Liver fibrosis is a condition characterized by the excessive buildup of scar tissue in the liver. This scarring occurs as a result of chronic liver damage, often caused by conditions such as hepatitis, alcohol abuse, certain metabolic disorders, genetic abnormalities, autoimmunity, and noninfectious diseases such as fatty liver which leads to liver fibrosis. Nanoparticles have gained attention in recent years as potential therapeutic agents for liver fibrosis. They offer unique advantages due to their small size, large surface area, and ability to carry drugs or target specific cells or tissues. Studies have suggested that nanoemulsions may enhance drug delivery systems, enabling targeted drug delivery to specific sites in the liver and improving therapeutic outcomes. In this study, we explore the protective and therapeutic values with phytochemical profiling of the used agro-wastes decaffeinated palm date seeds (Phoenix dactylifera L., PSC) coffee and caffeinated Arabic coffee seeds (Coffea arabica L.; ACS). Both ACS and PSC extracts were converted into nanoemulsion (NE) forms using the oleic acid/Tween 80 system, which was recruited for the purpose of treating a rat model with liver fibrosis. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were used to record the sizes, morphologies, hydrodynamic diameters, and ζ-potentials of the prepared NE-ACSE and NE-PSCE. Accordingly, the NE-ACSE and NE-PSCE imaged via TEM and their ζ-potentials were recorded at 20.7, 23.3 nm and −41.4, −28.0 mV, respectively. The antioxidant properties were determined with a DPPH scavenging assay. The synthesized NE-PSCE and NE-ACSE were employed to treat a rat model with CCl₄-induced liver fibrosis, to estimate the role of each emulsion-based extract in the treatment of liver fibrosis through recording inflammatory parameters, liver functions, antioxidant enzymes, and histopathological analysis results. The nanoemulsion forms of both ACSE and PSCE provided significant increases in antioxidant enzymes, reducing inflammatory parameters, compared to other groups, where liver functions were decreased with values close to those of the control group. In conclusion, both nanoemulsions, ACSE and PSCE, provided a new avenue as therapeutic approaches for liver diseases, and further studies are encouraged to obtain maximum efficiency of treatment via the combination of both extracts.

Moringa oleifera is a tree with various applications. Desertification and salinity are major constraints to crop productivity worldwide, especially in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, it is essential that plants alleviate and adapt to salt stress. Many physiological, pharmacological, and molecular strategies are employed by plants to lessen the effects of salinity stress. In this work, plants were grown under different salinity levels and treated with a foliar spray of seaweed extract to evaluate the fixed oil using GC/MS analysis, free proline and total soluble proteins using colorimetric methods, total phenolic content using Folin–Ciocalteu phenol reagent, total flavonoids using a spectrophotometric method, and antioxidant activity using the DPPH method. The study has shown that applying seaweed extract to plants grown under different salinity conditions improves seed oil yield, proline levels, soluble proteins, phenolic content, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity. As salinity increases, the oil yield decreases, but the levels of proline, phenols, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity rise. Seaweed extract application also reduces protein breakdown and boosts osmoprotectants. Salt stress decreases unsaturated fatty acids like oleic acid and increases saturated fatty acids like stearic acid. Overall, seaweed extract helps mitigate the adverse effects of salinity, enhancing oil yield and stress resistance in moringa trees.

Sprouts are an attractive food product that contains high amounts of nutritional substances and has pro-health features. Sprout consumption has strongly increased despite its potential risk to health due to its microbial load. Both the safety and shelf life of sprouts may be negatively affected by a high microbial load. To reduce the microbial contamination in sprouts before consumption, the initial microbial load on the seeds needs to be controlled. Many herbal sprouts have been recommended for diabetes, and fenugreek is one of these sprouts. Thus, the current experiment aimed at disinfecting fenugreek seeds using microwave (5, 10, and 20 s) and hot water (30, 45, and 60 s) treatments for different durations. The best-disinfected sprouts with the highest nutritional properties were used to evaluate their influence on streptozocin-induced diabetic rats in comparison with fenugreek seed feeding. Microwave treatments showed the highest sprout length, fresh weight, total free amino acids, antioxidants, reducing sugars, and total phenols. Additionally, microwave seed treatments showed the lowest bacteria and mold counts on sprouts produced relative to hot water treatments, and the best seed treatment was a microwave for 20 s, which gave the best values in this respect. Feeding diabetic rats with different fenugreek seeds or sprout rates (0, 5, 7.5, and 10% w/w) improved body weight, restricted the growth of glucose levels, lowered total cholesterol and triglycerides, and improved HDL compared with the positive control group, and fenugreek sprouts at higher rates showed the maximum improvements in blood glucose, total cholesterol, and triglycerides. Treating fenugreek seed with microwave radiation for 20 s to disinfect the seeds before sprouting is recommended for lowering the microbial load with optimum nutritional and antioxidant activity, and feeding diabetic rats with these sprouts at the rate of 7.5 and 10% had promising effects on hyperglycemia and associated disorders.

Plant secondary metabolites provide a unique basis for medications, flavorings, and industrial biochemicals. These metabolites frequently accumulate in plants exposed to environmental stressors (e.g., drought stress), as a mechanism for adaptation and resistance. Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng is a semi-succulent Lamiaceae species valued for its curative properties and essential oil, the concentration of which is heavily impacted by irrigation levels. This investigation reveals a novel study into the physiological and molecular mechanisms of P. amboinicus by correlating field capacity (FC) levels with metabolite accumulation and specific gene expression. We examined the impact of six irrigation levels (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%; denoted as FC-0 to FC-100) on growth, essential oil (EO) yield, and carvacrol biosynthesis during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Data revealed that plants subjected to the FC-0 exhibited the lowest growth parameters. However, these plants also presented a higher essential oil percentage and carvacrol concentrations, in addition to an increase in polyphenols and antioxidant enzymes, with greater oxidative substances accumulation (H ₂ O ₂ and MDA). Moreover, these plants presented higher gene expression of CYP71D178 and CYP71D180 genes. While increasing water level caused an increase in growth parameters, with a decline in the antioxidant activity. Increasing the water level to FC-100 increased the essential oil by approximately four fold but resulted in a decline in carvacrol content as compared to FC-0. Generally, water deficiency reduces crop yield, whereas irrigation increases plant productivity. However, in medicinal and aromatic plants, the relationship is distinct; in Plectranthus amboinicus, water deficiency showed a strong positive correlation with the secondary metabolite’s generation. In conclusion, the current report provides for the first time a molecular framework for P. amboinicus by depicting the expression patterns of CYP71D178 and CYP71D180. We revealed that these genes elaborate as the primary molecular shifts regulating carvacrol biosynthesis influenced by specific irrigation levels.