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Background. Pistacia integerrima (P. integerrina) insect galls are widely used in ayurveda and siddha system of medicine as karkatasringi. The use of leaf galls as a rejuvenator may be attributed to antioxidant property, however there is less scientifi c evidence. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the chemical composition and the antioxidant potential of leaf gall extracts (aqueous and ethanol) of P. integerrina, which is extensively used in the preparation of traditional medications. Material and methods. The antioxidant activities of aqueous and ethanolic leaf gall extracts were examined using diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydroxyl scavenging and ferric reducing power (FRAP) methods. Results. The presences of phenolics, tannins, phytosterols, triterpenoids, saponins, fl avonoids and reducing sugars were identifi ed in both the extracts. In comparison to the aqueous extract, the ethanolic extract had the highest total phenolic and fl avonoid content at 234 ±2.4 mg of GAE/g d.w. and 95.5 ±3.2 mg of QUE/g d.w., respectively. This higher content of total phenolics and fl avonoids found in the ethanolic extract was directly associated with higher antioxidant activity. Conclusion. This study demonstrates the poetnet antioxidant activities of P. integerrima leaf gall extracts. Further, there was a strong association between the higher antioxidant activities with that of higher total phenolic and fl avonoid content in the ethanolic leaf gall extracts of P. integerrima. The results encourage the use of P. integerrima leaf gall extracts for medicinal health, functional food and nutraceuticals applications, due to their antioxidant properties. Future work will be interesting to learn the chemical composition and better understand the mechanism of action of the antioxidants present in the extract for development as a drug for therapeutic application.

The carcinogenic capacity of Bisphenol A (BPA) at nano-molar concentrations of 8.73 and 17.47 nM (in culture) was evaluated on both normal breast epithelial cells (MCF-10A) and breast cancer cells (MCF-7). The highest DNA damage was recorded at 6 h and MCF-10A cells showed significant increase of IGF1R protein while mRNA expression was unchanged; however, the converse was true for MCF-7 cells. Homology modeling predicted the structure of SPCA1/2 and indicated BPA binding within catalytic domain. Our data indicated that BPA caused detectable DNA damage, inhibited cellular SPCA1/2 protein which eventually dysregulated Ca 2+ -dependent IGF1R.

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