Dracaena afromontana is a native species grown in the high mountain rainforest of Rwanda. This plant finds many traditionally medicinal uses in the treatment of chest pain, dermatitis, liver diseases and malaria. In this report, the dried Bay leaves were extracted with n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol by maceration giving 0.717 g (1.434%), 1.457 g (2.914%) and 6.319 g (12.64%) respectively. The extracts were concentrated for further phytochemical screening and evaluated for antimicrobial activity against E. coli and S. aureus using well diffusion method. In addition, the dracaena afromontana extracts were analyzed using thin layer chromatographic separation techniques leading to the identification and characterization of bioactive compounds including, terpenoids, flavonoids, tannins, phenols, saponins, reducing sugar and quinones. The results from TLC indicate that the higher retention factor (Rf₂ = 0.77) was obtained via the use of ethyl acetate, whereas n-hexane gave a retention factor (Rf₃ = 0.558). On the other hand, the methanol extract did not show any separation. The antimicrobial assay for the extracts was carried out using Lurial broth agar and Manitor salt over lay method. The findings of antimicrobial assay showed that methanolic extract of dracaena afromontana leaves has an antibacterial activity against the gram negative bacteria E.coli with the zone of inhibition of 16 mm, while the antibacterial activity of ethyl acetate extract against E. coli showed a smaller inhibition zone of 10 mm for diluted inoculums (10^-2 and 10^-1). For the gram positive bacteria S. aureus the inhibition zone by Dracaena afromontana was insignificant, whereby the methanolic and ethyl acetate extracts showed a maximum inhibition zone of 4 mm and 3 mm respectively. The n-hexane extract did not show any antibacterial activity against both pathogenic organisms.

Artocarpus lacucha is a medicinal plant of Moraceae family and conventionally used in diverse disorder. Investigation and design of this study was carried out to evaluate its antioxidant, anthelmintic and anti-inflammatory activity with methanolic extract of Artocarpus lacucha leaves. Thrombolytic activity was evaluated by using Perthima posthuma. For antioxidant potential total phenolic content and DPPH free radical scavenging activity test were conducted. Hypnotic solution and heat induced hemolysis was evaluated for anti-inflammatory activity. The methanolic extract of Artocarpus lacucha showed a significant anthelmintic activity in dose dependent manner that was comparable with that of standard drugs albendazole (10 mg/ml). Five different concentrations (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mg/ml) were used, whereas the albendazole drug at 10 mg/ml used as standard. The total phenolic content of the methanolic extract was found 74.4±0.291 while compared with gallic acid as standard. The IC₅₀ value for the DPPH test was found 26.95±0.009. It indicates plant extract showed moderate antioxidant property. In case of membrane stabilizing assay, the methanolic extract (10 mg/ml) showed maximum effect with a value of 15.06 and 20.16% inhibition of hemolysis caused by hypotonic solution and heat respectively. On the other hand standard acetyl salicylic acid (0.10 mg/ml) revealed 53.71 and 56.32% inhibition of hemolysis induced by hypotonic solution and heat correspondingly. These pharmacological activities showed that the methanolic extract has potential anthelmintic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Further research would help to reveal all its potency for safer new drugs in medical science.

 

 

In the search for anti-cancer plants in Vietnam, the leaves of Diospyros fleuryana were selected for chemical investigation. Phytochemical analysis of the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract led to the isolation of two naphthoquinones isodiospyrin (1), and 8'-hydroxyisodiospyrin (2), and one isoflavone 7-O-methylbiochanin A (3). The chemical structures of isolated compounds were determined by 1D-NMR (¹H, and ¹³C-NMR), 2D-NMR spectra (HSQC, and HMBC), and MS spectroscopy. Compound 3 was isolated from genus Diospyros for the first time. Regarding the strong IC₅₀ values of 2.27, and 8.0 µM against KB, and Hep cell lines respectively, cytotoxic examination suggested that compound 2 is a promising agent in anti-cancer treatment. 

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), medicinal plants represent the main product for both urban and rural populations for their health care needs due to the high costs of conventional medicine. These plant species contain bioactive compounds also called phytochemicals that are capable of modulating metabolic processes and resulting in the promotion of better health. In the present paper, the aims were to give updated infor­mation on the physical properties, phytochemistry and pharmacological activities of L. multiflora, medicinal plant in Republic Democratic of the Congo (DR. Congo). A literature search of this specie was conducted to obtain information about the nutritional value, phytochemistry and biological activities from various electronic databases (PubMed, PubMed Central, Science Direct, Google scholar and Sci-hub). The chemical structures of L. multiflora naturally occurring compounds were drawn using ChemBioDraw Ultra 12.0 software package. In this study, the bibliographic references were using bibliographic software Mendeley. L. multiflora Moldenke is a tropical to subtropical herbaceous aromatic plant widely distributed in West and Central Tropical Africa. It has been traditionally used in ethnomedecine against various disorders. It has been reported that the essential oil composition of L. multiflora from some locations were characterized by high terpenoids content, in particular: 1,8-cineole, linalool, geranial and neral, ipsdienone and (Z)- and (E)-ocimenone, thymol and thymyl acetate, p-cymene, sabinene, α-terpineol, α-phellandrene, myrcene and epoxymyrcene, myrtenol, limonene, (E)- and (Z)-tagetone and ipsenone, nerolidol, geraniol, γ-terpinene, (E)-caryophyllene, and β-farnesene). Many study reported that the plant possess various biological properties like anti-hypotensive, anti-inflammatory, anti-analgesic, anti-pyretic, anti-malaria, anti-oxydant, anti-microbial activities. The present review can therefore help inform future scientific research towards the development of novel drugs of relevance from L. multiflora for the improvement of human health and wellbeing.