ABSTRACT
Parasitism by gastrointestinal nematodes is a challenge for small ruminant farming worldwide. It causes productive and economic losses, especially due to parasite resistance to conventional anthelmintics. Natural compounds with antiparasitic activity are a potential alternative for controlling these parasites especially when considering the widespread occurrence of anthelmintic resistance. Our objective was to evaluate the activity of anacardic acid, geraniol, cinnamaldehyde and citronellal on Haemonchus contortus isolates with different levels of anthelmintic resistance profiles. These compounds were tested using egg hatch assays (EHAs), larval development tests (LDTs) as well as LDTs on mini-fecal cultures, on the Haemonchus contortus isolates Kokstad (KOK-resistant to all anthelmintics), Inbred-Strain-Edinburgh (ISE-susceptible to all anthelmintics) and Echevarria (ECH-susceptible to all anthelmintics). Effective concentrations to inhibit 50% (EC50) and 95% (EC95) of egg hatching and larval development were calculated. Results for EHA and LDT for all tested compounds, considering EC50 and EC95 values, showed low variation among the studied isolates with most RF values below 2x. All studied compounds showed efficacy against egg hatching and larval development of H. contortus isolates regardless of anthelmintic resistance profiles. The compounds with the smallest EC50 and EC95 values were cinnamaldehyde and anacardic acid making them promising candidates for future in vivo studies.
Subject(s)
Anthelmintics , Haemonchus , Animals , Anthelmintics/pharmacologyABSTRACT
Hippeastrum elegans is an Amaryllidaceae species producing alkaloids with pharmaceutical potential including lycorine and galanthamine. Herein, we developed a non-targeted metabolomic study associated to chemometrics and biological evaluations to identify the H. elegans constituents that were able to reduce the human neutrophils proinflammatory mechanisms. The alkaloid fractions were extracted from bulbs cultivated for 15â¯months (m) and harvested in six harvest periods (5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15â¯m). The GC-MS analysis allowed the detection of 41 alkaloids being 31 identified. All alkaloid components varied over the cultivation and most of them were lycorine-type skeletons. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) distinguished three groups according to the chemical profile (group I: 5, 7, and 9â¯m; group II: 11â¯m and group III: 13 and 15â¯m). Therefore, the biological assays were only performed with one of the representative samples of each group: 7â¯m, 11â¯m and 15â¯m. None of them was toxic to human neutrophils by LDH activity and MTT test. The 7â¯m and 15â¯m-alkaloid fractions showed anti-inflammatory effects by reducing human neutrophil degranulation. However, the former one was more effective in inhibiting the cell activation based on the reduction of myeloperoxidase (MPO) release and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Afterwards, Partial Least Squares analysis (PLS) indicated lycorine and 11,12-dehydro-2-methoxy-assoanine as the compounds responsible for the anti-inflammatory activity of the bioactive fraction. Thus, the 7â¯m-alkaloid fraction of H. elegans seems to be a promising anti-inflammatory drug that deserves additional research.
Subject(s)
Alkaloids , Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids , Amaryllidaceae , Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids/pharmacology , Anti-Inflammatory Agents/pharmacology , Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry , Humans , Neutrophils , Plant ExtractsABSTRACT
Este trabalho teve como objetivo quantificar os minerais (K, Na, Mn, Cu, Fe, Ca e Mg) presentes em bebida mista, levemente estimulante, formulada com água-de-coco e suco de caju clarificado, adicionada de cafeína. Também avaliou-se a contribuição de seus constituintes (água de coco/cafeína) para a composição mineral final do produto. Os resultados demonstraram elevada concentração de potássio na bebida. O conteúdo de sódio, bem como dos outros minerais encontrados (Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn e Zn) foi influenciado pela formulação e pela presença de aditivos. A composição mineral da bebida preservou parte dos componentes encontrados nas matérias-primas e mostrou-se dependente da composição de seus constituintes