Worldwide, human beings have traditionally employed many folkloric herbal resources as complementary and alternative remedies, and these remedies have played a pivotal role in modern medicines for many decades, as scientists have used them to develop drugs. We studied the effects of employing solvents with varying polarity on the yields of phytochemical components extracted from the plant Rhazya stricta. We used chloroform–methanol (1:1), methanol, ethanol, diethyl ether, and ethyl acetate as extraction solvents. The results showed that the efficiencies of the solvents at extracting phytochemical compounds were in this order: chloroform–methanol < ethanol < methanol < diethyl ether < ethyl acetate extract. The chloroform–methanol extract produced the highest concentration of phenolic and flavonoid contents among the five solvents tested (13.3 mg GAE/g DM and 5.43 CE/g DM). The yields of the extracted phytochemical compounds ranged from 47.55 to 6.05%. The results revealed that the properties of the extraction solvents considerably impacted the extraction yield and the phytochemical components of the R. stricta extract. Furthermore, compared with the other solvents, the chloroform–methanol extraction led to the highest yield (47.55%) and to more phytochemical substances being extracted. The aim of this study is to investigate the phytochemical compounds extracted from R. stricta with different solvents that have different polarities.

The main purpose of our study was to examine the role of selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) and/or bee venom (BV) in ameliorating diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) and nephropathy (DN) at the biochemical, histopathological and molecular levels. Fifty male albino rats were used in this experiment, divided into five groups: control, Streptozocin (STZ) diabetic, STZ-diabetic treated with SeNPs, STZ-diabetic treated with BV, and STZ-diabetic treated with SeNPs and BV. Biochemically, STZ injection resulted in a significant increase in serum glucose, BUN, creatinine, CRP, CK-MB, AST, LDH and cardiac troponins with a significant decrease in the serum insulin and albumin concentrations. Histopathologically, STZ injection resulted in diabetes, as revealed by glomerulonephritis, perivascular hemorrhage, inflammatory cell infiltrations and fibrosis, with widening of interstitial spaces of cardiomyocytes, loss of muscle cells continuity and some hyaline degeneration. At the molecular levels, the expression levels of miRNA 328, miRNA-21, TGFβ1, TGFβ1R, JAK1, STST-3, SMAD-1 and NFκβ genes were significantly up-regulated, whereas the expression levels of SMAD-7 were significantly down-regulated. It is concluded that SeNPs and/or BV administration ameliorates the deleterious effects resulting from STZ administration through improving the biochemical, histopathological and molecular effects, suggesting their protective role against the long-term diabetic complications of DCM and DN.

Evaluación del efecto de la quercetina y el aceite de tomillo sobre los biomarcadores de estrés oxidativo y la expresión del ARN mensajero de las interleucinas 6, 2 y 16 durante la infección por Eimeria tenella. La coccidiosis es una enfermedad protozoaria que causa graves pérdidas económicas anualmente en todo el mundo. Este estudio evaluó el aceite de tomillo y la quercetina como tratamientos anticoccidiales naturales en pollos de engorde infectados experimentalmente con Eimeria tenella. En total, 450 pollos de engorde Hubbard de un día de edad se asignaron a 10 grupos. Al octavo día de edad, cinco grupos permanecieron sin infección: un grupo control negativo (–ve) y grupos tratados temprana y tardíamente con aceite de tomillo o quercetina. Los otros cinco grupos estaban infectados con E. tenella: un grupo control positivo (+ve) y grupos tratados temprana y tardíamente con aceite de tomillo o quercetina. Los signos clínicos, los hallazgos parasitológicos, los biomarcadores de estrés oxidativo y las expresiones relativas de las interleucinas 2, 6 y 16 se evaluaron en los días sexto, 11 y 16 posteriores a la infección (dpi). La infección indujo diarrea sanguinolenta, pérdida de peso y puntuaciones altas de lesiones en los controles positivos, mientras que el grupo infectado tratado con el aceite tomillo (ITE) produjo la mejor recuperación clínica, las puntuaciones más bajas de lesiones y el mayor aumento de peso entre los grupos infectados. La eliminación de ooquistes alcanzó su punto máximo a los 8 dpi, pero se redujo significativamente en los grupos tratados tempranamente, particularmente el grupo infectado tratado con el aceite tomillo. Los biomarcadores de estrés oxidativo y las expresiones relativas de interleucinas se alteraron significativamente, y el tratamiento temprano mejoró el estado antioxidante y modula la respuesta inmunitaria. En conclusión, los resultados recomiendan la administración temprana de aceite de tomillo o quercetina para mejorar la productividad, el estrés oxidativo y la respuesta inmunitaria de las aves contra la infección por Eimeria.

This work conducted to evaluate the anti-fibrotic and antioxidant role of naringenin (NAR) toward thioacetamide (TAA) induced liver fibrosis. Fifty adult male albino rats randomly divided into 5 groups (10 each); first group kept as control one; the second treated I/P by 200 mg/kg TAA twice a weeks for 8 weeks; the third was gavaged daily with 50 mg /kg/ b.wt of NAR; the fourth was co-treated by TAA and NAR while the fifth was treated with TAA for 8 w then gavaged daily by NAR for 1 month. TAA administration significantly increases the hepatic cell enzymes (ALT, AST, ALP and GGT) in the serum referring to hepatic cell destruction with an increase in hepatic MDA with a reduction in GSH concentrations, antioxidant enzyme activities as well as down regulation of their expression levels. NAR administration either with or after TAA ameliorates this effect suggesting its antioxidant ability. In the fibrotic pathway, TAA treatment up-regulates the expression levels of fibrogenic biomarkers (TGF-β, collagen 1α and fibronectin) genes while NAR down-regulates these genes suggesting its anti-fibrotic ability. Histopathological analysis confirms the biochemical results. In conclusion, NAR ameliorates the deleterious effect of TAA through its antioxidant and anti-fibrotic abilities.

Background: Smoking is a badly addictive habit due to nicotine contents in tobacco. Shammah is one way of smokeless tobacco that is homely made and it use resulting in multiple medical issues. Aim: The aim of the present study were to chemically analyze the content of various types of Shammah using GC-MS analysis with clinical biochemical investigation of some cases usually used shamma in Makkah region, Saudi Arabia. Methods: Three samples from two main different types of shamma (black and yellow) were collected from local providers and analyzed by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). Eighteen blood samples were also collected from apparently healthy male peoples (30-45 years) classified into 3 groups; group 1 (control) people who doesn’t smoke or use any type of shamma, second and third groups were people who usually used black and yellow shamma respectively; CBC and biochemical analysis were performed. Results: In GC-MS Analysis, the nicotine represents the major constituent in all samples. Total RBCs count, Hemoglobin (HGB) Conc., eosinophil % and iron, total cholesterol, HDL-c concentrations were significantly decreased in peoples using either black or yellow shamma whereas serum levels of ALT, AST and ALP enzyme activities, BUN and creatinine levels were significantly increases. Conclusion: Different shamma samples contains different concentrations of various toxic compounds that can produced a serious health problems as hypochromic anemia due to iron deficiency, decrease in eosinophil %, with hepatic and renal cell injuries detected as increase ALT, AST, ALP, BUN, and creatinine levels.