In vitro antioxidant and in vivo hepatoprotective effect on ethanol mediated liver damage of spray dried Vernonia amygdalina water extract

Vernonia amygdalina is a strong natural antioxidant that possessed various medicinal properties. In this study, the spray-dried water extract of V. amygdalina was evaluated for its in vitro antioxidant capacity and in vivo hepatoprotective effect against alcoholic-mediated liver damage. Total phenolic and flavonoid content of spray-dried V. amygdalina water extract were determined. Liver enzyme profiles, liver antioxidant level and nitric oxide level were evaluated in alcohol-induced liver injured mice or co-supplement with spray-dried V. amydalina. Water extract of spraydried V. amygalina that contained phenolic content of 24.8 +/- 1.5 mg/g gallic acid equivalent and total flavonoid content of 25.7 +/- 1.3 mg/g catechin equivalent was able to inhibit 50% of xanthine and tyrosinase oxidation at 170 micro g/mL and 2 mg/mL, respectively. On the other hand, extracts at both 10 and 50 mg/kg body weight were able to reduce the levels of Alanine transaminase [ALT], Alkaline phosphatase [ALP], Aspartate transaminase [AST], triglyceride and total bilirubin content inthe alcohol-mediated liver injury in mice. Furthermore, it also helped to increase levels of Superoxide dismutase [SOD], Ferric reducing ability of plasma [FRAP] and reduce the levels of Nitric oxide [NO] and Malondialdehyde [MDA] in the liver of the treated mice. These results suggested that water extract of spray-dried V. amygdalina exhibited liver protective effect, which could be contributed by its antioxidant properties

Cytotoxic effects of commercial wheatgrass and fiber towards human acute promyelocytic leukemia cells [Hl60]

Cytotoxicity, the possible selective activity upon HL60 as well as the anti-proliferation effect of local health supplement wheatgrass and mixture of fibers were investigated in vitro using various cancerous cell line and normal blood cell culture. The IC[50] of wheatgrass-treated HL60 [17.5 +/- 1.1, 12.5 +/- 0.3, and 16 +/- 0.5 microgram/ml for 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively] and fibers-treated HL60 [86.0 +/- 5.5, 35.0 +/- 2.5, and 52.5 +/- 4.5 microgram/ml for 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively] showed that both extracts possessed optimum effect after 48 hours of treatment. No significant cytotoxic effect was observed on other type of cells. For trypan blue dye exclusion method, wheatgrass reduced the number of viable cells by 13.5% [ +/- 1.5], 47.1% [ +/- 3.6], and 64.9% [ +/- 2.7] after 24, 48 and 72 h exposure, respectively. Mixture of fibers reduced the number of viable cells by 36.4% [ +/- 2.3], 57.1% [ +/- 3.1], and 89.0% [ +/- 3.4] after 24, 48 and 72 h exposure, respectively, indicated that necrosis is also an alternative to the apoptotic mechanism of cell death. Annexin-V/propidium iodide staining revealed that both extracts induced apoptosis where early apoptosis had been detected concurrently with the reduction of percentage of cell viability. Cell cycle analysis revealed that in HL60, the percentage of apoptosis increased with time [wheatgrass: 16.0% +/- 2.4, 45.3% +/- 3.4 and 39.6% +/- 4.1; mixture of fibers: 14.6% +/- 1.8, 45.4% +/- 2.3 and 45.9% +/- 1.2] after exposure for 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively at the concentration of 100 microgram/ml and showed optimum effect at 48 hours. Thus, these health products can be a potential alternative supplement for leukaemia patients

Immunomodulatory effects of zerumbone isolated from roots of zingiber zerumbet

In this study, the immunomodulatory effects of zerumbone isolated from Zingiber zerumbet were investigated by evaluating the effects of this compound towards the lymphocytes proliferation [mice thymocytes, mice splenocytes and human human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, PBMC], cell cycle progression and cytokirie [interleukin 2 and 12] induction. Lymphocyte proliferation assay showed that zerumbone was able to activate mice thymocytes, splenocytes and PBMC at dosage dependent pattern where the best concentration was 7.5 micro g/mL. Flow cytometry analysis showed the highest population of PBMC entered into G2/M phase after treatment for 72 h with 7.5 micro g/mL zerumbone. The production of human interleukin-2 and human interleukin-12 cytokines in culture supernatant from zerumbone activated lymphocytes was prominently upregulated at 24 hour and decreased from 48 h to 72 h. The above results indicate that zerumbone can be used as immunomodulatory agent which can react toward the immune cell cytokine production in dosage dependent pattern