Vanda roxburghii has been used in traditional medicine to treat nervous system disorders including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We reported earlier a high acetylcholinesterase inhibitory and antioxidant activity in the chloroform fraction of this plant. Therefore, this study was designed to explore the compounds with acetylcholinesterase inhibitory and antioxidant activities from the chloroform fraction of Vanda roxburghii. Phytochemical investigation led to the isolation for the first time of a fatty acid ester: methyl linoleate (1), and three phenolics: syringaldehyde (2), vanillin (3), and dihydroconiferyl dihydro-p-coumarate (4) along with the previously reported compound gigantol (5). Among the isolates, vanillin (3) and dihydroconiferyl dihydro-p-coumarate (4) were found to significantly inhibit the activity of acetylcholinesterase, scavenge the free radicals, exhibit the reducing power and total antioxidant activity, and effectively reduce the peroxidation of lipid. Gigantol (5) and syringaldehyde (2), despite lacking the activity against acetylcholinesterase, exhibited antioxidant activity. Among the compounds, gigantol (5) appeared to be the most potent antioxidant. These findings revealed that V. roxburghii contained compounds with potential acetylcholinesterase inhibitory and antioxidant activity, which support its traditional use in the treatment of AD.

Obesity has become a new challenge for health care providers in the world, which leads to reduced life expectancy or increased health problems. The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence and risk factors of obesity and hypertension among the undergraduate and postgraduate students in Rajshahi city. About 675 students were interviewed by standard questionnaires with their verbal consents. In this study, we found that a major portion of the population (13.93% which is about 94 students out of 675) were overweight and 61 students (9.04%) were obese at different stages on the basis of Body Mass Index (BMI) values where 75.41% and 31.15% were male and female students, respectively. About 31.15% of the obese students came from families with monthly income of 31000-40000 taka and 29.50% obese students have at least one obese parent. We also observed that about 32 students (52.46%) out of 61 obese students were pre-hypertensive and 34.43% obese students were stage I hypertensive patient. In this study, we found that the most common risk factors of obesity and hypertension among university students were sedentary life style, physical activity less than 30 min/day, smoking, frequent intake of soft drinks, fast food and food rich in fats (Junk food). This may be the first health survey conducted regarding obesity and hypertension among these university students in Bangladesh, which might be helpful for health workers to raise awareness among the mass people.

The present study was aimed to isolate and investigate actinomycetes having antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities from soil samples of Mirzapur, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Total 27 bacteria were isolated and initial screening found that Streptomyces species have low to moderate antagonistic property against various pathogenic bacteria and among them EFAI-1was quite interesting. The antimicrobial activity of crude ethyl acetate extract obtained from EFAI-1was determined using broth-dilution method against Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Shigella sonnei and Salmonella typhi. The crude extract was almost equally active against both Gram-positive and Gramnegative bacteria. The highest zone of inhibition was found 21 mm at a concentration of 100 μg/disc against Salmonella typhi. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the crude extract against the test bacteria were in the range of 15.6-125 μg/ml and 62.5-250μg/ml, respectively. We found that the LC50 value of the crude extract was only 0.13 μg/ml against brine-shrimp nauplii indicating its potent cytotoxic nature. Our results indicate that this bacterium would be an excellent source of potent antibiotic and anticancer drugs.Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 20(2): 188-193, 2017

The aim of the study was to evaluate the phytochemical profile, antioxidant and hepatoprotective effects of aqueous (ADPL), ethanol (EDPL), chloroform (CDPL) and petroleum ether (PDPL) extracts of Dendrophthoe pentandra leaves. The total phenolic (TPC) and flavonoid contents (TFC) were determined by using Folin Ciocalteu method and aluminium chloride assay, respectively. Antioxidant effect was assessed by using DPPH radical scavenging, ferric reducing power (FRP) and total antioxidant content (TAC) assay. Hepatoprotective effect was evaluated against CCl 4 -induced liver toxicity in long evans rats. Among the extracts, EDPL and PDPL had the highest TAC and TFC. EDPL and PDPL showed potent antioxidant effect that exhibited IC 50 31.62 ± 4.10 and 24.30 ± 3.45 µg/ml (DPPH), EC 50 28.18 ± 4.24 and 39.25 ± 5.20 µg/ml (FRP) and 373.83 ± 9.10, 352.67 ± 10.23, mg/g equivalent of ascorbic acid (TAC), respectively. The CCl 4 significantly induced elevation of aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein (TP) and bilirubin as well as liver damage (cirrosis, ballooning and necrosis). However, treatment with D. pentandra extracts (200 mg/kg, p.o) significantly counter balanced the toxicity towards the normal animals. The research may direct further advanced studies to find out hepatoprotective compounds.

In this study, we investigated the effect of pathogenic bacteria on the production of antibiotics by actinomycetes.We used four strains of actinomycetes-ANAM-5, ANAM-39, AIAH-10 and ANTS-1, which were isolated from the soils of Sundrabans, Bangladesh. All the strains were cultured in absence or presence of either alive or heatkilled human pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli). The antibacterial activity of cultured cell-free supernatant fluid was analyzed by disc diffusion assay against the inducer strains. Three out of the four marine actinomycetes tested showed enhanced antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli. ANAM-5 and AIAH-10 showed enhanced antibacterial activity when co-cultured with Staphylococcus aureus whereas ANAM-5 and ANAM-39 showed enhanced antibacterial activity when co-cultured with E. coli. The highest enhancement of antibacterial activity was exhibited by the strain ANAM-5 against Staphylococcus aureus (from 9 mm to 18 mm inhibition zone). The study has important ecological and biotechnological implications in case of microbial competition in the natural environment and may become helpful to discover novel classes of antibiotics with high specificity and huge production.