@article {557, title = {Improvement of Insulin Secretion and Pancreatic β-cell Function in Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic Rats Treated with Aloe vera Extract}, journal = {Pharmacognosy Research}, volume = {9}, year = {2017}, month = {December 2017}, pages = {s99-s104}, type = {Original Article}, chapter = {s99}, abstract = {

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycemia. Plant extracts and their products are being used as an alternative system of medicine for the treatment of diabetes. Aloe vera has been traditionally used to treat several diseases and it exhibits antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing effects. Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced Wistar diabetic rats were used in this study to understand the potential protective effect of A. vera extract on the pancreatic islets. Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the A. vera extract on improvement of insulin secretion and pancreatic β-cell function by morphometric analysis of pancreatic islets in STZ-induced diabetic Wistar rats. Materials and Methods: After acclimatization, male Wistar rats, maintained as per the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals guidelines, were randomly divided into four groups of six rats each. Fasting plasma glucose and insulin levels were assessed. The effect of A. vera extract in STZ-induced diabetic rats on the pancreatic islets by morphometric analysis was evaluated. Results: Oral administration of A. vera extract (300 mg/kg) daily to diabetic rats for 3 weeks showed restoration of blood glucose levels to normal levels with a concomitant increase in insulin levels upon feeding with A. vera extract in STZ-induced diabetic rats. Morphometric analysis of pancreatic sections revealed quantitative and qualitative gain in terms of number, diameter, volume, and area of the pancreatic islets of diabetic rats treated with A. vera extract when compared to the untreated diabetic rats. Conclusion: A. vera extract exerts antidiabetic effects by improving insulin secretion and pancreatic β-cell function by restoring pancreatic islet mass in STZ-induced diabetic Wistar rats.

}, keywords = {Aloe vera, Diabetes, Insulin, Morphometric analysis, Pancreas, Streptozotocin}, doi = {10.4103/pr.pr_75_17}, author = {Ayesha Noor and S Gunasekaran and MA Vijayalakshmi} } @article {828, title = {Comparative Measurement of Hydration Effects of Herbal Moisturizers}, journal = {Pharmacognosy Research}, volume = {2}, year = {2010}, month = {July 2010}, pages = {146-151}, type = {Original Article}, chapter = {146}, abstract = {

Improvements of skin hydration properties by the use of polyherbal moisturizers are the recent advances in cosmetic preparations to avoid the harmful effects of chemical moisturizers. The main aim of the study was to establish selection preference of different available marketed herbal moisturizers on the basis of the efficiency of constituents for their hydration effects. The criteria for the selection of formulations were presence of herbal constituents, wheat germ oil and Aloe vera extract. Initially, physiochemical and psychometric studies were performed to visualize the compliance of moisturizers with the skin. The clinical study was carried out in six groups of six healthy human volunteers (aged 20{\textendash}25 years) each applying moisturizers twice daily over a period of 3 weeks in their forearm. The skin properties measured were conductance, glow and appearance. The results indicated that all the moisturizers show moisturizing effect in a time-dependent pattern and the maximum increase in skin conductance was 168.125 and 165.24\% for A2 and A1, respectively. Ranking of moisturizers based on conductance as well as physicochemical analysis is A2 \> A1 \> A4 \> A3 \> A5 \> A6. It was found that the formulation A2 having wheat germ oil, Aloe vera extract and turmeric extract in combination showed best results due to their synergistic effect and wheat germ oil or Aloe extract, when present separately produced skin hydration to lesser extent.

}, keywords = {Aloe vera, Herbal moisturizers, Humectant, Skin hydration, Wheat germ oil}, doi = {10.4103/0974-8490.65508}, author = {Swarnlata Saraf and Sneha Sahu and Chanchal Deep Kaur and Shailendra Saraf} } @article {858, title = {A Modified MS2 Bacteriophage Plaque Reduction Assay for the Rapid Screening of Antiviral Plant Extracts}, journal = {Pharmacognosy Research}, volume = {2}, year = {2010}, month = {September 2010}, pages = {221-228}, type = {Original Article}, chapter = {221}, abstract = {

Introduction: Traditional methods of screening plant extracts and purified components for antiviral activity require up to a week to perform, prompting the need to develop more rapid quantitative methods to measure the ability of plant based preparations to block viral replication. We describe an adaption of an MS2 plaque reduction assay for use in S. aureus. Results: MS2 bacteriophage was capable of infecting and replicating in B. cereus, S. aureus and F+ E. coli but not F- E. coli. Indeed, both B. cereus and S. aureus were more sensitive to MS2 induced lysis than F+ E. coli. When MS2 bacteriophage was mixed with Camellia sinensis extract (1 mg/ml), Scaevola spinescens extract (1 mg/ml) or Aloe barbadensis juice and the mixtures inoculated into S. aureus, the formation of plaques was reduced to 8.9 {\textpm} 3.8\%, 5.4 {\textpm} 2.4\% and 72.7 {\textpm} 20.9\% of the untreated MS2 control values respectively. Conclusions: The ability of the MS2 plaque reduction assay to detect antiviral activity in these known antiviral plant preparations indicates its suitability as an antiviral screening tool. An advantage of this assay compared with traditionally used cytopathic effect reduction assays and replicon based assays is the more rapid acquisition of results. Antiviral activity was detected within 24 h of the start of testing. The MS2 assay is also inexpensive and non-pathogenic to humans making it ideal for initial screening studies or as a simulant for pathogenic viruses.

}, keywords = {Aloe vera, Antiviral assay, Camellia Sinensis, MS2 bacteriophage, Plaque reduction assay, Scaevola spinescens}, doi = {10.4103/0974-8490.69108}, author = {Ian Cock and FR Kalt} }