The present study was designated to evaluate the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the essential oil, obtained by using a Clevenger distillation apparatus, water soluble (polar) and water insoluble (nonpolar) subfractions of the methanol extracts from aerial parts of Satureja hortensis L. plants, and methanol extract from calli established from the seeds using Gamborg's B5 basal media supplemented with indole-3-butyric acid (1.0 ppm), 6-benzylaminopurine (N(6)-benzyladenine) (1.0 ppm), and sucrose (2.5%). The antimicrobial test results showed that the essential oil of S. hortensis had great potential antimicrobial activities against all 23 bacteria and 15 fungi and yeast species tested. In contrast, the methanol extract from callus cultures and water soluble subfraction of the methanol extract did not show antimicrobial activities, but the nonpolar subfraction had antibacterial activity against only five out of 23 bacterial species, which were Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus fecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis, and Streptococcus pyogenes. Antioxidant studies suggested that the polar subfractions of the methanol extract of intact plant and methanol extract of callus cultures were able to reduce the stable free radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl to the yellow-colored diphenylpicrylhydrazine. In this assay, the strongest effect was observed for the tissue culture extract, with an IC(50) value of 23.76 +/- 0.80 microgram/mL, which could be compared with the synthetic antioxidant agent butylated hydroxytoluene. On the other hand, linoleic acid oxidation was 95% inhibited in the presence of the essential oil while the inhibition was 90% with the chloroform subfraction of the intact plant. The chemical composition of a hydrodistilled essential oil of S. hortensis was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC)/flame ionization detection (FID) and a GC-mass spectrometry system. A total 22 constituents representing 99.9% of the essential oil were identified by GC-FID analaysis. Thymol (29.0%), carvacrol (26.5%), gamma-terpinene (22.6%), and p-cymene (9.3%) were the main components.

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Medical plants and their various extracts have been occasionally used in the treatment of many diseases. Astragalus is one of those medical plants and it has several biological activities. In the present study, the hexane extracts of six Astragalus species, which are grown in the eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, were isolated, and their mutagenic and antimutagenic properties were investigated by using Salmonella typhimurium TA1535, TA1537 and Escherichia coli WP2uvrA tester strains at 0.05, 0.5 and 5 microg/plate concentrations. Known mutagens sodium azide (NaN(3)), 9-Aminoacridine (9-AA) and N-Methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) were used to determine antimutagenic properties of hexane extracts. The results showed that all hexane extracts, investigated in the present study, can be considered genotoxically safe because they do not have mutagenic activity at the tested concentrations. But, a great many of them have antimutagenic activity against 9-Aminoacridine known as a model intercalator agent. The inhibition rates obtained from the antimutagenicity assays ranged from 27.51% (A. macrocephalus--0.05 microg/plate) to 54.39% (A. galegiformis--5 microg/plate). These activities are valuable toward an extension of the employ of these drugs as new phytotherapeutic or preservative ingredients.

The present work describes the changes that take place in phytohormone contents in germinating chickpea (Cicer arietinum cv. Aziziye-94) seeds in response to heavy metal stress. For this aim, endogenous abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellic acid (GA 3 ), zeatin (Z) and zeatin riboside (ZR) contents were followed for 24, 48 and 72 h in chickpea seeds germinating at the concentrations of 0.1, 1.0 and 5.0 mM Pb or 0.1, 1.0 and 10 mM Zn. The results showed that Pb and Zn significantly delayed and impeded the germination of chickpea seeds. The negative effect of Pb on germination was higher than that of Zn. Further, Pb increased ABA and Z contents while decreased GA 3 content in the germinating seeds. The high concentrations of Zn (1.0 and 10 mM) decreased contents of Z, ZR and GA 3 while 0.1 mM Zn increased the content of the same hormones. The ABA content was enhanced by Zn in all concentrations used.

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible protective role of vitamin A, C, and E on aflatoxin B(1)-induced in human lymphocytes using biochemical approaches. The control group received dimethyl sulfoxide, the second group of cultures were administered aflatoxin B(1) (AFB(1)) at a dose of 5 muM. The other group of cultures were treated with AFB(1)+vitamin A (0.5 and 1.0 and 1.5 microM) and AFB(1)+vitamin C (25, 50, and 100 microM) and AFB(1)+vitamin E (40, 100, and 200 microM). The results of this experiment show that AFB(1) significantly decreased the level of GSH and the activities of superoxide dismutase and GPx and increased level of malondialdehyde. Simultaneous supplementation with vitamin A, C, and E restored these parameters to that of normal range. In conclusion, vitamin A, C, and E exhibited protective effects in human lymphocytes by inhibiting AFB(1)-induced ROS generation.

Turkey is an important producer of cornelian cherries (Cornus mas L.), especially in northern Anatolia. Seed propagation and long-term human selection has given rise to a great diversity of trees. Twenty-six cornelian cherry genotypes (CC1-CC26) from the Coruh Valley in northern Anatolia were evaluated for genetic relationships by using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers, based on 56 decamer random primers, seven of which showed reliable polymorphisms. These seven primers generated 80 markers, with 77 (96.25%) displaying polymorphisms. Cluster analysis of the cornelian cherry genotypes was performed based on data from polymorphic RAPD bands, by using Jaccard's similarity coefficient and the Unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic average (UPGMA) clustering method. A similarity matrix showed that the highest genetic similarity (0.913) was between CC15 and CC16 and the least (0.129) was between CC4 and CC16. The cophenetic correlation coefficient between the similarity matrix and the cophenetic matrix of the dendrogram was relatively high (r = 0.87), supporting the validity of the dendrogram. Based on these results, RAPD analysis can be used for the characterization and grouping of cornelian cherry genotypes. Genetically divergent genotypes identified in this study may be useful for future breeding programs. This is the first study demonstrating that RAPD analyses can be used to differentiate and classify cornelian cherry genotypes.

In this study, the antigenotoxic and antioxidant effects of Cetraria islandica methanol (CME) extract were determined by using sister chromatid exchange (SCE), micronuclei (MN) assays and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels against effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB₁) induced oxidative stress and genotoxicity in human lymphocytes in vitro. The results showed that the frequencies of SCE, MN and MDA level decreased, SOD and GPx activities increased when 5 μg/mL and 10 μg/mL doses of CME were added to AFB₁-treated cultures. Also, the present results indicate that CME has strong antioxidative and the antigenotoxicity mechanisms of CME are associated with its antioxidant nature.