Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a life-threatening disorder that severely disrupts normal lung architecture and function, resulting in severe respiratory failure and death. It has no definite treatment. ...Empagliflozin (EMPA), a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, has protective potential in PF. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects require further elucidation. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the ameliorative effect of EMPA against bleomycin (BLM)-induced PF and the potential mechanisms. Twenty-four male Wister rats were randomly divided into four groups: control, BLM treated, EMPA treated, and EMPA+BLM treated. EMPA significantly improved the histopathological injuries illustrated by both hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome-stained lung tissue sections, as confirmed by electron microscopic examination. It significantly reduced the lung index, hydroxyproline content, and transforming growth factor β1 levels in the BLM rat model. It had an anti-inflammatory effect, as evidenced by a decrease in the inflammatory cytokines' tumor necrosis factor alpha and high mobility group box 1, inflammatory cell infiltration into the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and the CD68 immunoreaction. Furthermore, EMPA mitigated oxidative stress, DNA fragmentation, ferroptosis, and endoplasmic reticulum stress, as evidenced by the up-regulation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor expression, heme oxygenase-1 activity, glutathione peroxidase 4 levels, and a decrease in C/EBP homologous protein levels. This protective potential could be explained on the basis of autophagy induction via up-regulating lung
expression and the LC3 II immunoreaction observed in this study. Our findings indicated that EMPA protected against BLM-induced PF-associated cellular stress by enhancing autophagy and modulating sestrin2/adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase/nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2/heme oxygenase 1 signaling.
The present study was designed to identify the chemical constituents of the methanolic extract of Curcuma longa L. rhizomes and their inhibitory effect on a hepatoma cell line. The methanolic extract ...was subjected to GC-MS analysis to identify the volatile constituents and the other part of the same extract was subjected to liquid column chromatographic separation to isolate curcumin. The inhibition of cell growth in the hepatoma cell line and the cytopathological changes were studied. GC-MS analysis showed the presence of fifty compounds in the methanolic extract of C. longa. The major compounds were ar-turmerone (20.50 %), β-sesquiphellandrene (5.20 %) and curcumenol (5.11 %). Curcumin was identified using IR,
H and
C NMR. The inhibition of cell growth by curcumin (IC
= 41.69 ± 2.87 μg mL
) was much more effective than that of methanolic extract (IC
= 196.12 ± 5.25 μg mL
). Degenerative and apoptotic changes were more evident in curcumin- treated hepatoma cells than in those treated with the methanol extract. Antitumor potential of the methanolic extract may be attributed to the presence of sesquiterpenes and phenolic constituents including curcumin (0.051 %, 511.39 μg g
dried methanol extract) in C. longa rhizomes.
In the present study, antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts of the leaves of seven Egyptian Cassia species was investigated using two methods, the phosphomolyb-date method and 1,1 ...diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) scavenging activity method.· The results revealed that C. glauca is the most potent species and that the activity of other plant species decreases in the following order: C. grandis > C. nodosa > C. fistula > C. didymobtrya > C. occidentalis > C. sophera. Defatted methanolic extract of the most active plant C. glauca was subjected to fractionation using different organic solvents such as CHCl3, EtOAc and BuOH. Antixidant activities of the fractions were investigated and the results showed that ethyl acetate fraction possessed high activity. Total phenolic and flavonoid concentrations of each plant extract were determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and aluminum chloride. Correlation between radical scavenging capacities of extracts and total phenolic concentration was observed.
Allium cepa L. (red onion) is one of the most famous vegetable crops grown in Egypt due to its medical and nutritional importance. In vitro antischistosomal bioassay of ethyl acetate (EtOAc) and ...butanolic (BuOH) fractions derived from methanolic (MeOH) extract of A. cepa as well as the essential oil of plant bulbs was carried out using ascending doses. The chemical constituents of essential oil were further investigated using GC-MS analysis. The results revealed that the MeOH extract, EtOAc fraction, BuOH fraction and essential oil have a significant effect on adult Schistosoma mansoni worms. The essential oil of A. cepa gave high worm mortality (%) at the concentration 500 µg/mL (75%), 250 µg/mL (50%) and 125 µg/mL (30%) death rate after 24 hours. GC-MS analysis of A. cepa essential oil exhibited different chemical volatile constituents such as organosulfur compounds, alcohols, acids, esters, furans, phenols, and aldehyde. 3, 5-Diethyl -1, 2, 4-trithiolane (10.17%), 1, 3, 5-trithiolane (7.80%), and 3-(2H-furanone, 2-hexyl-5-methyl) (7.74%) represented the highest contents percent in essential oil of A. cepa bulbs.
In conclusion, the bulbs of A. cepa exhibited antischistosomal activities and contain a variety of bioactive chemical constituents and can be considered as a natural antischistosomal agent.
This study was designated to determine the total phenolic and flavonoid contents as well as evaluation the in vitro antioxidant activity of the defatted methanolic extracts of six Allium species ...growing in Egypt. Three of them are subspecies of Allium cepa L. (ssp. red onion, ssp. white onion and ssp. green onion), the other three species are Allium sativum L. (garlic), Allium porrum L. (leek) and Allium kurrat L. (kurrat baladi). The results exhibited that A. cepa (ssp. red onion) and A. porrum have the highest phenolic contents. On the other hand, in vitro antioxidant activity using three methods, 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical, phosphomolybdate and reducing power assays revealed that A. cepa (ssp. red onion) and A. porrum have high antioxidant activities. Moreover, there was positive correlation between the antioxidant activity and total phenolic contents of the tested Allium species. Therefore, the two plant species A. cepa (ssp. red onion) and A. porrum were submitted to fractionation process using chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. The results showed that the ethyl acetate fractions of the two plants have high phenolic and flavonoid contents as well as have high antioxidant activities. Also, the preliminary phytochemical screening of the tested Allium species showed that A. cepa (ssp. red onion) and A. porrum have high quantities of flavonoids, steroids, terpenoids and saponins.
U radu je ispitano antioksidativno djelovanje metanolnih ekstrakata listova sedam egipatskih vrsta roda Cassia koristeći fosfomolibdatnu metodu i metodu vezanja slobodnih 1,1-difenil-2-pikrilhidrazil ...radikala (DPPH.). Rezultati pokazuju da C. glauca ima najveću aktivnost te da se djelovanje smanjuje sljedećim redom: C. grandis C. nodosa C. fistula C. didymobtrya C. occidentalis C. sophera.
Odmašćeni metanolni ekstrakt najaktivnije biljke C. glauca frakcioniran je pomoću različitih organskih otapala kao što su CHCl3, EtOAc i BuOH. Ispitivanje antioksidativnog djelovanja pojedinih frakcija pokazuje da je etil-acetatna frakcija najaktivnija. Pomoću Folin-Ciocaltuovog reagensa i aluminijevog klorida određena je ukupna koncentracija fenola i flavonoida svakog pojedinog ekstrakta. Uočena je korelacija između sposobnosti hvatanja slobodnih radikala i ukupnog sadržaja fenola.