The present study aimed to investigate the inhibitory activities of enzymes related to diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer's disease of the methanol and water extracts of Ficus carica leaf extracts. The bioactive compounds and anticancer, antioxidant, and antimicrobial effects of the extracts were also investigated. The bioactive compounds in the extracts were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6 sulphonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging, total phenol and flavonoid content, ferric reducing power, and iron chelating method. The anticancer, anticholinesterase, and antimicrobial effects were investigated using the XTT assay, Ellman method, and microdilution, respectively. Our results showed that between the water and methanol extracts there was a difference in terms of chemical composition. The antioxidant results suggested that both extracts have strong antioxidant activity. Similarly, both extracts showed strong α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibition activity, while the water extract had higher inhibition activity than the methanol extract against acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase. The methanol extract of F. carica exhibited significant anticancer activity on MDA-MB-231 cells and showed moderate antimicrobial activities against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Our results suggest that F. carica leaves could be a valuable source for developing a promising therapeutic agent in cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease.
With this study, the effect of different nitrogen (N) doses applied to sweet herb (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 N kg ha−1) on the macro/micro nutrient element content, dry matter ratio and on the chlorophyll amount in the plant leaves is examined. The research was carried out in the research and trial field of Faculty of Agriculture Agronomy department, Akdeniz University, during the 2012–2013 growing season under field conditions for 2 years with four replications according to the randomized block trial design. Chlorophyll amounts were determined and the average was obtained with three readings from each leaf by a chlorophyll meter when the plants were in the beginning of flowering. Post-harvest macro and micro nutrient elements of the sweet herb were also investigated. According to the obtained data, while the highest chlorophyll and N amounts in the leaf for both the first and second years were determined as 46.97 SPAD (Minolta Corp, NJ, USA) and 1.34 N% 44.9 SPAD, 1.42 N%, respectively, under 200 kg ha−1 N application, the lowest chlorophyll and N amounts were determined in the control group. In addition, N application in different doses for both years increased the phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) contents and increased the microelement contents, especially in the second year. At the same time, a correlation between the chlorophyll content in the plant leaves and the N amount was determined and a linear increase was observed in the chlorophyll amount with the increased green part.
10 February 2018 in Cellular and Molecular Biology
In this study, the efficiency of the different nitrogen doses (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 kg ha-1) on biological activity levels (antioxidant and antimicrobial activity) of Stevia rebaudiana Bert. was investigated. In addition, methanol extracts were obtained by maceration method from different doses of fertilizer applied stevia. The components in methanol extracts of plants were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. Antimicrobial activities of stevia extracts were investigated by microdilution method. The antioxidant activity evaluated by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, ferric thiocyanate (FTC), thiobarbituric acid (TBA), reducing power, total phenol content (TPC), and total flavonoid content (TFC) methods. According to the results, the fertilizer doses effects on antimicrobial activity of stevia were not made much difference. But in antioxidant activity, there were some variations in the activity-dependent on fertilizer amount.
23 February 2024 in Inorganic Chemistry Communications