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Diabetes is a chronic condition which is locally managed through the stem of Ficus foveolata. To find the exact chemical constituent responsible for this activity, a triterpene lactone (ficusonolide) isolated from F. foveolata was studied for antidiabetic potential through the in vitro antidiabetic paradigm employing L-6 cells and an in vivo antidiabetic assay against non-insulin-dependent rats. The results on glucose uptake in the L-6 cell line indicated that ficusonolide has enhanced the uptake of glucose by 53.27% over control at a dose of 100 μg/mL, while at doses of 50 and 25 μg/mL, the glucose uptake was enhanced by 22.42 and 14.34%, respectively. The extract of F. foveolata (100 mg/kg) and ficusonolide (50 mg/kg) demonstrated a significant (p < 0.001) decline in streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemia of diabetic rats. Ficusonolide displayed conspicuous inhibitory activity against the molecular docking studies with proteins such as dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV), protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP-1B), α-glucosidase, and α-amylase subjected to molecular targets. Detailed computational and structural insights affirmed promising interactions between target proteins and ficusonolide. In conclusion, the plant and its isolated compound have significant antidiabetic activity with a possible mechanism of interaction with DPP-IV, PTP-1B, α-glucosidase, and α-amylase.

Salt hydrates (MgSO4 and ZnSO4) impregnated in zeolites, offer a variety of improvements, mostly providing a large surface area for salt hydrates and water molecules. A composite of 5 and 10% of salt contents were prepared as heat storage materials. The study’s finding showed that dehydration enthalpy of MgSO4 (1817 J g−1) and ZnSO4 (1586 J g−1) were 10 and 15% improved than pure salt hydrates by making composites. During the hydration process of composites, the water sorption is 30–37% improved and further the increasing of salt contents in composites enhances more 10% increase in the water resorption. The cyclicability of MgSO4/zeolite and ZnSO4/zeolite were 45 and 51% improved than their corresponding pure salt hydrates. The effect of humidity on the water sorption result reveals that composites of MgSO4/zeolite and ZnSO4/zeolite at 75% relative humidity (RH), the mass of water are 51 and 40% increase than 55% RH.

Genus Maytenus (Celastraceae) has proved to be a good source of new bioactive sesquiterpene pyridine alkaloids. Maytenus royleanus is a medicinal plant used in folk medicine for different ailments in a variety of ways around the world. Investigation of the roots of M. royleanus resulted in the isolation of an undescribed antitumor sesquiterpene pyridine alkaloid: Royleanine A (1). Its structure was established by analysis of spectroscopic data and comparison with reported data. Royleanine A (1) was evaluated for its antitumor potential against several cancer cell lines and was was found to be significantly active against OVC-5 cells (ovarian cancer cell line) with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) 28.9 μg mL-1, cervical (Hela) IC50 0.064 and prostate (PC-3) cancer lines with 0.034 μg mL-1.

Silver nanoparticles (Ag. NPs) have shown a biological activity range, synthesized under different environment-friendly approaches. Ag. NPs were synthesized using aqueous crude extract (ACE) isolated from Plantago lanceolata. The ACE and Ag. NPs were characterized and assessed their biological and antioxidant activities. The existence of nanoparticles (NPs) was confirmed by color shift, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and UV–Vis’s spectroscopy. The FT-IR analysis indicated the association of biomolecules (phenolic acid and flavonoids) to reduce silver (Ag+) ions. The SEM study demonstrated a sphere-shaped and mean size in the range of 30 ± 4 nm. The EDX spectrum revealed that the Ag. NPs were composed of 54.87% Ag with 20 nm size as identified by SEM and TEM. AFM has ended up being exceptionally useful in deciding morphological elements and the distance across of Ag. NPs in the scope of 23–30 nm. The TEM image showed aggregations of NPs and physical interaction. Ag. NPs formation also confirmed by XPS, DRS and BET studies. Ag. NPs showed efficient activity as compared to ACE, and finally, the bacterial growth was impaired by biogenic NPs. The lethal dose (LD50) of Ag. NPs against Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli were 45.66%, 139.71%, 332.87%, and 45.54%, with IC50 (08.02 ± 0.68), (55.78 ± 1.01), (12.34 ± 1.35) and (11.68 ± 1.42) respectively, suppressing the growth as compared to ACE. The antioxidant capacity, i.e., 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) of Ag. NPs were assayed. ACE and Ag. NPs achieved a peak antioxidant capacity of 62.43 ± 2.4 and 16.85 ± 0.4 μg mL−1, compared to standard (69.60 ± 1.1 at 100 μg mL−1) with IC50 (369.5 ± 13.42 and 159.5 ± 10.52 respectively). Finally, the Ag. NPs synthesized by P. lanceolata extract have an excellent source of bioactive natural products (NP). Outstanding antioxidant, antibacterial activities have been shown by NPs and can be used in various biological techniques in future research.

The significant inhibition and selectivity for human solid tumor cell by oily fraction of Maytenus royleanus, was subjected to GC-MS analysis for determination of its chemical constituents. GC-MS profile of methyl ester derivatives of fatty acids, showed that Palmitic acid (35.41%), Oleic acid (10.91%), Stearic acid (5.31%), Margaric acid (5.13%), Behenic acid (5.18%) and Hexanoic acid (4.97%) were the major components in the isolated oily fraction, while rest of the other fatty acids were present in minor concentration. The literature revealed that no such work has been done for the determination of fatty acids in M. royleanus stem oil.

Ficus species have been used in both Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM); however the medicinal uses of these species are widely found and originated in Middle East. The phytochemical study of Ficus foveolata was under taken with small scale extraction of stem (300 g) for cytotoxic screening and dereplication purpose. The crude methanolic extract of Ficus was partitioned into different fractions of hexane, dichloromethane and methanol. All the five fractions FA, FB, FC, FD and FE were screened for their anti-proliferative effect in the disk diffusion assay (In vitro) against six cancer cell lines. The bioassay-guided isolation of a new antitumor agent (Ficusonolide; 3α-hydroxylean-12-en-29, 19α-olide (1)) was carried out from the methanolic extract (FB) of Ficus faveolata. Its structure was elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic techniques (IR, MS and NMR). The pure compound 1 was evaluated against twelve cell cancer lines for the determination of its antiproliferative potency. In disk diffusion assay the dichloromethane fraction (FB) showed excellent activity at very low concentration. The compound 1 exhibited strong and selective activity against two cancer cell lines: H116 (Human colon adenocarcinoma) and H125 (Human lung adenocarcinoma) with the IC 50 =7.8 μg/ml and 11.0 μg/ ml respectively. The selectivity and potency of the pure compound 1 was in concordance with the activity profile of the fraction FB and ethno-medicinal uses of this plant. This small project on local medicinal plants has opened new vista for future research work on indigenous medicinal plants. The compound 1 can be used a template compound for further studies, as a chemotherapeutic agents against cancer.

The renal and mammary excretion of sulfadimidine was investigated in 8 lactating buffaloes after intravenous administration. The results showed that sulfadimidine was bound to the proteins in plasma (39--59 per cent) and milk (5.5 per cent). The renal handling of sulfadimidine was influenced by the variations in the urinary pH and the concentration of non-protein-bound drug. From the results it is concluded that glomerular filtration, back diffusion and active tubular secretion are involved in the renal handling of sulfadimidine in buffaloes. The results of mammary excretion showed that sulfadimidine is excreted into milk of buffaloes in concentration lower than in plasma. The ratio between the concentration of sulfadimidine in milk and plasma increases when the pH of milk increases. The results are consistant with the theory that drugs are excreted through the mammary gland by passive diffusion.