No abstract

The family Apocynaceae is one of the largest and important families in angiosperm. Several members of this family have medicinal properties and have been in the treatment of various ailments. Most of them are consumed as food by tribal people whereas a few plants are used as source of poison. Members of family Apocynaceae are rich in alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, flavonoids, glycosides, simple phenols, lactones, and hydrocarbons. Other compounds such as sterols, lignans, sugars, lignans, and lactones have been isolated and systematically studied. Few studies have reported antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic activities of crude extracts as well as single compound(s) isolated from various members of the family Apocynaceae. Holarrhena antidysenterica, Rauvolfia serpentina, Carissa carandas, and Tabernaemontana divaricata are the extensively studied plants in this family. The present review provides a detailed outlook on ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and biological activities of selected members of this family. Moreover, it also covers the biotechnological advances used for large-scale production of bioactive compounds of therapeutic interest along with plant tissue culture-based approaches for conservation of this medicinally valuable family.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate hypolipidemic effect of methanolic extract of Celastrus paniculatus in experimentally induced hypercholesterolemic rats. Hypercholesterolemia was induced by feeding the animals with high fat diet. Oral administration of methanolic seed extract (50%) of Celastrus paniculatus at the optimized dose of 65 mg/kg body weight, substantially reduced the plasma total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol in comparison with induced hypercholesterolemic animal group and the results were comparable with the standard hypocholesterolemic drug and almost similar to the control group. Atherogenic index and liver weight of treated animals also showed significant decrease compared to the hypercholesterolemic animals. It substantially increased the HDL cholesterol level as compared to control group. A significant increase in the activities of lipoprotein lipase and plasma LCAT enhanced hepatic bile acid synthesis and thereby, increased degradation of cholesterol to neutral sterols. Furthermore, the activities of HMG-CoA reductase, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase were significantly reduced. Histological studies showed less cholesterol deposits in the aorta of animals fed with seed extract of C. paniculatus compared to the induced hypercholesterolemic animals not given C. paniculatus supplement.

The human gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the compositional development of gut microbiota. Though well documented in western pediatrics population, little is known about how various host conditions affect populations in different geographic locations such as the Indian subcontinent. Given the impact of distinct environmental conditions, our study assess the gut bacterial diversity of a small cohort of Indian and Finnish children and investigated the influence of FUT2 secretor status and birth mode on the gut microbiome of these populations. Using multiple profiling techniques, we show that the gut bacterial community structure in 13–14-year-old Indian (n = 47) and Finnish (n = 52) children differs significantly. Specifically, Finnish children possessed higher Blautia and Bifidobacterium, while genera Prevotella and Megasphaera were predominant in Indian children. Our study also demonstrates a strong influence of FUT2 and birth mode variants on specific gut bacterial taxa, influence of which was noticed to differ between the two populations under study.

Aegle marmelos, a well-known Indian plant with medicinal and religious importance, has been extensively used in Indian traditional medicine. The present study aimed to isolate, identify, and evaluate the biological activities of endophytic fungi from A. marmelos. One of the isolates, labeled as L7, was identified as Aspergillus flavus using morphology and ITS gene sequence. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the culture filtrate were found to be 65.77 mg GAE/ml and 158.33 mg quercetin/ml of crude extract, respectively. The extract showed excellent antimicrobial activity against common human bacterial and fungal pathogens. The test extract at 700 µg/ml, which notably reduced the concentration of DPPH-free radical as percent DPPH scavenging activity, was found to be the highest (64.53 %). The extract, at the concentration of 2 mg/ml, produced 70 % inhibition of hemolysis of RBCs compared to 78 % produced by standard drug (Ibuprofen). Chemical profiling of the fermented extract using TLC followed by UV and FTIR revealed the presence of flavonoids. The HPLC analysis confirmed the presence of bioflavonoid rutin in the extract. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on production of bioactive flavonoid by endophytic Aspergillus flavus obtained from A. marmelos and its pharmaceutical potential. In conclusion, the endophytic Aspergillus flavus obtained from the A. marmelos could be explored as an economic and potential natural resource with diverse pharmaceutical and biological activities.