METHODS: To evaluate the in vitro cytotoxicity of flower of Allium atroviolaceum, methanol extract at a dose range from 100 to 3.12 μg/ml was assessed against the HepG2 hepatocarcinoma cell line, and also on normal 3T3 cells, by monitoring proliferation using the MTT assay method. A microscopy study was undertaken to observe morphological changes of HepG2 cells after treatment and cell cycle arrest and apoptosis were studied using flow cytometry. The apoptosis mechanism of action was assessed by the level of caspase-3 activity and expression of apoptosis related genes, Bcl-2, Cdk1 and p53. The combination effect of the methanolic extract with doxorubicin was also investigated by determination of a combination index.
RESULTS: The results demonstrated growth inhibition of cells in both dose- and time-dependent manners, while no cytotoxic effect on normal cell 3T3 was found. The results revealed the occurrence of apoptosis, illustrated by sub-G0 cell cycle arrest, the change in morphological feature and annexin-V and propidium iodide staining, which is correlated with Bcl-2 downregulation and caspase-3 activity, but p53-independent. In addition, a combination of Allium atroviolaceum and doxorubicin led to a significant synergistic effect.
CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that Allium atroviolaceum flower extract has potential as a potent cytotoxic agent against HepG2 cell lines, as it has commendable anti-proliferative activities against human hepatocarcinoma and it can be considered as an effective adjuvant therapeutic agent after the clinical trials.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 500 systematically sampled pharmacy students from two private and one public university. A validated, self-administered questionnaire comprised of seven sections was used to gather the data. A systematic sampling was applied to recruit the students. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied using SPSS® version 18.
RESULTS: Overall, the students tend to disagree that complementary therapies (CM) are a threat to public health (mean score = 3.6) and agreed that CMs include ideas and methods from which conventional medicine could benefit (mean score = 4.7). More than half (57.8%) of the participants were currently using CAM while 77.6% had used it previously. Among the current CAM modalities used by the students, CM (21.9%) was found to be the most frequently used CAM followed by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) (21%). Most of the students (74.8%) believed that lack of scientific evidence is one of the most important barriers obstructing them to use CAM. More than half of the students perceived TCM (62.8%) and music therapy (53.8%) to be effective. Majority of them (69.3%) asserted that CAM knowledge is necessary to be a well-rounded professional.
CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals a high-percentage of pharmacy students who were using or had previously used at least one type of CAM. Students of higher professional years tend to agree that CMs include ideas and methods from which conventional medicine could benefit.
METHODS: Liquid-liquid partition chromatography was used to separate methanolic extract to get hexane, ethyl acetate, butanol and residual aqueous fractions. The total antioxidant activity was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazy (DPPH) radical scavenging and ferric reducing antioxidant power assay (FRAP). The antidiabetic activity of methanol extract and its consequent fractions were examined by α-glucosidase inhibitory bioassay. The chemical profiling was carried out by gas chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC Q-TOF MS).
RESULTS: The total yield for methanol extraction was (12.63 ± 0.98) % (w/w) and highest fractionated value found for residual aqueous (52.25 ± 1.01) % (w/w) as compared to the other fractions. Significant DPPH free radical scavenging activity was found for methanolic extract (63.07 ± 0.11) % and (79.98 ± 0.31) % for ethyl acetate fraction among all the fractions evaluated. Methanol extract was the most prominent in case of FRAP (141.89 ± 0.87 μg AAE/g) whereas most effective reducing power observed in ethyl acetate fraction (133.6 ± 0.2987 μg AAE/g). The results also indicated a substantial α-glucosidase inhibitory activity for butanol fraction (72.16 ± 1.0) % and ethyl acetate fraction (70.76 ± 0.49) %. The statistical analysis revealed that total phenolic and total flavonoid content of the samples had the significant (p