Ticks pose significant challenges to public and veterinary health, acting as vectors of several diseases that affect animals and humans. Traditional chemical control methods, such as pyrethroids and organophosphates, have led to increasing resistance and environmental contamination, highlighting the need and urgency for alternative strategies. This review explores contemporary approaches to tick control, emphasizing plant-derived acaricides and their integration with nanotechnology. Plant extracts, known for their acaricidal properties, disrupt several biological processes in ticks, reducing reproduction and survival rates. The advent of nanotechnology offers promising advances in increasing the efficacy of these natural extracts. Nanoparticles add properties to the systems where they act by improving the stability, bioavailability, and targeted delivery of plant-derived compounds, potentially overcoming the limitations of traditional acaricides. This synthesis of current knowledge highlights the potential of combining plant extracts with nanotechnology to develop sustainable and effective tick control solutions, addressing issues of acaricide resistance as well as environmental concerns. The review also identifies research gaps and suggests directions for future studies to optimize the application of nanotechnology in tick management.

The Rhipicephalus microplus tick causes enormous economic losses in livestock farming around the world. Despite several promising studies carried out with plant extracts such as Achyrocline satureioides against this ectoparasite, a major obstacle is related to pharmaceutical presentation forms. There is no study showing xantan gum-based hydrogel and polycaprolactone nanoparticles containing A. satureioides extract against R. microplus larvae. The objective of this study was to incorporate A. satureioides extract to develop a nanoformulation (AScn) and a hydrogel (ASlh) and evaluate them against R. microplus larvae with the purpose of increasing the contact time of the extract with the larvae and improve the effectiveness. The ethanolic extracts were incorporated in polycaprolactone nanoparticles and characterized via analysis of the mean hydrodinamic diameter and polidispersity index. The xanthan gum-based hydrogel formulation was prepared with crude extract of A. satureioides 40 mg/mL, 0.25% xanthan gum, and 8% poloxamer, to determine the bioadhesiveness of the formulation in bovine leather and the flow rate of the formulation in the animal. The results in larvae demonstrated that when evaluated in the form of a hydrogel (ASlh), mortality was higher, with 91.48% mortality at a concentration of 20 mg/mL presenting itself as an interesting alternative for controlling this ectoparasite.

INTRODUÇÃO: No Brasil, a produção de café levou a uma segmentação da indústria, que passou a selecionar os grãos e classificá-los em diferentes tipos de bebida e defeitos. Para exportação, os grãos devem ter poucos defeitos e atender aos padrões de qualidade dos países importadores. No entanto, no mercado nacional, há um grande volume de cafés de grãos defeituosos que ainda são comercializáveis. Alguns desses grãos podem interferir no sabor do café e são utilizados para a produção de produtos secundários, como o óleo de café verde, obtido a partir de grãos de café arábica (Coffea arabica L.) por prensagem mecânica. Devido à grande quantidade de resíduos gerados na indústria do café, novas aplicações para seus subprodutos têm sido desenvolvidas, como a utilização do óleo de café na indústria alimentícia e de cosméticos. OBJETIVOS: Caracterizar o óleo do café verde (C. arabica L.) obtido na cidade de Guaxupé-MG em relação à sua qualidade físico-química. METODOLOGIA: O óleo de café foi caracterizado quanto à composição de ácidos graxos livres, índice de acidez, índice de peróxido e índice de iodo seguindo os normas e protocolos AOCS. RESULTADOS: A amostra apresentou 2,244 de índice de acidez, 163,428 de saponificação, 62,941 de peróxido e 1,644% de ácidos graxos livres (Ácido oleico). CONCLUSÃO: O óleo analisado está dentro da legislação vigente de qualidade de óleos e gorduras vegetais da ANVISA nos índices de acidez e saponificação. Entretanto, demonstrou altos índices de peróxido, derivados da oxidação lipídica, sendo insatisfatório ao consumo humano. Portanto, pode ser apenas usado para aplicações não alimentícias.

Fungal infections, including skin ones, due to resistant strains combined with the gap in discovering new antifungal compounds have presented great medical importance; thus, we evaluated the antifungal properties of Plinia cauliflora, a Brazilian plant known as jabuticabeira, as its fruits have been used in traditional medicine, which has been scientifically proved. The differential in this study was the use of leaves to obtain the ethanolic extract and its fractions and with incorporation in microemulsions that can increase the activity, promoting greater availability of active components in therapeutic targets. Candida glabrata has been very prominent in nosocomial infections and our results were very promising, showing a minimum inhibitory concentration of 4.88 μg/mL for the extract and about a 4-fold decrease with its microemulsion reaching 1.22 μg/mL; for the dermatophytic fungus Trichophyton rubrum, this decreased 2-fold, from 156.25 μg/mL to 78.12 μg/mL. The antioxidant activity was also studied, showing the best results for the extract at 25.6 μg/mL and lastly, the samples were not toxic when the Galleria mellonella model was used. Thus, the results demonstrate the activity of the extract, and that the incorporation was able to increase the antifungal activity in a safe, non-toxic manner, making it possible to provide a therapeutic option for these fluconazole-resistant microorganisms.