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      • Open Access Article

        1 - Phytochemicals and phyto-extracts in cosmetics
        Satyajit D. Sarker Lutfun Nahar
        Phytochemicals are generally secondary metabolites produced by plants, and they often possess various biological and pharmacological properties, which have long been exploited to find new drug molecules for the treatment of human ailments. However, because of the proper More
        Phytochemicals are generally secondary metabolites produced by plants, and they often possess various biological and pharmacological properties, which have long been exploited to find new drug molecules for the treatment of human ailments. However, because of the properties like antioxidant, emollient and antimicrobial, and also as a colour and fragrance, some of the phytochemicals are used in a number of cosmetic products available to date. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        2 - Bioactive essential oils from the Cameroonian rain forest: A review - Part I
        Jean Duplex Wansi Norbert Sewald Lutfun Nahar Claire Martin Satyajit Dey Sarker
        Forty traditional medicinal plants from the Cameroonian rain forest belonging to twelve families are reviewed related to botanical description, taxonomy, common names, traditional use, essential oil composition as well as bioactivity and toxicity of their essential oils More
        Forty traditional medicinal plants from the Cameroonian rain forest belonging to twelve families are reviewed related to botanical description, taxonomy, common names, traditional use, essential oil composition as well as bioactivity and toxicity of their essential oils. A correlation is drawn between traditional use and bioactivity in vitro/in vivo, and structures of seventy-three main oil ingredients are given. Collected data indicate that plant essential oils unfold their biological activity related to functional groups of major and minor compounds, in a complex, fine-tuned interaction, modulated by environmental factors like the vegetation cycle of the plant, the altitude and the presence or absence of plant pathogen microbes, certain crop weevils as well as nematodes, varying with climatic seasons. Comparison of traditional use with laboratory results indicates effectivity of a good number of essential oils received from various plant parts, like leaves, bark, fruit, roots and rhizomes against Plasmodium falciparum, food borne microbes, dermatophytes, the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, cancer cell lines, river blindness as well as plant pathogen weevils and fungi. However, toxicological studies are needed before any recommendation for application can be given. Importantly, leaf and fruit oil of Cupressus lusitanica (Cupressaceae) displayed strong acute toxicity in animal model, and the bark oil of Cinnamomum verum (Lauraceae) showed high toxicity in a normal cell line, so that preparations should be applied with care. Preformulation and formulation studies will be needed to develop a range of suitable dosage forms to introduce optimized pharmaceuticals (high active, low toxic) as replacement of current crude plant essential oil preparations in Cameroon and other Subsaharan countries. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        3 - Chemical composition of Theobroma cacao L (Sterculiaceae) and Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench, Syn. Sorghum vulgare Pers (Poaceae)
        Akinwunmi Olubunmi Adenike Olatunde Christian Olalekan
        Theobroma cacao L (sterculiaceae) and Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench, Syn. Sorghum vulgare. Pers (Poaceae) are plants with well-known medicinal properties. Aqueous extracts of the plant blend are being used in the treatment of anaemia caused by the shortage of iron in patie More
        Theobroma cacao L (sterculiaceae) and Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench, Syn. Sorghum vulgare. Pers (Poaceae) are plants with well-known medicinal properties. Aqueous extracts of the plant blend are being used in the treatment of anaemia caused by the shortage of iron in patients. It is therefore important to investigate the synergetic effects of the blends on their chemical composition. The proximate, phytochemical and mineral composition of the plants and the blend samples containing 50% (w/w) were evaluated using standard procedures. The proximate composition showed that samples contained a high fraction of carbohydrate compared to other parameters; 36.70% for T. cacao, 48.66% for S. bicolor and 73.59% for the blended sample, respectively. The phytochemical composition of the samples showed the presence of medicinally active constituents like alkaloids, tannins, saponins, phlobatannin, flavonoids and cardiac glucosides. The samples showed moderate phytate composition of 18.53 mg/g, 11.74 mg/g and 14.0 mg/g for T. cacao, S. bicolor, and the blended samples, respectively. The study further revealed that the composition of the phytochemicals/antinutrients were temperature dependent. The mineral analysis of the samples showed the presence of Na, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Cu, and Mn with a significant amount of Mg (68.20 mg/100g) and Fe (55.10 mg/100g) observed in the blended sample. Our findings support the ethnomedicinal use of the plants in the treatment of anaemia. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        4 - Chemical constituents from the leaves of Fraxinus excelsior L., Senna sulfurea (Collad.) H. S. Irwin et Barneby and Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce
        Shahnaz Sultana Mohammed Ali Mohammad Jameel Piyush Sharma
        Fraxinus excelsior L. (Oleaceae) is used to treat diarrhoea, dysentery, jaundice, joint pain, malaria, sores, swelling and wounds. The leaves of Senna sulfurea (Collad.) H. S. Irwin et Barneby (Leguminosae) are effective to cure blennorrhagia, diabetes, dysentery, gonor More
        Fraxinus excelsior L. (Oleaceae) is used to treat diarrhoea, dysentery, jaundice, joint pain, malaria, sores, swelling and wounds. The leaves of Senna sulfurea (Collad.) H. S. Irwin et Barneby (Leguminosae) are effective to cure blennorrhagia, diabetes, dysentery, gonorrhea and skin diseases. Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce, (Fabaceae) is taken to alleviate anxiety, asthma, bronchitis, dysentery, dyspepsia, fever, leprosy, leucoderma, muscle tremors, piles, rheumatism and tremors. Our study was planned to isolate chemical constituents of the methanolic extracts obtained from the leaves of F. excelsior, S. sulfurea and P. cineraria and to characterized their structures. The air-dried plant materials were exhaustively extracted with methanol separately in a Soxhlet. The concentrated methanolic extracts were adsorbed on silica gel (60-120 mesh) for the preparation of slurries. The dried slurries were chromatographed over silica gel columns individually packed in petroleum ether. The columns were eluted with petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol successively in order of increasing polarity to isolate a variety of phytoconstituents. Phytochemical investigation of the leaves of F. excelsior afforded (Z,Z,Z)-n-tetratriacont-3,5,15-triene (1), n-hexatriacontane (2), (Z,Z,Z)-n-octatriacont-11,13,20-triene (3), phytanic acid (3,7,11,15-tetramethylhexadecanoic acid, 4), 26-hydroxystigmasterol-18-oic acid (5) and α-L-xylose (6). The leaves of S. sulfurea furnished isoliquiritigenin (7) and 4-methoxy-α-L-xylopyranosyl-(3→1′)-O-α-L-4′-methoxyxylopyranoside (di-4-methoxy-α-L-xyloside, 8). The leaves of P. cineraria on subjection to silica gel column chromatography led to isolate glyceryl-1-oleioyl-2-myristioyl-3-O-hydroxydihydrocinnamate (9), 2,3,4-trihydroxybenzyl n-hexadecanyl ether (10) and salicyloyl O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-2′-oleate (11). Their structures were established on the basis of spectral data analysis and chemical reactions. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        5 - Analgesics from Lonchocarpus eriocalyx Harms
        Angeline A. Ochung Phillip O. Owuor Lawrence A.O. Manguro Ishola O. Ismael Regina A. Nyunja Charles O. Ochieng Sylvia A. Opiyo
        Four lupane-type terpenoids, namely lupeol (1), friedelin (2), stigmasterol (3), and stigmasterol-3-O-glucoside (4) were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of leaves of Lonchocarpus eriocalyx Harms. These compounds were obtained by extensive silica gel chromatograp More
        Four lupane-type terpenoids, namely lupeol (1), friedelin (2), stigmasterol (3), and stigmasterol-3-O-glucoside (4) were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of leaves of Lonchocarpus eriocalyx Harms. These compounds were obtained by extensive silica gel chromatography and their structures elucidated by 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) as well as comparison with literature data. The ethyl acetate, dichloromethane and methanol extracts (100 mg/Kg) had a pretreatment latency of 3.1±0.15, 3.0±0.01 and 3.5±0.12 at the zero minute. The post latency of 6.4±0.13 was observed for ethyl acetate at 30 minutes which confirmed its effectiveness to halt pain, while compounds 1 and 2 had pretreatment latency of 3.1±0.12 and 3.2±0.12, respectively. The isolated compounds from this medicinal plant along with their analgesic activity have been reported for the first time. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        6 - Preliminary phytochemical analysis and in vitro antioxidant properties of Malaysian ‘Kundang’ (Bouea macrophylla Griffith)
        Kumeshini Sukalingam
        The main objective of the present study was to evaluate preliminary phytochemical screening and in vitro antioxidant properties of leaves, ripe and unripe fruit extracts of Malaysian ‘Kundang (Bouea macrophylla Griffith; Family: Anacardiaceae), by using different More
        The main objective of the present study was to evaluate preliminary phytochemical screening and in vitro antioxidant properties of leaves, ripe and unripe fruit extracts of Malaysian ‘Kundang (Bouea macrophylla Griffith; Family: Anacardiaceae), by using different solvents like water, ethanol, methanol, and hexane. Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, sterols and triterpenes, total phenol, tannins, and vitamin C. The prepared extracts from the leaves and fruits of the plant were further investigated for their potential antioxidant activity using radical scavenging DPPH (2,2'-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) technique, which was compared with ascorbic acid, as standard. This study showed that ripe, unripe fruits and leaves of B. macrophylla have higher amounts of various phytochemicals constituents in methanol and aqueous solvents and possess higher amounts of vitamin C. Moreover, aqueous and methanol extracts of leaves, unripe and ripe fruits of B. macrophylla exhibited a remarkable DPPH radical scavenging activity compared with that of the standard. The results revealed that fruit and leaves extracts are a potential source of antioxidants of natural origin. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        7 - Erratum: Nano-encapsulation of thyme essential oil in chitosan-Arabic gum system: Evaluation of its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties
        Maryam Hasani Shirin Hasani
        In this study, nano-capsules based on chitosan (CS) and Arabic gum (AG) involving thyme essential oil (TEO), as an active ingredient, were prepared using the emulsion method. The nano-capsules were characterized by their encapsulation efficiency (EE), morphologies, part More
        In this study, nano-capsules based on chitosan (CS) and Arabic gum (AG) involving thyme essential oil (TEO), as an active ingredient, were prepared using the emulsion method. The nano-capsules were characterized by their encapsulation efficiency (EE), morphologies, particle size distributions, zeta potential and release (RE). The obtained results showed that nano-capsules produced using a relative ratio of CS:AG (1.5%:8.5%) clearly showed the highest encapsulation efficiency (77.67%) and zeta potential value (+ 43.17 mV). In vitro release study demonstrated a slow release for the samples with larger CS ratio. In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that nano-capsules sizes were over the range 385.2-756.1 nm with a rough surface shape for all samples. Moreover, quantitative values of antioxidant activity of free TEO and nano-encapsulated TEO were studied using the free radical 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The essential oil (EO) was investigated for its antibacterial activity against common Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogenic microorganisms including Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli by disk diffusion and dilution (MIC) methods. Our results accounted for higher antioxidant and antibacterial activities of encapsulated TEO compared to those of free TEO. Finally, the CS:AG ratio of 1.5%:8.5% was found to be suitable wall material for TEO encapsulation. Manuscript profile