Lantadenes are pentacyclic triterpenoids present in the leaves of the plant Lantana camara. In the present study, in vitro antioxidant activity and free radical scavenging capacity of lantadene A was evaluated using established in vitro models such as ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH•), hydroxyl radical (OH•), nitric oxide radical (NO•), superoxide anion scavenging activities and ferrous ion chelating assay. Interestingly, lantadene A showed considerable in vitro antioxidant, free radical scavenging capacity activities in a dose dependant manner when compared with the standard antioxidant in nitric oxide scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging and ferrous ion chelating assay. These findings show that the lantadene A possesses antioxidant activity with different mechanism of actions towards the different free radicals tested. Since lantadene A is a very popular drug in modern medicine, it is a promising candidate for use as an antioxidant and hepatoprotective agent.

The genus Cassia, comprising about 600 species widely distributed worldwide is well known for its diverse biological and pharmacological properties. Cassia spectabilis (sin Senna spectabilis) (DC) Irwin et Barn (Fabaceae) is widely grown as an ornamental plant in tropical and subtropical areas. C. spectabilis has been commonly used in traditional medicine for many years. Information in the biomedical literature has indicated the presence of a variety of medicinally-important chemical constituents in C. spectabilis. Pharmacological studies by various groups of investigators have shown that C. spectabilis possesses significant biological activity, such as antibacterial, antibiofilm, antifungal and antioxidant properties. Beside this, toxicity studies of this plant have revealed no toxic effect on mice. In view of the immense medicinal importance of C. spectabilis, this review aimed at compiling all currently available information on C. spectabilis’s botany, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and mechanism of actions, toxicology and its ethnomedicinal uses.

Medicinal plants have been used in medicoculturally diverse countries around the world, where it is a part of a time-honoured tradition that is respected even today.Polyalthia longifolialeaf extract has been previously reported as an efficient antioxidantin vitro. Hence, the genotoxic effects ofP. longifolialeaf were investigated by using plasmid relation, comet, andAllium cepaassay. In the presence of ∙OH radicals, the DNA in supercoil was start nicked into open circular form, which is the product of the single-stranded cleavage of supercoil DNA and quantified as fragmented separate bands on agarose gel in plasmid relation assay. In the plasmid relation and comet assay, theP. longifolialeaf extract exhibited strong inhibitory effects against H₂O₂-mediated DNA damage. A dose-dependent increase of chromosome aberrations was also observed in theAllium cepaassay. The abnormalities scored were stickiness, c-mitosis, bridges, and vagrant chromosomes. Micronucleated cells were also observed at the interphase. The results ofAllium cepaassay confirmed that the methanol extracts ofP. longifoliaexerted no significant genotoxic or mitodepressive effects at 100 μg/mL. Thus, this study demonstrated thatP. longifolialeaf extract has a beneficial effect against oxidative DNA damage. This experiment is the first report for the protective effect ofP. longifoliaon DNA damage-induced by hydroxyl radicals. Additionally in acute oral toxicity study, female rats were treated at 5000 mg/kg body weight ofP. longifolialeaf extract and observed for signs of toxicity for 14 days.P. longifolialeaf extract did not produce any treatment-related toxic effects in rats.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of lantadene A against acetaminophen-induced liver toxicity in mice was studied. Activity was measured by monitoring the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and bilirubin, along with histo-pathological analysis. Silymarin was used as positive control. A bimodal pattern of behavioural toxicity was exhibited by the lantadene A-treated group at the beginning of the treatment. However, treatment with lantadene A and silymarin resulted in an increase in the liver weight compared with the acetaminophen treated group. The results of the acetaminophen-induced liver toxicity experiments showed that mice treated with lantadene A (500 mg/kg) showed a significant decrease in the activity of ALT, AST and ALP and the level of bilirubin, which were all elevated in the acetaminophen treated group (p < 0.05). Histological studies supported the biochemical findings and a maximum improvement in the histoarchitecture was seen. The lantadene A-treated group showed remarkable protective effects against histopathological alterations, with comparable results to the silymarin treated group. The current study confirmed the hepatoprotective effects of lantadene A against the model hepatotoxicant acetaminophen, which is likely related to its potent antioxidative activity.

Natural Pro-oxidants: an Alternative Remedy to Explore as Novel Cancer Therapeutic Agents

In the article titled “Evaluation of the Genotoxic Potential against H₂O₂-Radical-Mediated DNA Damage and Acute Oral Toxicity of Standardized Extract of Polyalthia longifolia Leaf ” [1], the incorrect representative image for Figure 3(e1) sample was included as noted on PubPeer [2]. The published Figure 3(e1) depicted the histological details of the untreated control rat heart organ. No pathologies were recorded in the histological sections of the heart of the untreated control rat group. Due to an error that occurred inadvertently at the time of figure assembly by the first author, the incorrect representative image for Figure 3(e1) was included. In the current figure, Figure 3(e1) belongs to Figure 3(e2) panel heart images of P. longifolia leaf extract-treated rats group. With the agreement of the handling editor, the corrected version of Figure 3(e1) is provided below. The authors confirm that this error did not change the scientific conclusions of the published article and apologize for this human error.