Acetone Extract of <i>Dioscorea alata</i>Inhibits Cell Proliferation in Cancer Cells

Dioscorea spp., White Yam has been shown to exhibit a wide range of nutritional and medicinal properties. However, the compounds associated with its medicinal functions have not been fully examined. The purpose of this study was to generate a chemoinformatic profile of the bioactive compounds present in Dioscorea. alata (D. alata) and to characterize their putative anti-cancer properties using prostate (DU145) and lung (A549) cancer cells. Chemoinformatic profiling of D. alata resulted in five bioactive extracts: hexane (DaJa-1), ether (DaJa-2), acetone (DaJa-3), ethanol (DaJa-4) and water (DaJa-5) were generated. The analytes present in the five bioactive extracts were dissolved in 0.1% DMSO and their anti-cancer activity were determined. We observed that the acetone extract (DaJa3) was the only extract capable of inducing greater than 90% cell death of DU 145 cell at 100 μg/mL. The order of growth inhibition of the extracts in DU-145 cell is DaJa-3 (IC50, 31.45 μg/mL) > DaJa-4 (IC50 60 μg/mL) > DaJa-1 (IC50 > 100 μg/mL) ≥ DaJa-2 (IC50 > 100 μg/mL) ≥ DaJa-5 (IC50 > 100 μg/mL). MTT cell viability, dye exclusion, caspase activity and microscopic assessment of apoptotic cells demonstrated that DaJa-3 displayed cytotoxicity to both lung and prostate cancer cells. The A549 cells were more sensitive toward DaJa-3 with an IC50 value of 22.28 μg/mL (CI 28.42 to 36.63 μg/mL), compared to that of DU145 cells with an IC50 value of 31.45 μg/mL (CI 27.58 to 35.86 μg/mL). It was also observed that DaJa-3 induces differential anti-proliferative activity in the cancer cells. The apoptotic response induced by DaJa-3 paralleled the level of cell cytotoxicity observed in both cell lines. DaJa-3 induces G2 phase cell cycle arrest in DU145 cells but G1 arrest in A549 cells. The level of key apoptotic regulator proteins was upregulated, suggested that DaJa-3 may be mediating its anti-cancer effect through activation of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Altogether, our data indicates that DaJa-3 derived from a staple food source (white Yam) contains unique active compounds that have specific biological properties that may prevent certain types of cancer or specific types of cancer.

Studies on Acaricidal Bioactivities of Artemisia annua L.Extracts Against Tetranychus cinnabarinus Bois.(Acari:Tetranychidae)

The aim of this study was to determine the best extraction technique, the most suitable solvent, the optimal plant parts, and the acaricidal activities of Artemisia annua L. The petroleum ether （30-60℃）, petroleum ether （60-90℃）, ethanol, acetone, and water parallel and sequenced extracts were obtained from the leaves, stems and roots of different period of A. annua L. in April, May, June, July and September respectively. And then the acaricidal bioactivities against Tetranychus cinnabarinus of all extracts were determined by the slide-capillary method in the laboratory. The results indicated that the acaricidal bioactivities elevated as the development of A. annua plant at the concentration of 5 mg mL-L The general tendency exhibited the sequence of July 〉 June 〉 May 〉 April, but September decreased comparing to July. However, the most effective extracts in five months were all acetone parallel extract of A. annua leaf, and the corrected mortalities treated after 48 h ranged from 74 to 100%. The median lethal concentrations （LC50） against T. cinnabarinus of acetone parallel extracts ofA. annua leaves in September, July, June, May and April were 0.5986, 0.4341, 0.8376, 0.9443 and 1.3817 mg mL^-1, respectively, treated after 48 h. The 13 groups were isolated from acetone extracts ofA. annua leaves in July by column chromatography, both the 1 lth and 12th groups exhibited strong bioactivities. The median lethal concentrations of the 1 lth and 12th groups against T. cinnabarinus were 0.3683 and 0.1586 mg mL^-1, respectively. The acetone parallel extract ofA. annua leaf in July was the most toxic to T. cinnabarinus and the corrected mortality was 100% after 48 h. The acetone parallel extract of the 1 lth and 12th groupswere the most active components, acted as the emphases in further study.

Antimicrobial properties of marine seaweed,Sargassum muticum against human pathogens

Objective:To evaluate the antibacterial efficiency of the seaweed,Sargassum muticum(S.muticum)collected from Pudumadam,Ramanathapuram,Tamil Nadu,India.Methods:Crude solvent extracts of S.muticum were obtained by using Soxhlet extraction and the solvents like acetone,methanol and chloroform.These different extracts were tested against different human bacterial pathogens such as Micrococcus sp.,Staphylococcus aureus(methicillin resistance),Salmonella paratyphi B,Staphylococcus epidermis(3615),Enterobacter aerogenus(111),Klebsiella pneumonia(109),Shigella fleschneri(1457)(S.fleschneri),Proteus vulgaris(1771),Staphylococcus aureus(96)and Salmonella typhymurium(SP7)which were obtained from Microbial Type Culture Collection,Indian Institute of Microbial Technology,Chandigarh,India.Results:The results revealed that acetone extract had unveiled the maximum of 11 mm zone of inhibition at 40μL against S.fleschneri.Similar zone of inhibition(11 mm)was also observed at 50μL against Micrococcus sp.and S.fleschneri.Followed by acetone extract,chloroform extract also contributed 11 mm zone of inhibition against S.fleschneri and Salmonella paratyphi B at 40 and 50μL respectively.Besides,methanol extracts revealed meager antibacterial activity(9 mm).Conclusions:The present investigation suggests that the phytochemical constituent of the S.muticum might be suitable agents for the control of human deadly diseases.