IRANIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS
Year:2018 | Volume:34 | Issue:3 (89) |Papers Count:14

Essential Oils (EO) are highly volatile compounds. Encapsulation of EO into the nano-carrier leads to reduced EO volatility and oxidation, as well as increased therapeutic efficiency. The aim of this study was to synthesize a biocompatible nano-niosome containing Mentha piperita L. and Mentha pulegium L. EO and develop herbal-medicine system with suitable encapsulation efficiency. Hence, the amount and type of surfactant and also the amount of phospholipid were investigated in various niosomal formulations. Furthermore, the optimized formulation was introduced in terms of EO loading efficiency by investigating the acidity effect of hydrating buffer at 7. 4 (neutral), 5. 0 (acidic) and 9. 0 (alkaline) pH. In addition, the EO release kinetic from the system was investigated in physiological conditions of normal (pH= 7. 4, Temperature 37° C) and cancerous cells (pH= 5. 4, temperature 42° C). Various niosomal formulations were prepared using thin-film method and the particle’ s size, morphology, zeta potential and chemical interactions were characterized. Then, antioxidant activity of nanoparticles was evaluated by DPPH radical-scavenging assay. Results of the present study showed that the niosomal formulation containing soy phosphatidyl cholin, cholesterol, and tween-60 loaded with mint or Mentha pulegium EO (0. 5 mg/mL), hydrated with PBS at pH= 9, had the highest loading efficiency. The EO loading efficiency for mint and Mentha pulegium was 61. 36% and 74. 31%, respectively. The investigation of morphology, size, and zeta showed particles to be spherical with the size less than 80 nm and anionic surface charge. EO release in acidic condition of cancerous cells and 42° C temperature was more than physiological conditions of normal cells, representing the sensitivity of synthesized formulation to pH and temperature. The FTIR analysis results showed that no interaction occurred between EO and noisome and the loading of EO into the niosomes did not make any changes in chemical nature of EO. In addition, the antioxidant activity of EO was very well preserved during the encapsulation.

Treatment of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infection is a problematic subject in the world. The aim of this study was an evaluation of the antimicrobial effect of four species of Satureja essential oils on biofilm formation and hemolysin production in S. aureus. MIC of Satureja essential oils (Satureja khuzistanica Jamzad, Satureja bachtiarica Bunge, Satureja rechingeri Jamzad, Satureja mutica Fisch. & C. A. Mey. ) were determined by micro dilution broth method against standard strains of S. aureus ATCC 29213(MSSA) & ATCC 33591(MRSA). Sub-MICs of Satureja essential oils were used to assay biofilm formation and hemolysin production. The results showed that all essential oils had antimicrobial effect against standard strains of S. aureus. In the presence of sub-MICs of essential oils, biofilm formation and hemolysin production were significantly reduced. The results show the potent antimicrobial effects of Satureja essential oils against S. aureus and more study is recommended to use it in controlling S. aureus infections.

Listeria monocytogenes is known as one of the bacteria transmitted by food, especially dairy products. Recently, the demand for replacing chemical preservatives with natural compounds has increased. The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial effects of Echinophora platyloba DC. extracts on Listeria monocytogenes in broth medium and milk. The standard method of microdilution was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration and the minimum bactericidal concentration of aqueous and ethanol extracts of Echinophora platyloba on tested bacteria. The results showed that the minimum inhibitory concentrations of aqueous and ethanol extracts, were 50 and 70 mg/ml respectively and the minimum bactericidal concentrations for these extracts, were 70 and 100 mg/ml respectively. Based on the results, both aqueous and ethanol extracts showed acceptable anti listeria effects at 4º C and 25º C in milk compared to the control group (P<0. 05). At the same concentrations, the aqueous extract showed a stronger effect on the Listeria monocytogenes as compared with ethanol extract. Also, the results revealed that the antimicrobial effect of the aqueous extract was greater at 4º C than that of 25º C in the same concentration (P<0. 05).

This study was conducted to determine the effect of short-term Ginkgo biloba L. on total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and malondialdehyde (MDA) after an aerobic exercise in inactive women. In a quasi-experimental study, twenty-four non-athlete women were allocated into a supplement (120mg/day Ginkgo biloba for 21 days) and placebo groups (120mg/day dextrose for 21 days). All the subjects participated in aerobic exercise protocol with 75% VO2 max on the treadmill for 30 minutes in pre and after supplementation. Venous blood samples were collected to assess the capacity of the TAC and MDA in four phases; 1) at the baseline 2) immediately after exercise test 3) after supplementation and 4) after supplementation and the second exercise test. Dates were analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA and LSD post-hoc test at α ≤ 0. 05. The results showed that MDA concentration increased, but TAC decreased significantly after aerobic exercise (P<0. 05). However, short-term Ginkgo biloba supplementation led to a significant increase in baseline serum TAC in the supplement group (P= 0. 017). Moreover, the increase in the MDA concentration in the supplement group was significantly more than that in the placebo group (P= 0. 023). The results showed that aerobic exercise could increase some oxidative stress indices, but, short-term Ginkgo biloba supplementation probably could reduce the exercise-induced oxidative stress by increasing TAC. However, but more research is needed to determine the real effects of this herbal supplement.

Drought stress affects the morphology, physiology, and biochemistry of plants and will have major effects on agricultural production. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of drought on some physiological and grain yield properties of Balangu populations (Lallemantia royleana Benth. ), in the Research Station of Shahed University. This study was conducted in a split-plot design based on randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications during 2014-2015. The experimental factors consisted of three different levels of drought stress at the flowering stage as main factors (applying soil water potential of-0. 5,-6. 5 and-9. 5 atm), and Balangu populations including one population from Kurdistan and four populations from Esfahan province (Esfahan3, Esfahan5, Esfahan6, Esfahann) were considered as subplots. The traits studied included grain yield, one thousand seed weight, photosynthetic pigments content, proline content, total phenol content, membrane stability index (MDA), and peroxidase activity. According to the results, drought stress had significant effects on all traits except chlorophyll b content and chlorophyll a/b ratio. Population and its interactions showed a significant effect with all traits except anthocyanin content. Drought caused to the reduced content of photosynthetic pigments, membrane stability index, thousand grain weight and grain yield. With increasing drought stress, the lipid peroxidation enzymatic activity and non-enzymatic antioxidants such as phenolic content, carotenoids content, anthocyanins content, and proline content of tissue increased to induce drought tolerance. The highest grain yield with the mean of (312. 77 kg/ha) and the highest phenolic content with an average of (14. 02 mg/g FW) were recorded for the Esfahan3 population under relatively severe stress.

Mold decay is one of the most important diseases after harvesting citrus fruits, produced by Pencillium italicum fungi. It annually causes high amount of losses in citrus products. The essential oil of coca bush, Francoeuria undulata (L. ) Lack, has high antibacterial properties on microorganisms. Therefore, in two separate experiments, the effect of various concentrations of essential oils (four levels including 0, 400, 800 and 1600) on inducing resistance of orange's fruit was evaluated against blue mold (two levels: without pathogen and with pathogen) via studying the defense enzymes. The present study was conducted as factorial based on completely randomized design with three replications. In second experiment, the effect of essential oil on pathogen control was studied at concentrations of 0, 400, 800, and 1600 in a completely randomized design. Results of analysis of variance showed that the interaction of concentration×pathogen at 48 and 96-hour time periods was significant on three enzymes including catalase, peroxidase and phenol. Also, the results of analysis of variance showed that the effect of coca bush essential oil concentration on inhibitory of pathogen growth on fruit was significant. The interaction of pathogen× plant type showed that the highest content of phenol, peroxidase and catalase was associated with control treatments, while high phenol content was observed in pathogenic treatments with coca bush. The interaction of presence and absence of pathogen×concentration showed that the highest phenol content was obserevd in control treatments at 0 and 800 ppm concentrations. Peroxidase content was high in healthy treatments, while there was no difference among various treatments in terms of catalase content. The interaction of plant type×essential oil concentration showed that there was no significant difference among various treatments in terms of phenol, peroxidase and catalase content.

Saffron (Crocus sativus L. ) is one of the most important and precious medicinal plants in the world. In order to investigate the effects of different of municipal waste vermicompost on vegetative and reproductive characteristics of leaf and corm of saffron, an experiment was conducted based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Agricultural Research Station, University of Birjand during the growing season of 2015. The treatments included four levels of municipal waste vermicompost (0, 5, 10 and 15 t. ha-1). Results showed that municipal waste vermicompost in the second year improved the reproductive characteristics so that the highest flower yield was obtained from 10 t. ha-1 municipal waste vermicompost (22. 5g. m-2) and the highest dry stigma yield was obtained from 5 t. ha-1 municipal waste vermicompost (0. 44g. m-2). The highest average leaf number (8. 36), average fresh weight and dry weight of leaf (0. 33 and 0. 099 g, respectively) were obtained in plants treated with 15 t. ha-1 municipal waste vermicompost and the highest leaf length (249. 3 mm) was obtained at 10 t. ha-1. Application of this organic fertilizer could have a significant effect on chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll content and SPAD. The highest photosynthetic pigments were obtained from application of 10 t. ha-1 municipal waste vermicompost. The characteristics of the corm including the number of cormel, fresh and dry weight of cormel and number of cormel buds were affected by municipal waste vermicompost treatment. The highest number of cormel was obtained from plants treated with 10 t. ha-1. Also results showed that treatment of 5 t. ha-1 of municipal waste vermicompost had the greatest effect on fresh and dry weight of cormel. This treatment improved the number of cormel (33/1) as compared with control (5). Thus, results showed that municipal waste vermicompost had strong impact on vegetative and reproductive characteristics of saffron.

Lead intoxication impairs oxidant/antioxidant balance that can be partially responsible for the toxic effects of lead in the various organs of body especially cardiovascular system. On the other hand, carvacrol, as major component of thyme plant, has a variety of properties including antioxidant ones. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of carvacrol on blood pressure and some blood parameters in lead-poisoned rats. In this study, 40 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups. The first group was control, the second group was poisoned with lead, and three lead poisoned groups receiving carvacrol at doses of 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg/daily. The blood pressure was monitored weekly by tail plethysmography coupled to a computer system. At the end of experiment, blood samples were obtained to assess some hematological parameters (RBC, Hb, Hct, and WBC). The mean blood pressure in lead exposed group was significantly higher than that of control group from the 21st day of the study. Carvacrol caused a decrease in hypertension in the lead poisoned rats. This deceasing was consistent throughout the experiment. Some blood parameters (RBC, Hb, Hct, and WBC) were decreased in lead exposed rats. These changes were prevented in the lead groups receiving carvacrol. According to the result of this study, it may be concluded that carvacrol could improve some lead induced changes in the cardiovascular system.

Due to the medicinal properties, the root of sage (Salvia officinalis L. ) has been used from a very distant past. In the present study, the homogenate of sage and the sage treated with chitosan was extracted after drying using 96% ethanol. Then, ethanol solvent was removed from the extract using rotary equipment. To do this research, 60 adult male white Wistar rats were used. The rats were divided into six groups of 10. The oral extract of sage and the sage treated with chitosan was used at a dose of 200 mg/kg. In addition, a dose of 50 mg/kg of isoniazid was used as gavage to induce oxidative effect. The DPPH method was also used with the help of 1, 2-diphenyl 1-picyril hydrazine to compare the antioxidant effects of sage and the sage treated with chitosan. The use of alcoholic extract of Salvia sp. led to reduced triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL and ALP as well as increased HDL levels. In addition, the extract of sage treated with chitosan led to decreased LDL, ALT and increased HDL levels. Therefore, according to the results, it was concluded that the beneficial effects of the factors evaluated were significant. Also, the DPPH test results showed that antioxidant effects of alcoholic extract of the sage treated with chitosan was much higher and more effective than sage, indicating the positive effect of chitosan treatment on the amount of sage antioxidants. The results of this study confirmed the undesirable effects of isoniazide on the cells of body.

In this study, 19 wild-grown populations of Prangos (P. acaulic, P. ferulacea, P. uloptera and P. asperula) from North-West of Iran were collected and total phenol and flavonoid content, antioxidant activity, chlorophyll a and b, total carotenoid and essential oil content were evaluated. According to the results, the highest total phenol content (12. 5 mg GAE/g DW) was recorded in the population of Ghoshchi from P. uloptera collected from West Azarbaijan province and the lowest content (4. 18 mg GAE/g DW) was observed in Showt population (P. Ferulacea), collected from Showt, West Azarbaijan. The highest (5. 51mg/g DW) and lowest (1. 2 mg/g DW) amount of total flavonoid content recorded in the population of Baneh from Kurdistan province (P. Ferulacea) and Naghadeh population of West Azarbaijan (P. asperula), respectively. In addition, the highest level of chlorophyll a (0. 41 mg/g DW) and b (0. 69 mg/g DW) was recorded in the population of Showt3 (P. uloptera), located in West Azarbaijan province, and the highest level of carotenoid (61. 36 mg/g DW) was observed in Saqqez population (P. ferulacea) from Kurdistan province. The highest antioxidant activity (77. 08 %) was obtained in the Showt population (P. Ferulacea). The highest percentage of essential oil was observed in the population of Maku (P. acaulic) and Showt2 (P. ferulacea) collected from West Azarbaijan province. According to the results of cluster and factor analysis, there were high phytochemical variations in different populations collected from different regions of the North-West of Iran, which can be used in breeding programs of this plant.

In order to evaluate the effects of foliar application of osmolytes on the quantitative and qualitative yield of German chamomile (Chamomilla recutita L. ) in drought stress conditions, a split-plot experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with three replications at Research Center of Medicinal Plants, Shahed University. The treatments included irrigation as the main factor in three levels [(irrigation after 50 (without stress), 100 (moderate stress) and 150 mm evaporation from the class A pan (severe stress)] and foliar application of osmolytes as sub-plots in seven levels [(without Spraying (NS), distilled water (W), methyl jasmonate (MJ= 75 M), salicylic acid (SA= 2mM), humic acid (HA= 2. 5lit/1000), glycine betaine (GB= 5mM), and -aminobutyric acid (GABA= 50mM). The electrical conductivity of the irrigation water was 4. 8 dS/m. Mean comparisons showed that GABA combined with severe stress had the highest essential oil yield (3. 7 kg ha-1). In plants treated with GABA under severe stress, essential oil harvest index was increased by 60 and 58%, respectively, compared to W and NS treatments. The highest and lowest capitol harvest index with 70. 81% and 23. 28% were respectively obtained from GB combined without stress and W with severe stress. SA, GB, and GABA increased the capitol yield in severe stress compared with the moderate stress. Severe stress caused a significant increase in essential oil content from 0. 66 to 1. 13%, a 35% reduction in seed harvest index compared to control treatment, and a significant reduction in biomass yield rather than moderate stress. MJ and SA increased seed yield compared with NS in moderate stress.

In order to investigate the effect of drought stress on grain and essential oil yield, antioxidant properties of essential oil, and accumulation of conformal osmolites in the leaves of two Nigella sativa L., this research was conducted at the research farm of Islamic Azad University, Shoushtar Branch during 2016-2017. The experiment was a split plot based on randomized complete block design with four replications. The main plot included four levels of irrigation including optimal irrigation, mild, moderate and severe stress (based on irrigation under 90, 80, 70 and 60% soil field capacity, respectively), and ecotypes of Kashmar and Shahreza were considered as subplots. Results indicated that the grain yield of Kashmar ecotype was reduced 2. 4%, 20. 2% and 40. 1% under mild, moderate and sever stress compared to optimum conditions, respectively. The grain yield of Shahreza ecotype was reduced 6. 2%, 38. 1% and 63%, respectively. Reduction of grain yield under severe stress conditions was due to a significant decrease in the number of capsules and seeds per capsule. Essential oil yield of Kashmar and Shahreza ecotypes decreased by 18% and 54% in severe drought stress conditions, respectively. Kashmar ecotype had higher levels of carbohydrate and proline than those of Shahraza under stress conditions. This property caused the Kashmar ecotype to have more relative water content and lower slope change of grain yield and essential oil yield as compared with Shahreza. In normal conditions and severe drought stress, 85% and 93% of essential oil components of Kashmar and 82% and 93% essential oil components of Shahreza ecotype were identified, respectively. Drought stress increased the percentage of essential oil in both ecotypes and the essential oil of Kashmar contained more antioxidant. In general, under mild stress conditions, the highest essential oil yield was obtained due to an increase in essential oil content and no significant reduction in grain yield. Thus, it seems that the application of mild controlled stress improves the quality of Nigella sativa without affecting its quantitative performance.

Given the role of inflammation and pain, causing delayed diseases recovery, as well as the side effects of chemical drugs and traditional uses of Satureja bachtiarica Bunge, this study was aimed to evaluate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of S. bachtiarica essential oil. In this experimental study, analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of S. bachtiarica essential oil were evaluated using acetic acid and xylene tests. In each test, male NMRI mice were randomly divided into five groups including control (normal saline, IP), positive control (indomethacin at a dose of 10 mg/kg/dexamethasone at a dose of 2mg/kg, IP) and intervention groups (Satureja bachtiarica essential oil at doses of 50, 75 and 100 mg/kg, IP). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software. According to the results, S. bachtiarica essential oil at doses of 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg and indomethacin caused significant analgesic effects compared to the control group (P<0. 001), and higher analgesic effect was recorded for the dose of 100mg/kg showed. In xylene test, inflammation in groups receiving S. bachtiarica essential oil at doses of 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg and dexamethasone was significantly lower than that of control group (P<0. 001). Our results clearly showed the positive effects of Satureja bachtiarica essential oil in reducing inflammation and pain.