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In the present study, we assessed the antioxidant and antileishmanial potential from fresh leaves of Ballota (B.) hirsuta essential oil (EO). The GC-MS analysis of B. hirsuta EO revealed that spathulenol and germacrene D were the main components accounting for 26.03% and 19.64% of the total EO, respectively. B. hirsuta EO possesses moderate antioxidant activity, both in neutralizing DPPH radicals and in inhibiting β-carotene bleaching. In addition, it exhibits both high antileishmanial activity and selectivity towards the promastigote and amastigote forms. Specifically, B. hirsuta EO showed an IC 50 value of 20.78 µg/mL and 23.62 µg/mL, against the promastigote and amastigote forms of L. infantum, respectively. It also demonstrated an IC 50 value of 22.39 and 25.76 µg/mL, against the promastigote and amastigote forms of L. major, respectively. However, it exhibited moderate cytotoxicity, with a selectivity index below 10. The investigation of the molecular mechanism of action revealed that B. hirsuta EO inhibited only the sterol pathway, including CYP51 gene expression. Additionally, in silico analysis indicated that the main compounds of B. hirsuta EO, germacrene and spathulenol, exhibited excellent affinity energy against Leishmania enzymes trypanothione reductase (TryR) and trypanothione synthase (TryS). This denotes the potential of these compounds as promising agents to control leishmaniasis., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

A new sustainable filamentous fungi-based process is reported to synthesize mycelium/bayberry tannin (BT) hybrid materials. The hybrid materials are produced with fungi growing in solution, where the cell wall interacted with BT by hydrogen-bond from the phenolic hydroxyl and amino in protein. In the adsorption experiment, This hybrid biologic material show excellent performances for strontium ions adsorption and experimental data obey a pseudo second-order model of the chemical adsorption process. This study reported a new method for the producing of bio-based materials, which had the potential applications in waste water treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]