The enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase is the key enzyme of the mevalonate pathway that produces cholesterol. Inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase reduces cholesterol biosynthesis in the liver. Synthetic drugs, statins, are commonly used for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Due to the side effects of statins, natural HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors of plant origin are needed. In this study, 25 medicinal plant methanol extracts were screened for anti-HMG-CoA reductase activity. Basella alba leaf extract showed the highest inhibitory effect at about 74%. Thus, B. alba was examined in order to investigate its phytochemical components. Gas chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry and reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed the presence of phenol 2,6-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl), 1-heptatriacotanol, oleic acid, eicosyl ester, naringin, apigenin, luteolin, ascorbic acid, and α-tocopherol, which have been reported to possess antihypercholesterolemic effects. Further investigation of in vivo models should be performed in order to confirm its potential as an alternative treatment for hypercholesterolemia and related cardiovascular diseases.

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Propolis is a good source for flavonoids, however, their recovery is challenging, as it is a waxy material. This study investigated edible oils virgin coconut oil (VCO), corn oil (CO), and ghee (G) as co-extractants for the supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) extraction of flavonoids from the propolis. The extraction of flavonoids using 20% VCO as co-extractant with scCO2 (25 g/min) for 210 min at 150 bar and 50°C was found to be the most appropriate, yielding a total flavonoid content (TFC) of 11.7 mg/g and 25% TFC recovery. At a higher temperature (60°C) and pressure (250 bar and 350 bar), the propolis became softer and compressed causing the extractions to retrograde. The extraction curves correlated to the diffusion model with 1.6% (AARD). The matrix diffusivities increased from 4.7 × 10−11 m2/s (scCO2) to 6.9 × 10−11–21.4 × 10−11 m2/s upon the addition of edible oils. Thus, edible oils could be used with scCO2 to improve the flavonoid extraction from propolis.

In the past decades, the interest towards plant proteases has increased significantly. Plant proteases are widely used in environment field, food and medicine industries. Proteases such as bromelain, papain and ficin are used in various areas such as in biosensors for detection of heavy metals, meat tenderization, brewing, cancer treatment, milk-clotting, viral disorders and digestion. In this study, protease from coriander leaf (Coriandrum sativum) was evaluated for protease activity using a Bradford-protease-casein assay system.  This enzyme was purified through anion exchanger using DEAE-Cellulose column and gel filtration using Agilent ZORBAX column. Its molecular weight was around 55 kDa. The specific activity of the purified protein is 45.0 units/mg protein, total activity is 2745.0 units, yield 33.2% and fold purification is 2.8. Further investigation on gene sequence should be performed in order to identify the type of protease involved.

The bacteria are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Bacteria are ubiquitous in everyhabitat on Earth for example growing in soil, radioactive waste, water and as well as in organicmatter and the live bodies of plants and animals. They are small cells, found in the environmentas either individual cells or aggregated together as clumps. This study was aimed to identify thebacteria from soil sample obtained from Cameron Highlands. Eight samples were inoculated onNutrient Agar plate. After obtaining pure culture, stock cultures on Nutrient Agar slant andglycerol stock were prepared and the samples were kept in -20ËšC. Next the samples werefurther studied using microscopic observation. From this technique, seven Gram positivebacteria and one Gram negative bacteria were obtained. The Gram positive rod shaped wasanalyzed further using the molecular technique 16S rDNA using pA and pH primers. Then thesample proceeds to bulk. PCR product of approximately 1kb in size was obtained. The purityvalue of the DNA sample obtained was 1.16 A260/280. The sample was sent for sequencing toNHK Bioscience and Macrogreen (Korea). Only one sample showed positive for 16S rDNAfragments which were analyzed using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) forbacterial identification. The data analysis of the sequence shows that the bacterium obtainedwas Bacillus pumilus strain.