Total Antioxidant Activity and Enzymatic Inhibition against Alpha-Amylase, Alpha-Glucosidase and Pancreatic Lipase of Irradiated Archidendron bubalinum

@#Introduction: Archidendron bubalinum is an underutilised plant with numerous antioxidant properties and has a great potential to inhibit enzymes linked with diabetes and obesity. Food irradiation is an advanced technology to prolong the lifespan of plant, prevent physical spoilage and eradicate food borne disease. Present study was aimed to determine the total antioxidant activity, enzymatic inhibition against alpha-amylase, alpha-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase and the toxicity levels of non-irradiated and irradiated (3, 6, 9 & 12 kGy) hot aqueous extract of A. bubalinum. Methods: The antioxidant ability of the extract was determined by total phenolic content (TPC), total flavanoid content (TFC), Diphenyl-1-Picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), β-carotene assay and ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) assay. The inhibitory activities were evaluated using α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and pancreatic lipase inhibition assay. The toxicity levels of A. bubalinum extract were determined using Brine shrimp and Zebra-fish assays. Results: Results showed that irradiated A. bubalinum at 12 kGy demonstrated the highest TFC (448.99 ± 5.02 mg GAE/g), FRAP (2.55 ± 0.40 mmol Fe2+/g) and β-carotene bleaching activity (79.49%). Whereas, non-irradiated A. bubalinum samples expressed the highest TPC (2517.07 ± 15.81 mg GAE/g) and exhibited the lowest IC50 values of α-amylase (31.99 ± 3.15 μg/ml), α-glucosidase (23.40 ± 0.69μg/ml) and pancreatic lipase (32.81 ± 7.96 μg/ml) activity. The toxicity assays also showed no significant different between irradiated and non-irradiated samples. Conclusion: The study suggests that gamma irradiation has the prospective future to increase antioxidant properties and maintaining the enzyme inhibitory activities to preserve the sample of A. bubalinum for commercial purposes

Métodos alternativos como parte de las nuevas tendencias en el control de calidad de vacunas / Alternative methods as part of the new trends in vaccine quality control

El control de calidad de las vacunas resulta fundamental para las actividades de producción, liberación lote a lote y comercialización de las vacunas. Sin embargo, en la actualidad este es un proceso que por su concepción es lento y costoso debido a que se apoya en la realización de extensas pruebas en animales para demostrar la potencia y seguridad de estos productos biológicos. El desarrollo de métodos alternativos inspirados en el principio de las 3Rs (Reducción, Refinamiento y Reemplazo) constituye una tendencia que debe impactar de manera muy significativa en la reducción de los tiempos de liberación y el costo del proceso de control de calidad de vacunas en los próximos años. En particular la sustitución de las pruebas de potencia y toxicidad in vivo por procedimientos alternativos más relevantes, rápidos, exactos, reproducibles, robustos y baratos, que incluyen la serología, la cuantificación directa de antígeno, los ensayos en cultivos celulares y el enfoque a consistencia, por solo mencionar algunos; implica un cambio de paradigma, con indiscutibles repercusiones éticas, logísticas, económicas y científico-técnicas, para el aseguramiento de los parámetros de calidad de los inmunobiológicos con el mejor balance costo-beneficio: las vacunas. Los fundamentos técnicos de estos métodos alternativos, sus ventajas y nivel de implementación a nivel internacional, así como sus principales limitaciones, son abordados en este trabajo(AU)

Vaccine quality control is crucial for the manufacturing, lot release and commercialization activities worldwide. However, the current process is by-design too slow and expensive because is based on large animal assays for assuring the potency and safety of these important biological products. The development of 3Rs alternative methods (Reduction, Refinement and Replacement) is a trend able to significantly reduce the releasing times and costs of the vaccine quality control processes in the next few years. Particularly, the replacement of the animals-based potency and toxicity assays by alternative procedures more relevant, fast, accurate, reproducible and cheap, including serology, direct antigen quantification, cell culture tests and the Consistency Approach, for just mentioning some of them, implies a paradigm shift, with undisputable ethical, logistical, economic, scientific and technical repercussions for ensuring the vaccine quality parameters. Theoretical basements, advantages and implementation levels of the alternatives methods as well as their main limitations are presented in this paper(AU)

Investigation of bioactivity of extracts of Marine Sponge, Spongosorites halichondrioides (Dendy, 1905) from western coastal areas of India

Objective: Sponges (phylum Porifera) are sessile marine invertebrates and are known to be the richest source of pharmacologically-active compounds. This work was taken to investigate the antibacterial, antifungal activity and cytotoxicity from marine sponge. Method: In this study the marine sponge Spongosorites halichondrioides crude extracts were investigated for three bioassays. The first is an antimicrobial test against Proteus vulgaris, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, P. aeruginosa and the second is an antifungal test against three pathogenic fungi, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillusniger and Metarhizium anisopliae. The third is a cytotoxicity test using larva of Artemia salina, for detection of cytotoxic activity in the extracts. Result: For all the three bioassays, extracts were found to be bioactive. This result suggests that this marine sponge is able to produce biologically active agents required for an overall defense against their predators. Conclusions: Further GC MS was done and the fragmentation pattern, showed the presence of sterol esters and terpenoids in the active extracts.

Acute and subacute toxicities of hydroethanolic extract of the ripe fruits of solatium torvum sw. (solanaceae).

Acute and subacute toxicity of the hydro-ethanolic extract of the ripe fruit of Solanum torvum Sw. was studied by force-feeding albino Wistar rats following the European Community and WHO toxicity guidelines. The results of the acute toxicity study indicated the median lethal dose (LD50; as I9g/kg body weight after 48 hours of treatment, and the significant variation (P < 0.05) of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total proteins (TP), total bilirubin (TBil), and creatinine at doses of 16–20g/kg body weight. These results also indicated significant variation of the liver alkaline phosphatase (ALP), AST, ALT, TP, glutathione (GSH), and malondialdehyde (MDA) at higher doses. The results of the subacute toxicity study showed significant variation in the body weight, but no modification (P < 0.05) of blood and liver parameters compared to the control group. In both acute and subacute toxicity, histological studies revealed that there were no major pathological changes of the liver and kidneys in treated rats. The results show that this extract is not highly toxic, but consumption of higher doses beyond 16g/kg could cause liver injury. Moderate consumption of small doses up to Ig/kg twice a week for 6 weeks appeared safe.