June 2014

Phenolics of Achillea fragrantissima growing in Egypt and its cytotoxic activity

Achillea fragrantissima Sch. Bip. (Asteraceae) has been reputed in folk medicine of the Arabia region and Egypt for the treatment of many diseases. Air dried aerial parts of A. fragrantissima were extracted with 70% aqueous ethanol and fractionated with petroleum ether, dichloromethane, n-butanol and ethyl acetate fractions. Among them, dichloromethane showed the highest activity and was subjected to separation and...

Author(s): Riham Omar Bakr, Reem Khedr Arafa, Ahmed Mohamed Al-Abd, and Hisham Mohamed Elshishtawy

June 2014

In vitro evaluation of Bixa orellana L. (Annatto) seeds as potential natural food preservative

This paper evaluates the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant effect of the ethanolic extract of annatto seeds (EEBS). Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the EEBS was determinate through micro-dilution method in 7 bacteria and 5 fungi strains, all of which are ATCC. The EEBS shows a wide antimicrobial action spectrum for both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, as well as for fungi with MICs between 0.5...

Author(s): Gelmy L. Ciro, José E. Zapata and Jessica López

June 2014

Preliminary investigation on phytochemical composition and biological activity of Cunila microcephala Benth.

Ethnobotanical studies have investigated the use of leaves of Cunila microcephala for respiratory, stomach and gastrointestinal disorders. The essential oil of this plant is mostly composed of menthofuran, which has a hepatotoxic effect. Due to the popular use of this plant in southern Brazil, this study aimed to perform phytochemical profile of C. microcephala to detect and determine the amount of secondary metabolites...

Author(s): Alan da Silva Felisbino, Marília Schutz Borges, Daniela Dimer Leffa, Paula da Silva Cardoso, Claus Troger Pich, Vanessa Moraes de Andrade and Patrícia de Aguiar Amaral