Enhanced production of pinosylvin stilbene with aging of Pinus strobus callus and nematicidal activity of callus extracts against pinewood nematodes

Pinosylvin stilbenes are phenolic compounds mainly occurring in the Pinaceae family. We previously reported that the accumulation of two pinosylvin stilbene compounds, dihydropinosylvin methyl ether (DPME) and pinosylvin monomethyl ether (PME), in Pinus strobus trees was highly enhanced by infection with pine wood nematodes (PWNs: Bursaphelenchus xylophilus), and these two compounds showed strong nematicidal activity against PWNs. In this work, we established a system of pinosylvin stilbene (DPME and PME) production via the in vitro culture of P. strobus calli, and we examined the nematicidal activity of callus extracts. Calli were induced from the culture of mature zygotic embryos of P. strobus. Optimized growth of calli was obtained in 1/2 Litvay medium with 1.0 mg/L 2,4-D and 0.5 mg/L BA. DPME and PME accumulation did not occur in nonaged (one-month-old) calli but increased greatly with prolonged callus culture. The concentrations of DPME and PME in three-month-old dark-brown calli were 6.4 mg/g DW and 0.28 mg/g DW, respectively. The effect of methyl jasmonate treatment on the accumulation of DPME and PME was evaluated in cell suspension culture of P. strobus. However, the treatment appeared to show slight increase of DPME accumulation compared to callus browning. A test solution prepared from crude ethanol extracts from aged calli (three months old) containing 120 µg/ml DPME and 5.16 µg/ml PME treated with PWNs resulted in 100% immobilization of the adult PWNs and 66.7% immobilization of the juvenile PWNs within 24 h. However, nonaged callus extracts did not show any nematicidal activity against juvenile PWNs and showed less than 20% nematicidal activity against adult PWNs. These results indicate that pinosylvin stilbenes can be effectively produced by prolonged culture of P. strobus calli, can be isolated using simple ethanolic extraction, and are applicable as beneficial eco-friendly compounds with nematicidal activity against PWNs.

Antioxidant and antifungal activities in vitro of essential oils and extracts of twelve Algerian species of Thymus against some mycotoxigenic Aspergillus genera

The aim of the study was to determine the phenolic and flavonoid content of essential oils (EOs), chloroform and ethanolic extracts of 12 Algerian Thymus species and evaluate their antioxidant and antifungal activities. EOs (1.73 ± 0.30–15.00 ± 1.24 μg/mg), chloroform extracts (33.8 ± 2.42–160.93 ± 3.88 μg/mg) and ethanol extracts (27.01 ± 3.56 –148.46 ± 4.40 μg/mg) showed considerable phenolic content. Flavonoids values of chloroform extracts ranged between 3.39± 0.17 and 20.27 ± 0.29 μg/ml while ethanolic extracts values ranged between 2.81 ± 0.11 and 26.64 ± 0.18 μg/mg. Results of DPPH showed that EOs, chloroform and ethanolic extracts exhibited strong radical scavenging activity (IC50 = 21.75 ± 6.54–338.22 ± 2.99 μg/ml, 22.91 ± 5.59–90.93 ± 1.36 μg/ml, and 33.51 ± 5.72–103.80 ± 4.54 μg/ml, respectively). Inhibition of β-carotene bleaching was potentially performed by all EOs (66.48 ± 2.41–94.06 ± 2.68 %), chloroform extracts (68.98± 1.58–95.30± 1.99%), and ethanolic extracts (62.15 ± 2.51–92.36± 1.15%). The antifungal activity of EOs and extracts was tested using the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC). The EOs (0.1 ± 0.00 mg/ mL – 1.06 ± 0.46 mg/mL), chloroform (0.1 ± 0.00 mg/ mL –1.06 ± 0.46 mg/mL) and ethanol (0.1 ± 0.00 mg /mL–1.6 ± 0.00 mg/mL) showed remarkable antifungal activity against mycotoxigenic Aspergillus genera. The MFC of EOs (1.0 ± 0.34 mg/mL and > 4.8 mg/mL) , chloroform (0.26 ± 0.11 mg/mL and > 1.6 mg/mL) and ethanol (0.2 ± 0.00 mg/mL and > 1.6 mg/mL) were fungicidal in nature higher than MICs. The findings of the study indicated that Thymus spp. EOs and extracts could be used as natural alternatives for food industry.

Perbandingan Aktivitas Antimikroba Ekstrak Etanol dari Tiga Spesies Ganoderma Asal Pulau Lombok

The use of antibiotics is one of the most important ways to deal with the spread and treatment of pathogenic microbial infections. The search for new antibiotic sources continues to be carried out to anticipate the emergence of microbial resistance. One of the natural resources that has the potential as an antimicrobial source is a member of the macrofungi of the Genus Ganoderma. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial performance of the ethanol extracts of Ganoderma lucidum, G. applanatum dan Ganorderma sp. against fungi (Candida albicans dan Cryptococcus neoformans), gram positive bacteria (Bacillus cereus dan Staphylococcus aureus) and gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli dan Shigella sp.). Macrofungi samples were taken from the forest area of Nature Tourism Park (TWA) Gunung Tunak, TWA Kerandangan, TWA Suranadi, TWA Nuraksa Sesaot, TWA Lemor and Pusuk forest. The stages of the method performed are sample collection, sample preparation, extraction, and testing of antimicrobial activity using the well difusion method. The ethanol extract concentrations for testing were 20%, 40%, 60% and 80%. The results showed that the three Ganoderma species had anti-fungal and antibacterial activity and that different levels of concentration had an effect on inhibition. The size of the inhibition zone is directly proportional to the higher the extract concentration. The antimicrobial activity of the ethanol extract of G. lucidum was higher when compared to G. applanatum and Ganoderma sp. both against fungi (Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans) as well as against gram-positive and gram-negative test bacteria. In addition, G. applanatum showed very weak inhibition against both groups of tested bacteria. Key words: candidiasis; cryptococcosis; comorbid infections; macerations; pathogens

Dietary incorporation of Sweet Potato Ipomoea batatas shoots improved growth performance and haematological profile of Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus in Hapa Nets

This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of sweet potato Ipomoea bata-tas powder (IbSPP), hot-water extracts (IbSPHWE) and crude ethanolic extracts (IbSPCEE) as growth pro-moter and immunoenhancer for tilapia cultured in hapa nets. Fish were divided ran-domly into four Treatments: T1 (control group) was fed a practical diet (PD) while T2, T3 and T4 were fed PD + IbSP powder (P), PD + IbSP hot-water extract (HWE), PD + IbSP Crude Ethanol Extracts (CCE), respective-ly. The growth indices and haematological profile of cultured fish were recorded after four months of feeding experiment. The final weight, weight gain, specific growth rate, condition factor, FCR, PER, FER were significantly higher in fishes that re-ceived PD +IbSPHWE than those that received either PD, PD + IbSPCEE or PD+ IbSPP only. The same trend was observed with the RBC, Hb, HCT, WBC and the PLT and its indices. The study has demonstrated that in-corporation of the hot-water extracts of I. batatas could improve the growth perfor-mance and increase immu-nocompetence of O. nilot-icus as evidenced by im-proved haematological pro-file.

on Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Latreille, 1806) (Acari: Ixodidae)

A study was undertaken on the ovicidal and larval repellent activity of Tagetes erecta leaf and flower extracts on Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Latreille, 1806), an important tick species in the world from an economic and medical point of view. Ethanol and methanol extracted plant products tested against the eggs and larvae of R. sanguineus indicated that the ethanol extract of flower had maximum ovicidal activity (86.1%), followed by the ethanol extract of leaf (75%) at 25 mg ml-1 concentration. In all analyses, the homogeneity of variance was significant. The probit analysis clearly indicated that the ethanol extract of the flower has a higher ability to kill the eggs. In the case of larval repellency tested, both extracts of leaf showed the highest repellency (83%) at 2.5 mg ml-1. Significant tick repellency (> 90%) was found in both methanol and ethanol extracts of flower at 2.5 mg ml-1. GC-MS analysis of extracts revealed the presence of bioactive insecticidal compounds such as yangambin, cyclohexane and neophytadine.