The practitioners of the traditional Indian system of medicine regard Withania somnifera Dun. as the 'Indian ginseng'. A new withanolide-free aqueous fraction was isolated from the roots of this plant and was evaluated for putative antistress activity against a battery of tests such as hypoxia time, antifatigue effect, swimming performance time, swimming induced gastric ulceration and hypothermia, immobilization induced gastric ulceration, autoanalgesia and biochemical changes in the adrenal glands. This bioactive fraction exhibited significant antistress activity in a dose-related manner in all the parameters studied. The extract of Withania somnifera root (a commercial preparation available locally) was used to compare the results. A preliminary acute toxicity study in mice showed a good margin of safety.
The n-hexane, ethyl acetate, methanol, and acetone extracts of Piper cubeba Linn. and P. retrofractum Vahl. (Piperaceae) were evaluated in vitro against promastigotes of Leishmania donovani, and all exhibited significant in vitro activity at 100 lg/ml. Two lignans, cubebin and hinokinin, were isolated from the hexane extract of P. cubeba; and one bis-epoxy lignan, (-)-sesamin, and two amides, pellitorine and piplartine, were isolated from the hexane and methanol extracts of P. retrofractum. Cubebin and piplartine showed significant antileishmanial activity in vitro at 100 lM and were further tested in vivo in a hamster model of visceral leishmaniasis. Piplartine showed activity at 30 mg/kg dose. This is the first report of antileishmanial activity of these two plants and their isolated constituents.
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