand complicated ore bodies and extract their full potential. These challenging ore bodies provide several pain points for geologists and engineers to overcome, poor handling of these issues flows downs stream to the processing plant affecting throughput rates and recovery. Many open cut mines utilise blast hole drilling to extract additional information to feed back into the modelling process. This method requires samples to be collected during or after blast hole drilling. Samples are then sent for assay with turnaround times varying from 1 to 12 days. This method is time consuming, costly, requires human exposure on the bench and collects elemental data only. To address this challenge, research has been undertaken to utilise hyperspectral imaging across a broad spectrum to scan samples, collars or take down hole measurements for minerals and moisture content and grade abundances. Automation of this process using unmanned vehicles and on-board processing reduces human in pit exposure to ensure ongoing safety. On-board processing allows data to be integrated into modelling workflows with immediacy. The preliminary results demonstrate numerous direct and indirect benefits from this new technology, including rapid and accurate grade estimates, moisture content and mineralogy. These benefits allow for faster geo modelling updates, better informed mine scheduling and improved downstream blending and processing practices. The paper presents recommendations for implementation of the technology in open cut mining environments.

Keywords: grade control, hyperspectral scanning, artificial intelligence, autonomous mining, machine learning

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Authors: A. Adetutu, T. M. Awodugba, O. A. Owoade

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The development of resistance to currently known conventional anti-typhoid drugs has necessitated search into cheap, more potent and less toxic anti-typhoid drugs of plant origin. Therefore, this study investigated the anti-typhoid activity of fractions of A. indica in Salmonella typhi infected rats. Leaves of A. indica were extracted in methanol and fractionated into n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl-acetate, and aqueous fractions. The anti-salmonella potentials of fractions of A. indica were assessed via in-vitro inhibition of S. typhi using agar well diffusion, Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and biofilm assays. The biochemical and haematological parameters were determined by spectrophotometric methods. The histological analysis was performed using Haematoxylin and Eosin staining methods. Data analysis was performed by one-way ANOVA. Results of this study showed that S. typhi was sensitive to aqueous and chloroform fractions of A. indica, and the fractions showed biofilm inhibition at concentrations of 12.50, 1.562, and 0.39 mg/mL. In the in-vivo study, the extract and chloroform fraction had significant (p < 0.05) effects on the number of viable S. typhi recovered from the blood and stopped salmonellosis after 6 days of treatment of rats at 500 mg/kg b.w. Treatments of infected rats with chloroform and aqueous fractions of A. indica normalized the haematological parameters in the animals. Similarly, treatment with fractions of the plants sustained a normal antioxidant status when compared with the normal control group. Chloroform and ethyl-acetate fractions of A. indica reversed the liver and intestinal degeneration induced by S. typhi infection in rats. The present investigation indicated that the aqueous and chloroform fractions of A. indica showed the potential to provide an effective treatment for salmonellosis, including typhoid fever. The results of the study may justify the ethno-medicinal use of the extract in traditional medicine for the treatment of typhoid and salmonella infections.

Keywords: Azadirachta indica L, salmonella, typhoid, leave fractions

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Authors: Juan Alfredo Guevara Carrio, Swamy Toolahalli Thipperudra, Riddhi Naik Dharmeshbhai, Sergio Graniero Echeverrigaray, Jose Vitorio Emiliano, Antonio Helio Castro

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In order to advance the hydrogen economy, several industrial sectors can potentially benefit from the trillions of stimulus spending for post-coronavirus. Blending hydrogen into natural gas pipeline networks has been proposed as a means of delivering it during the early market development phase, using separation and purification technologies downstream to extract the pure H₂ close to the point of end-use. This first step has been mentioned around the world as an opportunity to use existing infrastructures for immediate decarbonisation pathways. Among current technologies used to extract hydrogen from mixtures in pipelines or liquid carriers, membrane separation can achieve the highest selectivity. The most efficient approach for the separation of H₂ from other substances by membranes is offered from the research of 2D layered materials due to their exceptional physical and chemical properties. Graphene-based membranes, with their distribution of pore sizes in nanometers and angstrom range, have shown fundamental and economic advantages over other materials. Their combination with the structure of ceramic and geopolymeric materials enabled the synthesis of nanocomposites and the fabrication of membranes with long-term stability and robustness in a relevant range of physical and chemical conditions. Versatile separation modules have been developed for hydrogen separation, which adaptability allows their integration in industrial prototypes for applications in heavy transport, steel, and cement production, as well as small installations at end-user stations of pipeline networks. The developed membranes and prototypes are a practical contribution to the technological challenge of supply pure H₂ for the mentioned industries as well as hydrogen energy-based fuel cells.

Keywords: graphene nano-composite membranes, hydrogen separation and purification, separation modules, indsutrial prototype

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Authors: Rishabh Beri, Sahil Shah

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We have applied a range of filters and processing in order to extract out the various features of the football game, like the field lines of a football field. Another important aspect was the detection of the players in the field and tagging them according to their teams distinguished by their jersey colours. This extracted information combined about the players and field helped us to create a virtual field that consists of the playing field and the players mapped to their locations in it.

Keywords: Detect, Football, Players, Virtual

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Victor Pena Ribeiro, Caroline Arruda, Jennyfer Andrea Aldana Mejia, Jairo Kenupp Bastos

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Leishmaniasis is a serious health problem around the world. The treatment of infected individuals with pentavalent antimonial drugs is the main therapeutic strategy. However, they present high toxicity and persistence side effects. Therefore, the discovery of new and safe natural-derived therapeutic agents against leishmaniasis is important. Propolis is a resin of viscous consistency produced by Apis mellifera bees from parts of plants. The main types of Brazilian propolis are green, red, yellow and brown. Thus, the aim of this work was to investigate the chemical composition and leishmanicidal properties of a brown propolis (BP). For this purpose, the hydroalcoholic crude extract of BP was obtained and was fractionated by liquid-liquid chromatography. The chemical profile of the extract and its fractions were obtained by HPLC-UV-DAD. The fractions were submitted to preparative HPLC chromatography for isolation of the major compounds of each fraction. They were analyzed by NMR for structural determination. The volatile compounds were obtained by hydrodistillation and identified by GC/MS. Promastigote forms of Leishmania amazonensis were cultivated in M199 medium and then 2×106 parasites.mL-1 were incubated in 96-well microtiter plates with the samples. The BP was dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and diluted into the medium, to give final concentrations of 1.56, 3.12, 6.25, 12.5, 25 and 50 µg.mL⁻¹. The plates were incubated at 25ºC for 24 h, and the lysis percentage was determined by using a Neubauer chamber. The bioassays were performed in triplicate, using a medium with 0.5% DMSO as a negative control and amphotericin B as a positive control. The leishimnicidal effect against promastigote forms was also evaluated at the same concentrations. Cytotoxicity experiments also were performed in 96-well plates against normal (CHO-k1) and tumor cell lines (AGP01 and HeLa) using XTT colorimetric method. Phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and terpenoids were identified in brown propolis. The major compounds were identified as follows: p-coumaric acid (24.6%) for a methanolic fraction, Artepelin-C (29.2%) for ethyl acetate fraction and the compounds of hexane fraction are in the process of structural elucidation. The major volatile compounds identified were β-caryophyllene (10.9%), germacrene D (9.7%), nerolidol (10.8%) and spathulenol (8.5%). The propolis did not show cytotoxicity against normal cell lines (CHO) with IC₅₀ > 100 μg.mL⁻¹, whereas the IC₅₀ < 10 μg.mL⁻¹ showed a potential against the AGP01 cell line, propolis did not demonstrate cytotoxicity against HeLa cell lines IC₅₀ > 100 μg.mL⁻¹. In the determination of the leishmanicidal activity, the highest (50 μg.mL⁻¹) and lowest (1.56 μg.mL⁻¹) concentrations of the crude extract caused the lysis of 76% and 45% of promastigote forms of L. amazonensis, respectively. To the amastigote form, the highest (50 μg.mL⁻¹) and lowest (1.56 μg.mL⁻¹) concentrations caused the mortality of 89% and 75% of L. amazonensis, respectively. The IC₅₀ was 2.8 μg.mL⁻¹ to amastigote form and 3.9 μg.mL⁻¹ to promastigote form, showing a promising activity against Leishmania amazonensis.

Keywords: amastigote, brown propolis, cytotoxicity, promastigote

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Authors: Velasco-Rendón María Del Carmen, Cuéllar-Bermúdez Sara Paulina, Parra-Saldívar Roberto

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Phycocyanin is a blue pigment protein with fluorescent activity produced by cyanobacteria. It has been recently studied to determine its anticancer, antioxidant and antiinflamatory potential. Since 2014 it was approved as a Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) proteic pigment for the food industry. Therefore, phycocyanin shows potential for the food, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry. Conventional phycocyanin extraction includes buffer solutions and ammonium sulphate followed by chromatography or ATPS for protein separation. Therefore, further purification steps are time-requiring, energy intensive and not suitable for scale-up processing. This work presents an alternative to conventional methods that also allows large scale application with commercially available equipment. The extraction was performed by exposing the dry biomass to mechanical cavitation and salting out with NaCl to use an edible reagent. Also, isoelectric point precipitation was used by addition of HCl and neutralization with NaOH. The results were measured and compared in phycocyanin concentration, purity and extraction yield. Results showed that the best extraction condition was the extraction by salting out with 0.20 M NaCl after 30 minutes cavitation, with a concentration in the supernatant of 2.22 mg/ml, a purity of 3.28 and recovery from crude extract of 81.27%. Mechanical cavitation presumably increased the solvent-biomass contact, making the crude extract visibly dark blue after centrifugation. Compared to other systems, our process has less purification steps, similar concentrations in the phycocyanin-rich fraction and higher purity. The contaminants present in our process edible NaCl or low pHs that can be neutralized. It also can be adapted to a semi-continuous process with commercially available equipment. This characteristics make this process an appealing alternative for phycocyanin extraction as a pigment for the food industry.

Keywords: extraction, phycocyanin, precipitation, scale-up

Procedia PDF Downloads 438