Purpose of the present study was to evaluate antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activities of the petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts as well as the alkaloid fraction of Lycopodium clavatum L. (LC) from Lycopodiaceae growing in Turkey. Antioxidant activity of the LC extracts was evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging method at 0.2 mg/ml using microplate-reader assay. Antiviral assessment of LC extracts was evaluated towards the DNA virus Herpes simplex (HSV) and the RNA virus Parainfluenza (PI-3) using Madin-Darby Bovine Kidney (MDBK) and Vero cell lines. Antibacterial and antifungal activities of the extracts were tested against standard and isolated strains of the following bacteria; Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis, Acinobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis as well as the fungi; Candida albicans and C. parapsilosis. All of the extracts possessed noteworthy activity against ATCC strain of S. aureus (4 lg/ml), while the LC extracts showed reasonable antifungal effect. On the other hand, we found that only the chloroform extract was active against HSV (16-8 lg/ml), while petroleum ether and alkaloid extracts inhibited potently PI-3 (16-4 lg/ml and 32-4 lg/ml, respectively). However, all of the extracts had insignificant antiradical effect on DPPH. In addition, we also analyzed the content of the alkaloid fraction of the plant by capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and identified lycopodine as the major alkaloid.
Pumpkin seeds are used in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia and the active constituents have been reported to be the sterols and fatty acids. In this study, the oils extracted from the two seed samples of pumpkin ( Cucurbita pepo L. ssp. pepo) growing in Turkey were analyzed for their fatty acid contents. Fatty acids were determined by capillary gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS) equipped with a flame ionization detector. The results showed that both samples, which had very similar fatty acid compositions, were quite rich in linoleic acid (43.3 and 43.8%), followed by oleic (36.8 and 35.8%), palmitic (11.9 and 10.9), and stearic acids (6.7 and 7.6%). Saponification, esterification, iodine, peroxide, acidification indexes, and unsaponifiable matter of the oils were also calculated. In addition, the two oil samples were tested for their antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activities. Both of the oils displayed the same activity profile, having a good antibacterial activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinobacter baumannii (16 μg/mL), potent antifungal activity against Candida albicans (8 μg/mL), as well as a moderate antiviral effect towards Parainfluenza virus type-3 (16–8 μg/mL).
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