antimicrobial

This study aimed to evaluate the phytochemical profile and antimicrobial potential of extracts derived from Curcuma caesia rhizomes and Nardostachys jatamansi roots. A total of 250 g of Curcuma caesia and 80 g of Nardostachys jatamansi were subjected to solvent extraction. The yields of Curcuma caesia extracts were 2.22% in petroleum ether and 7.15% in ethanol. Phytochemical screening of the ethanolic extracts confirmed the presence of several bioactive constituents, including alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, phenolics, saponins, glycosides, and proteins. The total phenolic content was measured at 171 mg/g for Curcuma caesia and 393 mg/g for Nardostachys jatamansi, expressed in gallic acid equivalents. Similarly, the total flavonoid content was 175 mg/g and 410 mg/g, respectively, in terms of rutin equivalents. A polyherbal gel was formulated using these extracts, with the G3 combination formulation showing superior performance in antimicrobial activity tests, as evidenced by a larger zone of inhibition. Furthermore, dermal safety assessment revealed no skin irritation, indicating its suitability for topical application. Overall, the findings support the potential of this herbal gel as a safe and effective natural antimicrobial agent.

Ferulic acid (FA), a common plant compound, has been of great interest in recent years because of its multifaceted pharmacological activities. In this review, the pharmacological activity of ferulic acid has been thoroughly explored, encompassing its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, and cardioprotective, anti-diabetic, and photoprotective effects. The molecular mechanisms of these activities have been elaborately discussed, along with possible therapeutic potentials in different disease conditions. Recent developments in drug delivery systems to improve FA bioavailability and clinical trials assessing its efficacy are also discussed. Although with encouraging preclinical results, hurdles are still present in extensing these observations to clinical use, and additional research is required to maximally exploit the therapeutic potential of this strategic phytochemical.

The area of pharmaceuticals and synthetic organic chemistry continued to remain dependent on the heterocyclic compounds due to their wide array of properties both biological and synthetic. However, their extensive clinical use as medicinal drugs and their synthetic applications has been prompting the chemists to develop new structural triazole derivatives. Benzotriazole is benzene fused azole derivative exhibiting tremendous application in medicinal and synthetic chemistry. Benzotriazole bearing compounds possess various activities such as anticancer, antifungal, antibacterial, antitubercular, antiviral, antioxidative, antiparasitic, antioxidative. Also, the versatility and usefulness of benzotriazole methodology in synthesis protocol has grown from an obscure level to extreme popularity, since benzotriazole moiety can easily be introduced into a molecule by variety of reactions, thus allowing numerous transformations, and finally its stability and ease of removal at the of the reaction sequence.  In this review, we briefly describe the development of new benzotriazole compounds having wide range of applications during the period of 2011 to 2016.

Patients as well as clinicians have been apprehensive of pain of endodontic origin for many years1. Pain during root canal treatment can be attributed to inflammation in the periapical tissues due to exudation of irritants from the root canal2. The persistence of microorganism due to improper disinfection of root canal is the most important cause of pain 1. The eradication of microorganism from the root canals is therefore vital during root canal treatment . Thus, an antimicrobial dressing in root canals is advocated after root canal preparation 1.  To evaluate the effectiveness of different intra canal medication in reducing the post operative pain in nonsurgical root canal treatment. The following databases were searched: PubMed CENTRAL, MEDLINE and Cochrane Databases of Systemic Reviews, Bibliographies of Clinical Studies and Reviews identified in the electronic search were analysed for studies published outside the electronically searched journals. Trials were selected if they met the following criteria: Clinical trials or in-vivo studies that evaluated the post operative pain after using different intracanal medicament in patients undergoing root canal treatment. All the studies included, were based on the data extraction and analysis of the studies for quality and publication bias. The primary outcome measure was to evaluate the reduction in post operative pain after using different intra canal medicaments in patients undergoing root canal treatment. The reviews some clinical evidence that use of intra canal medicaments can reduce postoperative pain. There is no enough evidence to prove that calcium hydroxide is effective in reduction of pain. Corticosteroids antibiotic combination and calcium hydroxide combination with chlorhexidine and camphorated paramonochlorophenol were effective in reducing pain.  From this systematic review it can be concluded that, certain intra canal medicaments can be used to reduce postoperative pain during root canal treatment. Most of the studies proved that, corticosteroid antibiotic solution or combination  of calcium hydroxide with other medicine like camphorated paramonochlorophenol or chlorhexidine is effective in reducing post operative pain. There is no evidence that, use of calcium hydroxide is effective in relieving pain. Further clinical trials are required to evaluate the efficacy of intra canal medicaments in reducing postoperative pain.

Xylopia aethiopica  (Annonaceae), commonly called negro pepper, African pepper, Guinea pepper and spice tree, is an ever green aromatic tree growing up to 15-30 m high. It is a native to the low land rain forests and moist fringe forests in the savanna zones and coastal regions of Africa. Folklore medicine claimed it to be useful as abortifacients, ecbolics as well as in the treatment of diarrhoea, dysentery; stomach disorder, menstrual disorder, naso-pharyngeal infections, arthritis, rheumatism, infections, among others. This present article is a collection of up to date information regarding the ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicological studies carried on  Xylopia aethiopica by different researchers (authors).

In the last two decades, antibiotic resistance has become a severe problem worldwide. Herbal antimicrobials have enormous potential as they can serve purpose with lesser side effects than synthetic antimicrobials. Weeds release different allelochemicals which can act as antimicrobials or herbicides. Leaves of two important Indian weeds viz. Heliotropium indicum L. (Boraginaceae) and Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn. (Asteraceae) were taken in this allelopathic and antimicrobial study.  Seed germination is considered to be the most significant stage especially under stress conditions and thus acts as an excellent model bioassay technique. Aqueous and ethanolic leaves extract of both plants progressively affected germination parameters of tested plants. But it affected seeds of Lactuca sativa more than those of Vigna mungo.  Lactuca sativa Germination % declined to 40%-52% in case of ethanolic extract of these weeds. Ethanolic extracts are more effective in inhibiting germination in both indicator plants. The weed extracts were very effective against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and fungus Aspergillus niger. Salmonella enterica is the most resistant strain tested against these extracts. Heliotropium indicum L. was found to have tannin, alkaloid, and saponin and glycoside in both types of extracts. Synedrella nodiflora L. contain phenols, alkaloids and flavonoids in both aqueous and ethanolic extracts. Terpenoids and tannin were found in ethanolic extract of Synedrella nodiflora. The present study concludes that both plants contain herbicidal and antimicrobial constituents. Further studies regarding the isolation and identification of these antimicrobial and herbicidal constituents are necessary.

This dissertation describes the biological investigations of Diospyros peregrina gurke; a plant belonging to the family Ebenaceae.Present study was designed to test the cytotoxic activity and antimicrobial effect of crude extract. The study protocol consists cold extraction of powdered unripe fruit and seed of Diospyros peregrina gurke for cytotoxicity effect using Brine shrimp bioassay lethality and tested against four Gram negative and three Gram positive bacteria for antimicrobial activity. From the results of the brine shrimp lethality bioassay it can be well predicated that crude extracts of Diospyros peregrina gurke possess cytotoxic principles (with LD50  9.12011µg/ml and 10.8893µg/ml).For antimicrobial activity, the extracts were tested against standard microbial strains of gram positive and gram-negative, by means of Agar-Disc Diffusion Method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was noted.Although, both extracts were found to be effective in inhibiting pathogens to varying degrees to the tested organisms, the unripe fruit pulp extract of Diospyros peregrina gurke was found to be more effective than seed extract of Diospyros peregrina gurke .When both extracts were used in combination, they have shown strong synergistic effect against all the pathogens tested in the present study. Plant extracts  can be used to source antitumor and antibiotic substances for possible treatment.

Hospital acquired infections are commonly associated with Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection and treating these infections with chemotherapy is very perilous. The augment of multidrug-resistant strains makes it necessary to discover new classes of antimicrobials and compounds that restrain their resistance mechanisms. In the past few decades, the search for new anti-infective agents has betrothed many research groups in the field of ethno pharmacology. Many focus on determining the antimicrobial activity of plant extracts found in folk medicine, essential oils or isolated compounds. There are a large number of species that have been and are still used as medicinal plants, particularly in folk medicine. In the present study, we analyse the possibility of essential oils as potential antimicrobial crude drugs as well as a source for natural compounds that act as new anti-infectious agents.

A total of five compounds eicosanyl-trans-p-coumarate (1), stigmasterol(2), β-sitosterol (3), β-amyrin(4), 6-hydroxy stigmasta-4,22-dien-3-one (5) were isolated from the methanolic extract of the stem bark of Ipomoea pescaprae(L.) R.Br.(Family:Convolvulaceae). The petroleum ether, carbon tetrachloride; chloroform and aqueous soluble Kupchan fractions of crude methanol extract were studied for antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities. Among the different fractions tested for antioxidant activity, the aqueous soluble partitionate was the most potent with IC50 value of 7.50μg/ml as compared to tertbutyl-1-hydroxytoluene (IC50=20.96μg/ml). Antimicrobial screening of the different extractives was conducted by the disc diffusion method and the crude methanol extract as well as aqueous soluble fractions exhibited moderate antimicrobial activity with zone of inhibition ranging from 10-12 mm. In brine shrimp lethality bioassay, the aqueous soluble materials demonstrated the highest toxicity with LC50 of 1.01μg/ml. Compounds eicosanyl-trans-p-coumarate, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, 6-hydroxy stigmasta-4,22-dien-3-one are the first report of isolation of compounds from Ipomoea pescaprae. Key words: Ipomoea pescaprae, chemical constituents, antioxidant, antimicrobial, cytotoxicity.

In the present work the antimicrobial activity of leaves of Echinacea purpurea and whole plant of Artemisia scoparia were tested against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Bacillus atrophoeous (human pathogenic bacteria) Ervinia carotovora, Agrobaterium tumefactions (plant pathogenic bacteria) and a fungus, Candida albicans by using agar disc diffusion method. Azithromycin, Ciprofloxacin, Clotrimazole were used as standard antibiotics. The extracts of E. purpurea showed marked susceptibility against the microbes when tested in two different concentrations (1 mg/6 µl and 2 mg/12 µl). Similarly the whole plant of Artemisia scoparia produced significant activity against tested pathogens but was comparatively less pronounced. Based on the results, it is concluded that the extract of both plant could be effective natural healing agents against infections caused by the test organisms.