During the second half of the nineteenth century, infectious diseases were a prominent cause of morbidity and mortality. Almost one-third of the infants in the United States and Western Europe were unable to reach their first birthday due to causes attributable to infectious diseases.
<p>In the present study various solvent extracts from the leaves of<em> Fernandoa adenophylla</em> were screened for their phytochemical and antimicrobial potentials. Preliminary phytochemical screening of leaves extracts showed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, steroids, reducing sugars and anthracenes. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic studies showed the presence of different functional groups for compounds like alcohol, aldehydes and ketones, saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, amides, amines, carboxylic acids, esters, and ethers. All the extracts showed significant antibacterial activities when tested against eight multidrug resistant bacterial strains isolated from urinary tract infection patients. It was concluded that the leaves extracts of<em> F. adenophylla</em> have several vital phytochemical constituents and significant antibacterial activities against multidrug resistant bacterial strains causing urinary tract infections.</p><p> </p>
Diarrhea is a major health problem and despite of interventions, it remains a substantial cause of mortality and morbidity. In this study, a flavonoids-rich Vitex negundo extract was mechanistically evaluated for its effectiveness in diarrheal diseases. The Vitex negundo ethanolic extract was subjected to extraction for isolation of total flavonoids and qualitative phytochemical analysis. The acute toxicity of flavonoids-extract was done in mice to assess its safety and tolerability. The anti-diarrhoeal activity was determined using the castor oil induced diarrhea mouse model at doses of 10, 30 and 100 mg/kg in relation to loperamide (10 mg/kg, oral). The antispasmodic profile was determined by using cut pieces of rabbit’s jejunum in Tyrode’s solutions, employing acetylcholine (0.03μM) as a tissue stabilizer and verapamil, as a calcium channel blocker. The preliminary qualitative analysis of extract revealed different phytochemicals, in addition to flavonoids. The acute toxicity profile showed that the flavonoids-extract is safe and tolerable (LD50 = 1678 mg/kg). In the tissue experiments, the total flavonoids exhibited an EC50 of 1.52 mg/mL and showed maximum relaxation of spontaneous contractions at 5.0 mg/mL and against high-K + induced contractions at 3 mg/mL (EC50 = 0.43 mg/mL). The spasmolytic activity of total flavonoids was comparable to verapamil which suggests that the activity might be due to the blockade of calcium channels. The flavonoids extract (0.1, 0.3 and 1.0 mg/mL) produced an adequate right shift in the calcium concentration response curve as compared to the control (EC50 value = –2.67 mg/mL), which confirmed that the extract has calcium channel blocking activity.
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