• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 2016

Hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of whole plant of Boerhavia diffusa were screened for phytochemical and biological activities. Qualitative phytochemical screening via colorimetric method and the quantitative estimation of phenolic and flavonoid content were performed. Antioxidant assay using DPPH scavenging method was studied. Antimicrobial screening of plant extracts was done by cup diffusion technique. Cytotoxic activity of B. diffusa was studied by brine shrimp bioassay and anthelminthic activity was evaluated in vitro in Pheretima posthuma. This study revealed B. diffusa as a source of various phyto-constituents such as alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, tannins, carbohydrates, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids and terpenoids. Quantitative estimation of total phenol was found to be maximum in BEE i.e. $29.73{\pm}0.88$, BME $19.8{\pm}2.02$ and in BHE $9.15{\pm}0.304mgGAE/g$. Similarly, the total flavonoid content was found to be $17.44{\pm}0.75$ in BEE, $14.43{\pm}0.23$ in BHE and 3.678 mg QE/g in BME. Ethyl acetate extract showed its antibacterial activity against all tested pathogens except Escherichia coli whereas Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella Typhi were resistant to methanol and hexane extract. The zone of inhibition (ZOI) of ethyl acetate extract against S. Typhi and B. cereus was found to be 18 mm and 14 mm respectively. The MIC value of BEE in S. Typhi was $3.125{\mu}g/ml$ and in B. cereus was $12.5{\mu}g/ml$. The preliminary screening of anticancer property of B. diffusa i.e. BSLT in methanol was found to be $165.19{\mu}g/ml$. B. diffusa was also found to contain anthelmintic property. The study helped in further exploration of medicinal properties of B. diffusa by phytochemical screening and biological activities paving the path for study and investigation in this plant.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.277-284
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• 2005

The avermectins are composed of eight compounds, which exhibit structural differences at three positions. A family of four closely-related major components, A1a, A2a, B1a and B2a, has been identified. Of these components, B1a exhibits the most potent antihelminthic activity. The coexistence of the '1' components and '2' components has been accounted for by the defective dehydratase of aveAI module 2, which appears to be responsible for C22-23 dehydration. Therefore, we have attempted to replace the dehydratase of aveAI module 2 with the functional dehydratase from the erythromycin eryAII module 4, via homologous recombination. Erythromycin polyketide synthetase should contain the sole dehydratase domain, thus generating a saturated chain at the C6-7 of erythromycin. We constructed replacement plasmids with PCR products, by using primers which had been derived from the sequences of avermectin aveAI and the erythromycin eryAII biosynthetic gene cluster. If the original dehydratase of Streptomyces avermitilis were exchanged with the corresponding erythromycin gene located on the replacement plasmid, it would be expected to result in the formation of precursors which contain alkene at C22-23, formed by the dehydratase of erythromycin module 4, and further processed by avermectin polyketide synthase. Consequently, the resulting recombinant strain JW3105, which harbors the dehydratase gene derived from erythromycin, was shown to produce only C22,23-unsaturated avermectin compounds. Our research indicates that the desired compound may be produced via polyketide gene replacement.