Posted by admin on Feb 25, 2015 in |
A moderately halophilic strain of actinomycete HB-11, having ability to produce antifungal compound was isolated from soil samples collected from the region of Mumbai sea port, India. The strain HB-11 was identified as Streptomyces werraensis on the basis of its morphological characteristics and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. It is found to be active against both filamentous as well as yeast fungi including Aspergillus parasiticus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Ustilago maydis, Helminthosporium gramineum, Alternaria solani, Mucor liomelis, Rhizopus oryzae, Sclerotium rolfsii, Fusarium moniliforme, Fusarium oxysporum and Candida albicans. The cultural conditions for the production of antifungal metabolite were optimized by using various parameters and using U. maydis as indicator test strain. The antifungal metabolite was extracted with organic solvents, purified by column chromatography and its polyene nature was determined by Ergosterol plate assay. The optimization studies for antifungal compound production revealed that the suitable period of incubation as 8 days, pH as 8.0, salinity (5%), starch and ammonium sulphate as suitable carbon and nitrogen sources respectively and presence of magnesium...
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Posted by admin on Feb 25, 2015 in |
The aim of this study is to investigate the cholesterol lowering property of bacterial isolates. Different cultures of the bacteria were isolated from cow milk. Out of the cultured bacterial isolates Lactobacillus species, Micrococcus luteus and Staphylococcus aureus were screened. Three isolates such as Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus casei were identified based on morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics. Sugar fermentation test was performed to identify Lactobacillus species. The sugars such as D- glucose, galactose, lactose, mannitol and D-fructose were used. The five isolates were inoculated on Nutrient agar medium with cholesterol (1mg/1ml) concentration and incubated for 24 hours to check the cholesterol utilization. Cholesterol lowering activities of these organisms were checked at different concentration of cholesterol, different pH, different temperature and different incubation time. The results of this study, suggests that Lactobacillus plantarum was an effective organism for cholesterol utilization at pH 7, temperature at 35ºC and incubation time was at 24 hrs. Hence Lactobacillus plantarum has been reported as cholesterol lowering...
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Posted by admin on Feb 25, 2015 in |
In the traditional system of Indian medicine Caesalpinia bonducella Flem. is widely used for its medicinal properties. All parts are valuable as it contains various secondary metabolites. Seeds contain 20-30% of oil. On the basis of phyto-chemical analysis of the seed it is known to contain alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, saponins and furano di terpenes. The plant possesses antidiabetic, antioxidant, antitumor, antiproliferative and anti imflammatory activities. “Cytotoxicity” is the ability to kill the cells. In the present study experiments were carried out to check for the cytotoxic nature of seeds and callus using Daphnia cultures. The method used is simple, inexpensive and even a low toxin amounts are sufficient to perform the test. Cytotoxic nature was tested using aqueous extracts of seed powder as well as callus. From the experiments it was observed that extract from seed powder as well as callus expressed cytotoxic activities, however, seed powder extract was more effective compared to callus...
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Posted by admin on Feb 25, 2015 in |
Plants in Combretaceae family are traditionally reputed to be anthelmintics and antimicrobial agents. Dried aerial parts of Combretum sordidum (Exell) were ground to fine powder and extracted using ethanol. Ethanol extract was partitioned to obtain hexane and ethylacetate extracts successively. These extracts were screened for secondary metabolites using standard methods and evaluated for their antimicrobial potentials against two Gram positive bacteria; Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 14579) and Bacillus cereus (ATCC 33923); two Gram negative bacteria; Proteus mirabilis (ATCC 21784), Salmonella typhi (ATCC 25179) and a fungus; Candida albicans (NCTC 227) by tube dilution method. Essential oil from its leaves was obtained by hydrodistillation method and analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, steroids and anthraquinones in the ethylacetate and ethanol extracts. Both extracts displayed broad spectrum activities against the organisms used with minium inhibitory concentration (MIC) at 400µg/mL. Five compounds comprising 99.99% of the total peak area were identified from the volatile oil. The most abundant constituent was 7-...
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Posted by admin on Feb 25, 2015 in |
The investigation of terrestrial plants origin aimed at searching new natural biologically active compounds is a central issue of this kind of studies, through structure elucidation combined with biological tests. We investigated the biologically active secondary metabolites from Leucas lavandulaefolia towards various effects on the behavior of Aphanomyces cochlioides zoospores and with antimicrobial activity. We purified the following compounds acacetin, chrysoeriol, luteolin, acacetin 7-O-β-D-glucuronide, acetoside, isoacetoside, salicylic acid and caffeic acid. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analyses and compared with those of the reported data. Five compounds (luteolin, acacetin 7-O-β-D-glucuronide, acetoside, isoacetoside, and salicylic acid) were isolated from L. lavandulaefolia for the first time ever. It was found that luteolin showed a strong attractant and encystment activity toward zoospores of the phytopathogenic fungus A. cochlioides zoospores. Chrysoeriol also showed an attractant activity towards A. cochlioides zoospores. This is the first research report of L. lavandulaefolia regarding zoospores bioassay. Antibacterial assay on these compounds indicated that they have antimicrobial activity against the tested bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus....
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