Effect of novel therapeutic medicine swertiamarin from Enicostema axillare in zebrafish infected with Salmonella typhi

Abstract

Herbal treatments have been practiced by humans over centuries and therefore possess time‐proven safety. However, it is crucial to evaluate the toxic effects of herbal medicine to confirm their safety, particularly when developing therapeutic drugs. Use of laboratory animals such as mice, rat, and rabbits was considered as gold standard in herbal toxicity assessments. However, in the last few decades, the ethical consideration of using higher vertebrates for toxicity testing has become more controversial. As a possible alternative model involving lower vertebrates such as zebra fish were introduced. Hence in the present study, swertiamain compound isolated from E. axillare was assessed for it antimicrobial activity in zebra fish larvae againt S. typhi. The cumulative mortality rate and bacterial localization in zebra fish larvae were studied. Biochemical markers assays were performed to find the preventive role of the compound during the typhoid infection. The results showed that zebra fish can be successfully used as a model to study typhoid infection and the anti‐bacterial compound swertiamarin used in this study clears the bacterial load and pathogenic symptoms to a great extent.

Quantitative Analysis of Swertiamarin Content from Fagraea fragrans Leaf Extract using HPLC Technique and its Correlation to Antibacterial Activity

“…It was found that many plants in Gentianaceae family containing a secoiridoid glycoside, swertiamarin possessed antibacterial properties such as Centaurium species (Bibi et al, 2006;van der Sluis, 1985). and Enicostema species (Perumal et al, 2022;Pillai et al, 2020;Vishwakarma et al, 2004). Moreover, numerous plants containing swertiamarin as the main compound revealed the antimicrobial activity (Niroj et al, 2022).…”

An Assessment of the Current Trends of Antibiotic Resistance of Salmonella Typhi Against 1st Line Antimicrobial Agents in Metropolitan City of Karachi

“…The advent of multidrug resistance to the frequently used antibiotics has further convoluted the treatment and management of typhoid fever and this has documented as one of the utmost challenges in managing the disease. 4 Various factors contribute towards the cases and deaths due to typhoid fever among people. These factors include no access to drinking water, absence of proper sanitation and unhygienic conditions.…”

Why are heterocycles so special in medicinal chemistry?

“…Smolii et al from Ukraine reported the discovery of novel fused 7‐deazaxanthine derivatives as adenosine A 2A receptor antagonists (Muzychka et al, 2021). Lastly, Subramanian et al reported that Swertiamarin, isolated from Enicostema axillare , showed antimicrobial activity in zebra fish larvae against Salmonella typhi and cleared the bacterial load and pathogenic symptoms (Perumal et al, 2022).…”