ABSTRACT
Essential oils and their major constituents are useful sources of antimicrobial compounds. There are a few reports on the decontamination and antimicrobial activity of essential oils towards Shigella spp. In this study, the antimicrobial and decontamination potentials of essential oils at different concentrations, belonging to plants such as Thymus vulgaris, Saturiea hortensis, Mentha polegium, Cuminum cyminum, Lavandula officinalis and Mentha viridis L. [spearmint], towards Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri were investigated. The disk diffusion method demonstrated the antimicrobial potential of the essential oils. The ability of essential oils to decontaminate vegetables such as, tomato, red cabbage, carrot, fresh parsley and fresh green onion that were previously inoculated with Shigella spp. was determined. Inhibitory effects of essential oils towards Shigella spp. were noted in the disk diffusion method. There was a reduction in Shigella population following inoculation of cultures with 0.5% and 0.1% [v/v] essential oils. This study confirmed that essential oils have the potential to be used for decontamination of vegetables
ABSTRACT
Alpha-synuclein is a major component of protein plaques in synucleinopathies, particularly Parkinson's disease. The purpose of this study is to assess the inhibitory effects of cuminaldehyde on the fibrillation of alpha-synuclein. Alpha-synuclein was expressed in Escherichia coli and subsequently purified. For the process of fibrillation, purified protein was incubated at 37?C and pH 7.2. Fibrillation was analyzed by the standard fibril methods. The effects of different concentrations of cuminaldehyde [20-500 microM]on alpha-synuclein fibrillation were studied by assessment of the cytotoxic effects of samples on the neuroblastoma cell line, SK-N-MC. To study the protein aggregation forms that were generated in the presence of cuminaldehyde, SDS resistance and induced fibrillation [seeding] methods were employed. For studying its specificity on alpha-synuclein, the effect of cuminaldehyde on lysozyme fibrillation was also examined. We showed, for the first time, that cuminaldehyde inhibited fibrillation by more than 80%. The highest inhibition was observed at the ratio of 5-15 moles of drug to protein. The viability of the treated cells with inhibited proteins was more than 90%, whereas non-inhibited samples caused a decrease in viability by 50%. Inhibited samples were not resistant to SDS and they were unable to induce fibrillation. Cuminaldehyde did not inhibit lysozyme fibrillation. Cuminaldehyde inhibited fibrillation of alpha-synuclein which was accompanied by small amorphous aggregated particles of alpha synuclein. The inhibited protein samples did not induce aggregation. Thus, cuminaldehyde can be considered as a candidate to inhibit the formation of alpha-synuclein plaques