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35 Plants are vital for the wellbeing of humankind in a variety of ways. Some plant extracts contain 36 antimicrobial properties that can treat different pathogens. Most of the world's population relies 37 on medicinal plants and natural products for their primary health care needs. Therefore, there is a 38 growing interest in natural products, medicinal plants, and traditional medicine along with a 39 desire to design and develop novel plant-based pharmaceuticals. These plant-based 40 pharmaceuticals may address the concerns of reduced efficacy of synthetic antibiotics due to the 41 emergence of drug-resistant pathogens. In this regard, some plant extracts from black pepper 42 (Piper nigrum) with antimicrobial properties, including piperine, have the potential to be used as 43 natural dietary supplements together with modern therapeutic approaches. This review highlights 44 possible applications of piperine as the active compound in the fields of rational drug design and 45 discovery, pharmaceutical chemistry, and biomedicine. We discuss different extraction methods 46 and pharmacological effects of the analyzed substance to pave the way for further research 47 strategies and perspectives towards the development of novel herbal products for better 48 healthcare solutions.49 50

Flacourtia jangomas (Lour.) Raeusch., a small tree of Willow family distributed throughout tropical regions of East Africa and Asia is well-known for its culinary and medicinal uses. The plant has received increasing interest due to its limonoid constituents. Phytochemical studies have led to the isolation and characterization of an array of bioactive compounds and pharmacological investigations have validated the traditional uses of the species as well as discovered some new bioefficacies. The aim of the review is to present an updated and comprehensive overview of traditional uses, ethnomedicinal significance, phytochemical and pharmacological aspects of F. jangomas to highlight its ethnopharmacological use and to explore its therapeutic potentials thereby providing a basis for future research. Relevant information and literature on F. jangomas from electronic databases such as Academic Journals, Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, and Science Direct were consulted and analyzed. Available literatures evidently demonstrate that F. jangomas possess a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities that could be explained by the presence of varied range of chemical constituents. Phytochemical and pharmacological investigations showed that extracts of different parts and major active components of F. jangomas had antimicrobial, analgesic, antidiabetic, antidiarrheal, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities. This emphasizes the need for further investigation to explore more bioactive chemical constituents and new bioefficacies of the plant and to establish a credible relationship between molecular structure and activity of compounds.

The chemical composition and the in vitro antifungal and antioxidant activity of essential oil of Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng leaves have been studied. The yield of M. koenigii leaf essential oil (MKLEO) recorded as 0.52% which is higher than those reported earlier. Altogether 43 compounds were identified by GC-MS analysis representing 99.79% of the total composition of the oil, among which 3-carene, β-pinene, α-pinene, linalool, α-eudesmol, p-cymene, γ-terpinene, α-amorphene, allo-ocimene, sabinene, γ-terpinene, linalyl acetate, myrcene, β-eudesmol, carvone, limonene, β-elemene, α-terpineol were major constituents. Antifungal activity of MKLEO was tested against ten pathogenic fungi and it was found effective in a dose dependent manner. Furthermore, MKLEO was found to exhibit superior radical scavenging potency and reducing power with IC50 and RP50 values close to those of the standards.

Cassia angustifo/ia (senna), a native plant of Yemen, Somalia and Arabia and now cultivated in other parts of the world, has a variety of medicinal uses in Unani as well as other traditional systems of medicine. The plant is mainly valued for its cathartic properties and is specially useful in habitual constipation. The laxative principles sennoside A and sennoside B, isolated from leaves and pods of senna, constitute important ingredients in purgative medicines. The plant has been investigated for its various chemical constituents and pharmacological properties. Being a hardy species, it can be grown even in saline and rainfed conditions. Cultivation of senna does not require much expense on irrigation, manuring, pesticides, protection and other pre-and postharvesting care. This makes the plant an ideal crop for arid regions where water provision, wasteland development, desertification control, sand dune stabilization are the major challenges. The distribution, medicinal applications, chemical and pharmacological studies and various aspects of senna cultivation are reviewed in this paper.