According to the World Health Organization, every year 2 billion people worldwide get sick because of unsafe food. For this reason, food preservation from fungi, bacteria and other contaminants, is important to ensure the safety and quality of food to the consumers. Now a day, there is an increasing demand for natural preservatives which are safe in the food industry. Among these natural compounds with antimicrobial activity, essential oils have aroused 2 considerable interest in the food industry. Unfortunately, essential oils have numerous limitations in their use, mainly due to their hydrophobic property, which need to be encapsulated before use. The main goal of this specific review is to focus on the encapsulation of essential oils using edible polymers.

Reinvestigating antibiotic scaffolds that were identified during the Golden Age of antibiotic discovery, but have long since been "forgotten", has proven to be an effective strategy for delivering next-generation antibiotics capable of combatting multidrug-resistant superbugs. In this study, we have revisited the trichloro-substituted depsidone, nidulin, as a selective and unexploited antibiotic lead produced by the fungus Aspergillus unguis. Manipulation of halide ion concentration proved to be a powerful tool for modulating secondary metabolite production and triggering quiescent pathways in A. unguis. Supplementation of the culture media with chloride resulted in a shift in co-metabolite profile to dichlorounguinols and nornidulin at the expense of the non-chlorinated parent, unguinol. Surprisingly, only marginal enhancement of nidulin was observed, suggesting O-methylation may be rate-limiting. Similarly, supplementation of the media with bromide led to the production of the corresponding bromo-analogues, but also resulted in a novel family of depsides, the unguidepsides. Unexpectedly, depletion of chloride from the media halted the biosynthesis of the non-chlorinated parent compound, unguinol, and redirected biosynthesis to a novel family of ring-opened analogues, the unguinolic acids. Supplementation of the media with a range of unnatural salicylic acids failed to yield the corresponding nidulin analogues, suggesting the compounds may be biosynthesised by a single polyketide synthase. In total, 12 new and 11 previously reported nidulin analogues were isolated, characterised and assayed for in vitro activity against a panel of bacteria, fungi and mammalian cells, providing a comprehensive structure-activity profile for the nidulin scaffold.

Semisynthetic unguinol derivatives showed potent activity against a panel of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains and are promising candidates for further development.

LCMS-guided screening of a library of biosynthetically talented bacteria and fungi identified Streptomyces sp. MST-144321 as a prolific producer of chlorinated metabolites. We isolated and characterised six new and nine...

This article was published in Pharmacognosy Journal [© 2012 Elsevier Ltd.] and the definite version is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0975357512800824 The article website is at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09753575/4Synedrella nodiflora (L) Gaertn. belonging to the family Asteraceae contains steroids, reducing sugars, phenolic, flavonoids, saponins, tannins and triterpenoids. Therefore, this study is designed to investigate its antioxidant, analgesic and CNS depressant effects. Materials and Methods: The antioxidant activity of methanolic extract of S. nodiflora (SN) was determined using Folin Ciocalteu reagent, phosphomolybdenum method, free radical scavenging activity by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and the reducing power activity. Analgesic activity was done by acetic acid and formalin model and CNS depressant activity was measured by the hole cross and open field method. Results: The total phenols and total antioxidant capacity of SN was found to be 37.38 < 2.01 mg/g equivalent of gallic acid and 433.37 < 4.22 mg/gm equivalent of ascorbic acid. The percentage (%) scavenging of DPPH free radical was found to be concentration dependent and IC50 value was 125.89 < 2.23 µg/ml while the IC50 value of standard ascorbic acid was found to be 16.76 < 0.11 µg/ml. The reducing power of SN was found to be concentration dependent. Acetic acid and formalin models are peripherally acting analgesic methods. The oral administration of both doses (100 and 200 mg/kg b.wt.) of SN significantly (p<0.001) inhibited 40.06% and 61.83% writhing response induced by acetic acid whereas oral administration of the same doses of SN significantly (p<0.001) inhibited 56.96% and 62.60% itching response induced by formalin. The methanolic extract of SN, at the dose of 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg b.wt. produced significant (P<0.001) decrease of locomotion. This is the first report of CNS depressant activity of the plant.Publishe