Journal of Medicinal Plants
Year:2003 | Volume:2 | Issue:7|Papers Count:16

Common thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.)is a member of the lamiaceae family which distributes in different areas of Mediteranea and Asia and is cultivated in all over the world and Iran. Common thyme contains 0.8 - 2.6% (usually ca. 1%) volatile oil consisting of highly variable amounts of phenols, monoterpene hydrocarbons, and alcohols. Thymol is normally the major phenolic component in common thyme. The leaves of thymus vulgaris are used as a herb in food preparations, while the essential oil extracted from the leaves is used in beverages and the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Thyme oil is used as antispasmodic, carminative, antiseptic, anthelmintic, expectorant, antimicrobial (bacteria and fungi), antirheumatic, antioxidative, natural food preservative and mammalian age delaying. Thyme volatile oil has been reported to be among the top ten essential oils which have an important place in an expanding world market.

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common diseases in the world that imposes a tremendous health and social burden whether that burden is measured in terms of sickness, use of health systems resources or costs. Hyperglycemia is the most important clinical sign of diabetes leading to glycation of the various proteins proteins in the body that leading to change in nature, structure and biochemical activity of them. One of the prevention method in the treatment of diabetes mellitus is decreased or inhibited this reaction, it seems that food additives are useful for this purpose. The main goal of this research is to determine the effect of some food additives such as: Somaq, Cinnamonum and Black Pepper on in vitro albumin glycation. In the presence of various concentration of food additives albumin was glycated and evaluated using TBA method. Results showed that these food additives have inhibitory effects on albumin glycation reaction with the concentration of 1g/dl,0.2g/dl and 0.1 g/dl. Among these food additives, Somaq had the most inhibitory effect (80.8%) in the concentration of 1 g/dl. The sequence of effect is : Somac > Black pepper > Cinnamomum These finding showed that food addititves decreased decreased albumin glycation reaction.

The previous pathological data has revealed that salvia leriifolia root extracts have a neuroprotective activity against cerebral ischemia, thus the effect of the root extracts on lipid peroxidation was evaluated using experimental global ischemic - occlusion (4VO) for 20 min. the aqueous and ethanolic extracts (0.1 , 0.2 and 0.4 g/kg), phenytoin, as positive control, (50 mg/kg) and normal saline (10 ml/kg) were administered intraperitoneally 15 min after the induction of ischemia. The malondialdehyde (MDA) was measured by the thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test. The MDA level was higher in the saline group than the sham group. The MDA levels were recovered significantly upon phenytoin and the extracts therapy in the hippocampus of ischemic rats. These results suggest that S. leriifolia root extracts may show a protective effect against lipid peroxidation in cerebral ischemia.

Hyoscyamus is one of the important genus in Solanaceae which distribution of some of its species is restricted to Iran and some of the neighboring countries. The main medicinal substances in this plant are alkaloids (tropane alkaloids). One of Hyoscyamus species which has not been analysed yet, is Hyoscyamus insanus. This plant was collected from southern part of Iran and dried in shaddow and after milling was macerated in 96% ethanol. After maceration, total alkaloids were extracted and using successive column and preparative thin layer chomatography, extract fractionated into three parts. The alkaloids is each fraction was identified using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Mass Spectrometry (MS) and ultra Violet (UV) spectrophotometry. These three alkaloids were Hyoscyamine (atropine), hyoscine and apoatropin. More than 70% of the total alkaloids was hyoscyamine. Regarding this high percentage of hyoscyamin, this species could potentially be used for large scale production. It should be metioned that this is the first report on alkaloid contents of this plant.

In this study essential oils of 7 species from Compositae, Labiatae, Graminae, Dipsacaceae and capparidaceae families including: Achillea wilhelmsii, Acroptilon repens, Centaurea depressa, Salvia suffruticosa, Cymbopogon olivieri, Pterocephalus canus and Cleome iberica were extracted by hydrodistillation method and their antimicrobial effects on some kinds of microbes including three species of Staphylococcus genus (aureus, epidemidis, saprophyticus), Salmonella typhi, Shigella flexneri and Escherichia coli were investigated. The antibacterial properties of essential oils were tested by repeated experiments using the evaluation of diameter of the growth inhibitory zone with well method. The results showed that the essential oils extracted from aerial parts of plants have antimicrobial effects. Among species, Cymbopogon olivieri, Achillea wilhelmsii and Salvia suffruticosa showed stronger antibacterial effect. Acroptilon repens, only inhibited the growth of Gram (+) bacteria. Pterocephalus canus showed the lowest antibacterial effect. Two species Cleome iberica and Centaurea depressa have the moderate effect on the Gram (+) and Gram (-) bacteria.

The anticonvulsant effect of Valeriana officinalis roots and rhizomes hydroalcoholic extract was studied, utilizing maximal electroshock (MES) and pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) tests. In the PTZ test, the extract (0.3-3 g/kg,ip) increased the onset time of Tonic Hind Limb Extension dose - dependently. In the MES test, neither of doses showed antiseizure activity. L - NAME (1-10 mg/kg ip) reduced the anticonvulsant effect of extract in the PTZ test. The results suggest that Valeriana officinalis extract could be a candidate for treatment of petitmal seizure and nitric oxide may be involved in this effect.

The genus ferulago comprises of some thirty - five species of which seven are found in Iran. In this research essential oil of inflorescence of Ferulago angulata (Schlecht.) Boiss. Was extracted by hydro distillation and analyzed with GC/MS. Thirty three components comprising 89.7% of total oil were identified which 77.1% of them were monoterpenes and 12.6% sesquiterpenes. The major components were a# pinene (17.3%), Bornyl acetate (14.45%) and cis- ocimene (14.41) respectively.

Helicobacter pylori, a gram negative microaerophilic bacterium has been recognized as the main cause of peptic ulcers as well as some malignancies. In this study stomach biopsy samples taken from patients complaining of stomach disturbance were tested for Helicobacter pylori, infection. Out of 150 samples tested 91 (60%) turned to be positive using a standard urease as well culture methods. Disk diffusion method was used to determine the sensitivity of the isolates to the selective antibiotics and also ten herbal extracts known for their antimicrobial activities. All the isolates showed sensitivity to gentamycin, tetracycline and ciprofloxacinwhile 70% were sensitive to erythromycin and amoxicillin and 39% were metronidazole sensitive. Of the herbal extracts tested, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Salvia officinalis, Myrtus communics, Artemisia absinthium and Melina azedarach showed significant inhibitory effect on Helicobacter pylori, while others had no effect. These results indicate that some traditional herbal medicines e.g. Glycyrrhiza glabra could be considered as alternatives to the current antibiotic therapy on Helicobacter pylori, infection.