Search results for: brewer yeast peptide extract
Commenced in January 2007
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Edition: International
Paper Count: 2528

Search results for: brewer yeast peptide extract

1388 Effect of High Dose of Black Tea Extract on Physiological Parameters of Mother and Pups in Experimental Albino Rats

Authors: Avijit Dey, Antony Gomes, Subir Chandra Dasgupta

Abstract:

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is the most popular beverages in the world and is ranked second after the water. Tea has been considered as a health promoting beverage since ancient times due to its health-promoting activity. Recently, immunomodulatory, anti-arthritic, antioxidant, anticancer and cardioprotective activity of tea has been established. Very few studies have demonstrated the effect of high dose of black tea on health. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the role of low & high dose of Black Tea Extract (BTE) on the different physiological parameters of mother and pups during prenatal and postnatal developmental period in the experimental rodent. BTE was orally administered in LD (50mg BTE/kg/day) and HD (100mg BTE/kg/day) except control groups of rats (n=6/group) throughout the prenatal (day 0-21) and postnatal (day 21-42) periods. During prenatal period (0, 7th, 14th, 20th days) body weight, urinary calcium, magnesium, urea and creatinine was measured. In postnatal period physical (0, 10th, 21th days) parameters of pups like body weight, cranial length, cranial diameter, neck width, tail length, craniosacral length of pups were analyzed. Liver and lungs from pups and kidney spleen, etc. from mothers were collected on day 42 for histopathological studies. The comparative urine strip and morphology of RBC was also analyzed by SEM from mothers of different groups on day 42. The level of cytokines like IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha were analysed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on day 0, day 20 and day 42. The body weight of LD and HD mothers were also significantly (P<0.05) less than control mothers at 20th day of pregnancy and there was also significant changes in urinary calcium, urea, creatinine. The bio morphometric analysis of pups showed significant alteration (P<0.05) in HD groups relative to control. Some histological alterations were also observed in pups and mothers. Comparative urine strip analysis and morphology of RBC showed significant changes in treated groups. LD and HD treated mothers showed an increase in proinflammatory cytokines like IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and decrease in anti-inflammatory cytokine-like IL-10 on day 20 compared to PC mothers. This study clearly indicated that high dose of BTE possesses detrimental effect on pregnant mother and the pup. Further studies are in progress to elucidate the molecular mechanism of actions. This project work has been sponsored by National Tea Research Foundation vide Project Sanction No.: 17 (305)/2013/4423 dated 11th March, 2014. All experimental protocols described in the study were approved by animal ethics committee.

Keywords: black tea extract, pregnancy, prenatal and postnatal development, inflammation

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1387 Phytochemical Analysis and in vitro Biological Activities of an Ethyl Acetate Extract from the Peel of Punica granatum L. var. Dente di Cavallo

Authors: Silvia Di Giacomo, Marcello Locatelli, Simone Carradori, Francesco Cacciagrano, Chiara Toniolo, Gabriela Mazzanti, Luisa Mannina, Stefania Cesa, Antonella Di Sotto

Abstract:

Hyperglycemia represents the main pathogenic factor in the development of diabetes complications and has been found associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress, which in turn increase cell dysfunction. Therefore, counteract oxidative species appears to be a suitable strategy for preventing the hyperglycemia-induce cell damage and support the pharmacotherapy of diabetes and metabolic diseases. Antidiabetic potential of many food sources has been linked to the presence of polyphenolic metabolites, particularly flavonoids such as quercetin and its glycosylated form rutin. In line with this evidence, in the present study, we assayed the potential anti-hyperglycemic activity of an ethyl acetate extract from the peel of Punica granatum L. var. Dente di Cavallo (PGE), a fruit well known to traditional medicine for the beneficial properties of its edible juice. The effect of the extract on the glucidic metabolism has been evaluated by assessing its ability to inhibit α-amylase and α-glucosidase, two digestive enzymes responsible for the hydrolysis of dietary carbohydrates: their inhibition can delay the carbohydrate digestion and reduce glucose absorption, thus representing an important strategy for the management of hyperglycemia. Also, the PGE ability to block the release of advanced glycated end-products (AGEs), whose accumulation is known to be responsible for diabetic vascular complications, was studied. The iron-reducing and chelating activities, which are the primary mechanisms by which AGE inhibitors stop their metal-catalyzed formation, were evaluated as possible antioxidant mechanisms. At last, the phenolic content of PGE was characterized by chromatographic and spectrophotometric methods. Our results displayed the ability of PGE to inhibit α-amylase enzyme with a similar potency to the positive control: the IC₅₀ values were 52.2 (CL 27.7 - 101.2) µg/ml and 35.6 (CL 22.8 - 55.5) µg/ml for acarbose and PGE, respectively. PGE also inhibited the α-glucosidase enzyme with about a 25 higher potency than the positive controls of acarbose and quercetin. Furthermore, the extract exhibited ferrous and ferric ion chelating ability, with a maximum effect of 82.1% and 80.6% at a concentration of 250 µg/ml respectively, and reducing properties, reaching the maximum effect of 80.5% at a concentration of 10 µg/ml. At last, PGE was found able to inhibit the AGE production (maximum inhibition of 82.2% at the concentration of 1000 µg/ml), although with lower potency with respect to the positive control rutin. The phytochemical analysis of PGE displayed the presence of high levels of total polyphenols, tannins, and flavonoids, among which ellagic acid, gallic acid and catechin were identified. Altogether these data highlight the ability of PGE to control the carbohydrate metabolism at different levels, both by inhibiting the metabolic enzymes and by affecting the AGE formation likely by chelating mechanisms. It is also noteworthy that peel from pomegranate, although being a waste of juice production, can be reviewed as a nutraceutical source. In conclusion, present results suggest the possible role of PGE as a remedy for preventing hyperglycemia complications and encourage further in vivo studies.

Keywords: anti-hyperglycemic activity, antioxidant properties, nutraceuticals, polyphenols, pomegranate

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1386 Antigen-Presenting Cell Characteristics of Human γδ T Lymphocytes in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Authors: Piamsiri Sawaisorn, Tienrat Tangchaikeeree, Waraporn Chan-On, Chaniya Leepiyasakulchai, Rachanee Udomsangpetch, Suradej Hongeng, Kulachart Jangpatarapongsa

Abstract:

Human Vγ9Vδ2 T lymphocytes are regarded as promising effector cells for cancer immunotherapy since they have the ability to eliminate several tumor cells through non-peptide antigen recognition and non-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) restriction. An issue of recent interest is the capability to activate γδ T cells by use of a group of drugs, such as pamidronate, that cause accumulation of phosphoantigen which is recognized by γδ T cell receptors. Moreover, their antigen presenting cell-like phenotype and function have been confirmed in many clinical trials. In this study, Vγ9Vδ2 T cells derived from normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells were activated with pamidronate and the expanded Vγ9Vδ2 T cells can recognize and kill chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells treated with pamidronate through their cytotoxic activity. To support the strong role played by Vγ9Vδ2 T cells against cancer, we provide the evidence that Vγ9Vδ2 T cells activated with CML cell lysate antigen can efficiently express antigen presenting cell (APC) phenotype and function. In conclusion, pamidronate can be used in intentional activation of human Vγ9Vδ2 T cells and can increase the susceptibility of CML cells to cytotoxicity of Vγ9Vδ2 T cells. The activated Vγ9Vδ2 T cells by cancer cells lysate can show their APC characteristics, and so greatly increase the interest in exploring their therapeutic potential in hematologic malignancy.

Keywords: γδ T lymphocytes, antigen-presenting cells, chronic myeloid leukemia, cancer, immunotherapy

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1385 Antimicrobial, Antioxidant Activities and Phytochemical Screening of Five Species from Acacia Used in Sudanese Ethnomedicine

Authors: Hajir Abdllha, Alaa Mohamed, Khansa Almoniem, Naga Adam, Wdeea Alhaadi, Ahmed Elshikh, Ahmed Ali, Ismail Makuar, Anas Elnazeer, Nagat Elrofaei, Samir Abdoelftah, Monier Hemidan

Abstract:

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 gives 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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1384 Signal Processing of the Blood Pressure and Characterization

Authors: Hadj Abd El Kader Benghenia, Fethi Bereksi Reguig

Abstract:

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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1383 Antimicrobial, Antioxidant Activities, and Phytochemical Screening of Five Species from Acacia Used in Sudanese Ethnomedicine

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

Abstract:

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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1382 FWGE Production From Wheat Germ Using Co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactobacillus plantarum

Authors: Valiollah Babaeipour, Mahdi Rahaie

Abstract:

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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1381 Microbial Diversity of El-Baida Marsh: Setif, Algeria

Authors: H. Necef, A. Benayad

Abstract:

Fungi are becoming more and more important in our life. Therefore, as a start for the symposium on filamentous fungi in biotechnology a short survey of the role of fungi in biotechnology. Salin soils occupy about 7% of land area; they are characterized by unsuitable physical conditions for the growth of living organisms. However, researches showed that some microorganisms especially fungi are able to grow and adapt to such extreme conditions; it is due to their ability to develop different physiological mechanisms in their adaptation. This is the first study on the physiological and biological characteristics of El-Beida marsh. Nine soil samples were taken at different points in two steps, the first was in winter (low temperature), and the second was in summer (high temperature). The physicochemical analyses of the soil were conducted, then the isolation process was applied using two methods, direct method and dilution method (10-1, 10-2, 10-3, 10-4). Different species of fungi were identified belong to 21 genera in addition to 3 yeast species, Aspergillus showed the highest proportion by 43%, then Penicillium by 20% then Alternaria by 7%, in addition to various genera in different proportions. As for the sampling periods, it was observed that the spread of fungi in winter was higher than in summer with the proportion 75.47% and 24.53% respectively. Some halotolerant fungi have a biotechnological importance especially if the salinity of the medium is necessary for the fermentation, and if the halotolerance genes of the fungus will define, this will open the research to study and improve this property for the industrial important micro-organisms.

Keywords: salinity, identification, aspergillus oryzae, halotolerance, fungi

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1380 Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery and Therapy of Alzeheimer's Disease

Authors: Nirupama Dixit, Anyaa Mittal, Neeru Sood

Abstract:

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive form of dementia, contributing to up to 70% of cases, mostly observed in elderly but is not restricted to old age. The pathophysiology of the disease is characterized by specific pathological changes in brain. The changes (i.e. accumulation of metal ions in brain, formation of extracellular β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide aggregates and tangle of hyper phosphorylated Tau protein inside neurons) damage the neuronal connections irreversibly. The current issues in improvement of life quality of Alzheimer's patient lies in the fact that the diagnosis is made at a late stage of the disease and the medications do not treat the basic causes of Alzheimer's. The targeted delivery of drug through the blood brain barrier (BBB) poses several limitations via traditional approaches for treatment. To overcome these drug delivery limitation, nanoparticles provide a promising solution. This review focuses on current strategies for efficient targeted drug delivery using nanoparticles and improving the quality of therapy provided to the patient. Nanoparticles can be used to encapsulate drug (which is generally hydrophobic) to ensure its passage to brain; they can be conjugated to metal ion chelators to reduce the metal load in neural tissue thus lowering the harmful effects of oxidative damage; can be conjugated with drug and monoclonal antibodies against BBB endogenous receptors. Finally this review covers how the nanoparticles can play a role in diagnosing the disease.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, β-amyloid plaques, blood brain barrier, metal chelators, nanoparticles

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1379 The UbiB Family Member Cqd1 Forms a Membrane Contact Site in Mitochondria

Authors: S. Khosravi, X. Chelius, A. Unger, D. Rieger, J. Frickel, T. Sachsenheimer, C. Luechtenborg, R. Schieweck, B. Bruegger, B. Westermann, T. Klecker, W. Neupert, M. E. Harner

Abstract:

The use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to study eukaryotic cell functions has been used successfully for decades. Like virtually all eukaryotic cells, they contain mitochondria as essential organelles performing various functions, including participation in lipid metabolism. They are separated from the cytosol by a double membrane system consisting of the mitochondrial inner membrane (MIM) and the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM). This physical separation of the mitochondria requires an exchange of metabolites, proteins, and lipids. Proteinaceous contact sites are thought to be important for this communication. Recently, it was found that Cqd1, in cooperation with Cqd2, controls the distribution of Coenzyme Q within the cell. In this study, a contact site is described, formed by the MOM protein complex Por1-Om14 and the UbiB protein kinase-like MIM protein Cqd1. The present results suggest the additional involvement of Cqd1 in the homeostasis of phospholipids. Moreover, we show that overexpression of the UbiB family proteins also causes tethering of the mitochondria to the endoplasmatic reticulum. Due to the conservation of the subunits of this contact site to higher eukaryotes, its identification in S. cerevisiae might provide promising avenues for further research in other organisms.

Keywords: contact sites, mitochondrial architecture, mitochondrial proteins, yeast mitochondria

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1378 GeneNet: Temporal Graph Data Visualization for Gene Nomenclature and Relationships

Authors: Jake Gonzalez, Tommy Dang

Abstract:

This paper proposes a temporal graph approach to visualize and analyze the evolution of gene relationships and nomenclature over time. An interactive web-based tool implements this temporal graph, enabling researchers to traverse a timeline and observe coupled dynamics in network topology and naming conventions. Analysis of a real human genomic dataset reveals the emergence of densely interconnected functional modules over time, representing groups of genes involved in key biological processes. For example, the antimicrobial peptide DEFA1A3 shows increased connections to related alpha-defensins involved in infection response. Tracking degree and betweenness centrality shifts over timeline iterations also quantitatively highlight the reprioritization of certain genes’ topological importance as knowledge advances. Examination of the CNR1 gene encoding the cannabinoid receptor CB1 demonstrates changing synonymous relationships and consolidating naming patterns over time, reflecting its unique functional role discovery. The integrated framework interconnecting these topological and nomenclature dynamics provides richer contextual insights compared to isolated analysis methods. Overall, this temporal graph approach enables a more holistic study of knowledge evolution to elucidate complex biology.

Keywords: temporal graph, gene relationships, nomenclature evolution, interactive visualization, biological insights

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1377 Screening of Selected Medicinal Plants from Jordan for Their Protective Properties against Oxidative DNA Damage and Mutagenecity

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

Abstract:

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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1376 ARABEX: Automated Dotted Arabic Expiration Date Extraction using Optimized Convolutional Autoencoder and Custom Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network

Authors: Hozaifa Zaki, Ghada Soliman

Abstract:

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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1375 Response of Post-harvest Treatments on Shelf Life, Biochemical and Microbial Quality of Banana Variety Red Banana

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

Abstract:

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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1374 Antimicrobial Activity of Endophytes on some Selected Clinical Isolates (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella Typhi, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Aspergillus fumigatus, Pseudomomonas aeruginosa and Penicillium chryysogenum)

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

Abstract:

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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1373 Effect of Deer Antler Extract on Osteogenic Gene Expression and Longitudinal Bone Growth of Adolescent Male Rats

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

Abstract:

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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1372 Properties of Bacterial Nanocellulose for Scenic Arts

Authors: Beatriz Suárez López, Gabriela Forman

Abstract:

Kombucha (a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) produces material capable of acquiring multiple shapes and textures that change significantly under different environment or temperature variations (e.g., when it is exposed to wet conditions), properties that may be explored in the scenic industry. This paper presents an analysis of its specific characteristics, exploring them as a non-conventional material for arts and performance. Costume Design uses surfaces as a powerful way of expression to represent concepts and stories; it may apply the unique features of nano bacterial cellulose (NBC) as assets in this artistic context. A mix of qualitative and quantitative (interventionist) methodology approaches were used -review of relevant literature to deepen knowledge on the research topic (crossing bibliography from different fields of studies: Biology, Art, Costume Design, etc.); as well as descriptive methods: laboratorial experiments, document quantities, observation to identify material properties and possibilities used to express a multiple narrative ideas, concepts and feelings. The results confirmed that NBC is an interactive and versatile material viable to be used in an alternative scenic context; its unique aesthetic and performative qualities, which change in contact to moisture, is a resource that can be used to show a visual and poetic impact on stage.

Keywords: biotechnological materials, contemporary dance, costume design, nano bacterial cellulose, performing arts

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1371 NprRX Regulation on Surface Spreading Motility in Bacillus cereus

Authors: Yan-Shiang Chiou, Yi-Huang Hsueh

Abstract:

Bacillus cereus is a foodborne pathogen that causes two types of foodborne illness, the emetic and diarrheal syndromes. B. cereus consistently ranks among the top three among bacterial foodborne outbreaks in the ten years of 2001 to 2010 in Taiwan. Foodborne outbreak caused by B. cereus has been increased, and recently it ranks second foodborne pathogen after Vibrio parahaemolyticus. This pathogen is difficult to control due to its ubiquitousness in the environment, the psychrotrophic nature of many strains, and the heat resistance of their spores. Because complete elimination of biofilms is difficult, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of biofilm formation by B. cereus will help to develop better strategies to control this pathogen. Surface translocation can be an important factor in biofilm formation. In B. cereus, NprR is a quorum sensor, and its apo NprR is a dimer and changes to a tetramer in the presence of NprX. The small peptide NprX may induce conformational change allowing the apo dimer to switch to an active tetramer specifically recognizing target DNA sequences. Our result showed that mutation of nprRX causes surface spreading deficiency. Mutation of flagella, pili and surfactant genes (flgAB, bcpAB, krsABC), did not abolish spreading motility. Under nprRX mutant, mutation of spo0A restored the spreading deficiency. This suggests that spreading motility is not related surfactant, pili and flagella but other unknown mechanism and Spo0A, a sporulation initiation protein, inhibits spreading motility.

Keywords: Bacillus cereus, nprRX, spo0A, spreading motility

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1370 Enhanced Anti-Obesity Effect of Soybean by Fermentation with Lactobacillus plantarum P1201 in 3T3-L1 Adipocyte

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

Abstract:

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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1369 Study of the Biochemical Properties of the Protease Coagulant Milk Extracted from Sunflower Cake: Manufacturing Test of Cheeses Uncooked Dough Press and Analysis of Sensory Properties

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

Abstract:

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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1368 Automated Evaluation Approach for Time-Dependent Question Answering Pairs on Web Crawler Based Question Answering System

Authors: Shraddha Chaudhary, Raksha Agarwal, Niladri Chatterjee

Abstract:

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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1367 Anti-Fibrillation Propensity of a Flavonoid Baicalein against the Fibrils of Hen Egg White Lysozyme: Potential Therapeutics for Lysozyme Amyloidosis

Authors: Naveed Ahmad Fazili

Abstract:

More than 20 human diseases involve the fibrillation of a specific protein/peptide which forms pathological deposits at various sites. Hereditary lysozyme amyloidosis is a systemic disorder which mostly affects liver, spleen and kidney. This conformational disorder is featured by lysozyme fibril formation. In vivo lysozyme fibrillation was simulated under in vitro conditions using a strong denaturant GdHCl at 3M concentration. Sharp decline in the ANS fluorescence intensity compared to the partially unfolded states, almost 20 fold increase in ThT fluorescence intensity, increase in absorbance at 450 nm suggesting turbidity, negative ellipticity peak in the far-UVCD at 217 nm, red shift of 50 nm compared to the native state in congo red assay and appearance of a network of long rope like fibrils in TEM analysis suggested HEWL fibrillation. Anti-fibrillation potency of baicalein against the preformed fibrils of HEWL was investigated following ThT assay in which there was a dose dependent decrease in ThT fluorescence intensity compared to the fibrillar state of HEWL with the maximum effect observed at 150 μM baicalein concentration, loss of negative ellipticity peak in the far-UVCD region, dip in the Rayleigh scattering intensity and absorbance at 350 nm and 450 nm respectively together with a reduction in the density of fibrillar structure in TEM imaging. Thus, it could be suggested that baicalein could prove to be a positive therapeutics for hereditary human lysozyme amyloidosis.

Keywords: amyloid fibrils, baicalein, congo red, negative ellipticity, therapeutics

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1366 Processing Big Data: An Approach Using Feature Selection

Authors: Nikat Parveen, M. Ananthi

Abstract:

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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1365 Chemical Profiling of Hymenocardia acida Stem Bark Extract and Modulation of Selected Antioxidant and Esterase Enzymes in Kidney and Heart Ofwistar Rats

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.

Abstract:

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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1364 Antioxidant Activity of Friedelin, Eudesmic Acid and Methyl-3,4,5-Trimethoxybenzoate from Tapinanthus bangwensis (Engl., and K. Krause) [Loranthaceae] Grown in Nigeria

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

Abstract:

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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1363 Implication of Oxidative Stress and Intracellular Mediators in the Protective Effect of Artemisia campestris against Aspirin-Induced Gastric Lesions in Rat Model

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

Abstract:

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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1362 Investigation of Ameliorative Effect of a Polyphenolic Compound of Green Tea Extract against Rotenone Induced Neurotoxicity: A Mechanistic Approach

Authors: Sandeep Goyal, Sandeep Saluja

Abstract:

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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1361 Puereria mirifica Replacement Improves Skeletal Muscle Performance Associated with Increasing Parvalbumin Levels in Ovariectomized Rat

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

Abstract:

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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1360 Pharmacognostic, Phytochemical and Antibacterial Activity of Beaumontia Randiflora

Authors: Narmeen Mehmood

Abstract:

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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1359 Cratoxy Formosum (Jack) Dyer Leaf Extract-Induced Human Breast and Liver Cancer Cells Death

Authors: Benjaporn Buranrat, Nootchanat Mairuae

Abstract:

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

Procedia PDF Downloads 206