Evaluation of Anti-Ulcer activity of Tephrosia purpurea Linn Pers Leaf Extract in Wistar Rats

India is known for its traditional medicinal system – Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani. There are several references in our ancient literature about the miraculous curing properties of the plant-based drugs. “Rig Veda and Atharva veda” seems to be the earliest record of use of plant in the medicine. A stomach ulcer involves an erosion in a person’s gastrointestinal tract. ‘Peptic’ is derived from Greek word “Peptikos” who’s meaning is related to digestion. Peptic ulcer occurs in the part of the gastrointestinal track which is exposed to gastric acid and pepsin (i.e) the stomach and duodenum. The extract of Tephrosia purpurea flowers against viruses and is very good antibacterial against Gram +ve and Gram -ve strain. The Plant extract was prepared and the phytochemical analysis was performed. The extract was administered with animals. The drug were administered orally once daily for 2 days and 45 min prior to pyloric ligation. The animals are sacrificed after four hours of pylorus ligation. The result indicates that, Flavonoids and Tannins have shown to be present in the TPAL treated groups. Since flavanoids antagonize aggressive factor which play a decisive role in the pathogenesis of gastric lesion and also enhance defence factor to protect the gastric mucosa from injury. Flavanoids diminish histamine secretion from mast cell by inhibition of histidine decarboxylase and stimulate PG biosynthesis. So the antiulcer activity of TPAL may be attributed to its flavonoid content. The study concluded that TPAL has an anti ulcer activity which may be due to protection and the strengthening of the mucosal defensive factor like mucus, bicarbonate, prostaglandin.

Therapeutic study of Tephrosia purpurea (linn.) root extract on goat tapeworm with special reference to histopathological parameters

Goat farming forms the backbone of the Indian livestock sector. The prevalence of helminth infection is one of the major problems which affects the milk and meat production of small ruminants. It causes diarrhea, anaemia, oedema, bottle jaw and reduce reproductive performance of animals. Anthelmintic resistance and drug residues in animal products like milk and meat are the results of indiscriminate use of anthelminthics by goat owners for helminth control. Herbal anthelminthics are effective alternatives without any harmful effects. The paper presents the anthelminthic potential of the root extract of Tephrosia purpurea (linn.) plant on common tapeworm of goat, Moniezia. The in vitro study showed that the anticestodal activity of T. purpurea (linn.) at 125mg/ml dilution was comparable to that of albendazole. The histopathological study revealed very prominent shrinkage of scolex and suckers, tegument showed puff formation and was ruptured at the marginal position with irregular folds and crumbling of the segments. Longitudinal section of segment showed more marginal serrations indicating crumbling of the body segment as compared to albendazole, leading to the death of the worm.

Occurrence of a 16SrII-V Subgroup Phytoplasma Associated with Witches’-Broom Disease in Melochia corchorifolia in China

Melochia corchorifolia L. is a plant belonging to the family Sterculiaceae, extracts from this plant have been reported to inhibit melanogenesis (Yuan et al., 2020). During September to November 2020, the plants showing abnormal symptoms including witches’-broom, leaf chlorosis, leaflet and internode shortening (Fig.1), were found in Dingan county of Hainan province, China, with about 50% infection rates in the field. The disease symptoms were suspected to be caused by the phytoplasma, a plant pathogenic prokaryotes that could not be cultured in vitro. Aiming to confirm the pathogen causing the symptoms, total DNA of the symptomatic or asymptomatic Melochia corchorifolia samples were extracted by CTAB method (Doyle and Doyle, 1990) using 0.10 g fresh plant leaves using the rapid extraction kit for plant genomic DNA (CTAB Plant Genome DNA Rapid Extraction Kit, Aidlab Biotechnologies Co., Ltd, Beijing, China). PCR reactions were performed using primers R16mF2/R16mR1 (Gundersen and Lee, 1996) specific for phytoplasma 16S rRNA gene fragments. PCR products of phytoplasma 16S rRNA gene sequences were obtained from the ten symptomatic plant samples but not from the DNA of the asymptomatic plant samples. The PCR products were cloned and sequenced by Biotechnology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China) and the data were deposited in GenBank. The sequences of 16S rRNA gene fragments amplified from the DNA extracted from the disease plant samples were all identical, with a length of 1336 bp for the 16S rRNA (GenBank accession: MZ353520). Nucleotide Blast search based on the 16S rRNA gene fragment of the phytoplasma strain showed 100% sequence identities with that of 16SrII peanut witches’-broom group members, such as Cassava witches’-broom phytoplasma (KM280679), Cleome sp. phytoplasma (KM280677), Tephrosia purpurea witches’-broom phytoplasma (MW616560), Desmodium triflorum little leaf phytoplasma (MT452308) and Peanut witches’-broom phytoplasma (JX403944). Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of McWB-hnda strain by interactive online phytoplasma classification tool iPhyClassifier (Zhao et al., 2009) indicated that the phytoplasma strain is a member of 16SrII-V subgroup. The phytoplasma strain was named as Melochia corchorifolia witches’-broom (McWB) phytoplasma, McWB-hnda strain. Phylogenetic analysis performed by MEGA 7.0 employing neighbor-joining (NJ) method with 1000 bootstrap value (Kumar et al., 2016) indicated that the McWB-hnda phytoplasma strain was clustered into one clade with the phytoplasma strains of Tephrosia purpurea witches’-broom, Cleome sp., Peanut witches’-broom, Cassava witches’-broom and Desmodium triflorum little leaf with 97 % bootstrap value (Fig.2); McWB-hnda phytoplasma strain identified in the study and Melochia corchorifolia phyllody phytoplasma strain (KX150461) belonging to 16SrI-B subgroup previously identified in the Hainan Island of China by Chen et al. (2017) are in two independent clades(Fig.2). To our knowledge, this is the first report of a 16SrII-V subgroup phytoplasma associated with Melochia corchorifolia witches’-broom disease in Hainan Province, a tropical island of China. The phytoplasma strain identified in the study was relatively close to 16SrII peanut witches’-broom group phytoplasma strains associated with witches’-broom or little leaf diseases in the plants like Peanut, Tephrosia purpurea, Cassava and Desmodium triflorum. Our finding in the study indicated that Melochia corchorifolia may act as an alternative natural host not only for 16SrI-B subgroup phytoplasma but also for 16SrII-V subgroup phytoplasma, which would contribute to the spreading of the related phytoplasma diseases.

New Flavonoids from Saudi collection of Tephrosia purpurea L. (Pers.)

Phytochemical investigation of the chloroform fraction obtained from Saudi collection of Tephrosia purpurea L. (Pers.) resulted in the isolation of four new and two known flavonoid derivatives. Three of the new compounds were 5-deoxyflavonoid derivatives identified as tephropurpugazanin (1), 4’’-hydroxyapollinin (4), epi-tephroapollin E (5) as well as (-)-tephropurpulin A (2). The known compounds were identified as 3,7-dihydroxy-8-methoxy-2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (3) and tephroapollin E (6). Structures were elucidated utilizing different spectroscopic tools including UV, optical rotation, 1D- and 2D-NMR as well as HRESIMS.

Tephrosia purpurea Represents a New Host of 16SrII-V Subgroup Phytoplasma Associated with Witches’-Broom Disease in China

Tephrosia purpurea is a medical plant with excellent insecticidal activity belonging to the family of Leguminosae distributed throughout southern of China (Pei et al., 2013). During January to February 2021, the plants showing abnormal symptoms including witches’-broom, internode shortening, leaf chlorosis and leaflet formation, as shown in Fig.1, were found in Ledong County of Hainan Province, a tropical island in China, with about 60 % incidence. The Tephrosia purpurea disease symptoms were suspected to be induced by phytoplasma, a phloem-limited prokaryotic pathogen which can not be cultured in vitro and which causes severe financial loss and ecological damage to the island. Total DNA from the symptomatic and asymptomatic samples of Tephrosia purpurea were extracted using 0.10 g fresh plant leaves and branches by CTAB method (Doyle and Doyle, 1990). 16S rRNA and secA gene sequence fragments of phytoplasma were detected through PCR amplification using primers R16mF2/R16mR1 (Gundersen and Lee, 1996) and secAfor1/secArev3 (Hodgetts et al., 2008). The two gene sequence fragments of phytoplasma were obtained from the DNA of six symptomatic plant samples whereas not from the DNA of six asymptomatic plant samples. These amplified products were sequenced and the data were deposited in GenBank. The two gene sequence fragments of the DNA obtained from the diseased plant samples were all identical, with a length of 1335 bp for the 16S rRNA (GenBank accession: MW616560) and 729 bp for the secA gene (MW603929). The secA gene fragment putatively encodes for 242 amino acids. The phytoplasma strain was named as Tephrosia purpurea witches’-broom (TpWB) phytoplasma, TpWB-hnld strain. 16S rRNA gene sequence fragment of TpWB-hnld was analyzed by online tool iPhyClassifier (Wei et al., 2007), indicating that the pathogen strain was a member of subgroup 16SrII-V and a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia’-related strain. Blast analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence fragment of TpWB-hnld showed 100 % sequence identity with that of peanut witches’-broom group members (16SrII group), such as Cassava witches'-broom phytoplasma (KM280679) and Cleome sp. phytoplasma (KM280677); Blast analysis based on the secA gene sequence fragment of TpWB-hnld showed 100 % sequence identity with that of peanut witches’-broom group members (16SrII group), such as sesame phyllody phytoplasma (JN977044). Homology and phylogeny were analyzed using the software of DNAMAN 5.0 and MEGA 7.0, indicating that TpWB-hnld and other subgroup 16SrII-V phytoplasma strains, including Cassava witches'-broom phytoplasma, Cleome sp. phytoplasma, Crotalaria witches'-broom phytoplasma (EU650181) and Desmodium ovalifolium witches'-broom phytoplasma (GU113152), were clustered into one clade with 98 % bootstrap value based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence fragments; TpWB-hnld and sesame phyllody phytoplasma were clustered into one clade based on the secA gene sequence fragments. Multiple alignment based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence fragment showed that the TpWB-hnld phytoplasma strain showed 98 % sequence identity with TpWB phytoplasma strain (HG792252) belonging to 16SrII-M subgroup reported in India (Yadav et al., 2014). To our knowledge, this was the first time that 16SrII-V subgroup phytoplasma associated with Tephrosia purpurea witches’-broom disease was identified in China. Molecular analysis based on the 16S rRNA and secA gene sequence fragments indicated that TpWB-hnld phytoplasma was a member of subgroup 16SrII-V and a ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia’-related strain.

In vitro Studies on Antimicrobial Sensitivity of Staphylococcus aureus from Prosopis juliflora, Cassia occidentalis and Tephrosia purpurea

Background: The resistance of Staphylococcus aureus to commonly used antibiotics is linked to their ability to acquire and disseminate antimicrobial-resistant determinants in nature. This study determined the antibiotic sensitivity profile of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from milk samples of mastitic and healthy dairy cattle. Isolation and Identification of S. aureus was done by Marphological and Biochemical characters. Methods: The primary purpose of this study was to determine Antibiotic Sensitivity of Staphylococcus aureus by using extracts of Prosopis juliflora, Cassia occidentalis and Tephrosia purpurea. Antimicrobial properties of plant extracts were analyzed by determining Zone of Inhibition (ZOI) and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). Antibiogram pattern of the isolated Staphylococcus aureus was observed to be Susceptible, Intermediate and Slight resistant by Prosopis juliflora, Tephrosia purpurea and Cassia occidentalis respectively. Result: From the results, it has been indicated that the extracts of Tephrosia purpurea, Prosopis juliflora and Cassia occidentalis are having potential to use in the management of Staphylococcus aureus. Conclusion: Further phytochemical analysis is required to identify the active components of plant extracts showing antimicrobial activity.