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Introduction. The Uganda National Drug Authority requires phytochemical screening, freedom from microbial contamination, and evidence of safety and efficacy of the constituent plants to register herbal products. Since Uganda has no pharmacopeia, safety, efficacy, and plant processing information are not readily available. We documented the plant materials used to manufacture products in Uganda and established evidence of their safety and efficacy and availability of monographs. Methods. The NDA register of herbal products was reviewed, and a product list was extracted. The herbal products were purchased from local pharmacies, and their labels were studied to identify plant ingredients and drug use. Literature was reviewed to document evidence of the safety and efficacy of the plant materials concerning manufacturer’s claims. Also, the WHO and available African Pharmacopeia were searched to establish the availability of the plant monographs. Results. Of the 84 NDA-registered local products, only 18 were obtained from the market; 82% were indicated for respiratory tract disorders. Thirty-three plant materials were listed with Eucalyptus globulus Labill, being the commonest. Several in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate efficacy, thus supporting the use of the selected plant species for empirical treatment as stated on the product label. While most plants were safe, some species such as Albizia coriaria Oliv. had dose-dependent toxicities that cannot be predicted in combinations. The WHO, African Pharmacopoeia, and West African Herbal Pharmacopoeia had only 16 plant monographs of the 33 plants of interest. Nevertheless, Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f., Azadirachta indica A.Juss., Zingiber officinale Roscoe, and Allium sativum L. monographs were published by all three pharmacopoeias. Conclusions. Preclinical evidence of safety and efficacy exists in the literature for most of the plants used to manufacture registered herbal products in Uganda. More specific bioassays and clinical trials are required for the products to provide conclusive evidence of safety and toxicity. Monographs are urgently needed for the Ugandan plants.

Background: The skin mucus layer of fish is endowed with biologics including, Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that offer a first line of defence against pathogens. Such peptides can either inhibit bacterial growth or completely kill the bacteria and hence are regarded as a viable alternative to traditional antibiotics, in addressing the ever-increasing incidences of antimicrobial resistance. However, one of the major hurdles to AMPs use is their poor haemolytic profile. As a result, a thorough evaluation of prospective AMPs’ bacterial cell membrane disruption and hemolytic potentials in the early phases of drug discovery is critical. The current study presented cell membrane destruction as well as hemo-compatibility of antimicrobial peptides previously isolated from skin mucus of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus. Methods: A previously isolated antimicrobial peptide in the skin mucus of African catfish, C. gariepinus were profiled using 15% Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The electrical conductivity and alkaline phosphatase assays were utilised to measure bacterial cell envelope lysis activity as a classical mode of action of the antimicrobial peptides. Afterwards, fresh Rabbit blood cells were then utilised for in vitro hemolytic assay. Results: The peptides were found to be about 5 kDa molecular weight with, ability to damage the bacterial cell envelope causing significant leakage in periplasmic alkaline phosphatase enzyme and cytoplasmic electrolytes. Even at the highest peptide extract concentration of 100 μg/mL, no significant hemolysis was observed on the fresh rabbit blood cells [3.63%;P>.05], signifying their safety on normal mammalian cells. Conclusion: The findings of this study pointed out that antimicrobial peptides in skin mucus of C. gariepinus are potentially safe source of antimicrobial drug leads; however, further studies are still required to search for possibly maximum dose that is safe to host cells but still effective against infecting bacteria.

Amidst rising cases of antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are regarded as a promising alternative to traditional antibiotics. Even so, poor pharmacokinetic profiles of certain AMPs impede their utility necessitating, a careful assessment of potential AMPs' absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) properties during novel lead exploration. Accordingly, the present study utilized ADMET scores to profile seven previously isolated African catfish antimicrobial peptides (ACAPs). After profiling, the peptides were docked against approved bacterial protein targets to gain insight into their possible mode of action. Promising ACAPs were then chemically synthesized, and their antibacterial activity was validated

Background: Prostatic diseases which include prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer are the benign or malignant disorders that affect the prostate. Phytotherapies have been adopted as the alternative treatment/ management option especially for BPH since the current modern methods of treatment presents a lot of adverse effects. Methodology: The literature was searched using different databases including Medline/PubMed, Cochrane library, Scopus, Proquest library, Embase, EBooks and Google Scholar for relevant records for a period from 1988 to 2018 to identify all the published articles of S. serrulata regarding treatment of prostatic diseases. The key search terms were Serenoa serrulata, S. repens, Saw palmetto, Prostate cancer treatment with Serenoa serrulata, treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia with Serenoa serrulata, phytochemicals of Serenoa serrulata, ethnobotanical uses of Serenoa serrulata, toxicity of Serenoa serrulata, pharmacological activities of Serenoa serrulata and also traditional management and treatment of prostatic diseases using Serenoa serrulata and also clinical trials on treatment of prostatic diseases with Serenoa serrulata. The retrieved articles were reviewed, synthesized and analyzed qualitatively. The reference list of the retrieved articles was also reviewed and synthesized. The original research articles which reported an investigation of S. serrulata of any study design, original published research articles, any time of publication and grey literature (conference papers, reported articles, academic thesis) were included. The articles whose full texts were not freely available by the time of search and those without clear information about methodology and study design were excluded. Results: This review reported that Serenoa serrulata belonging to the Arecaceae family commonly known as saw palmetto is used traditionally for treating prostatic disease conditions and other infertility conditions in both men and women. Phytochemical screening of hexanic and ethanolic extracts of S. serrulata comprised of free fatty acids and phytosterols which together contribute to their antiprostatic activities. These extracts of S. serrulata exhibited antiandrogenic, anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative activities through inhibition of both isoenzymes 5α- reductase and inhibition of binding of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) to the cytosolic androgen receptors. This is a similar mechanism exhibited by finasteride and Tamsulosin both antiprostatic conventional drugs though the plant phytochemicals do not interfere with PSA secretion. S. serrulata has also been reported to be non-toxic in both non clinical and clinical trial studies. The medicinal plants reported by this review to be used in combination include; stinging nettle (Urtica dioca), Zingiber officinalis, Echinacea angustifolia and pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo). The antiprostatic conventional drugs reported include finasteride and Tamsulosin. Conclusion and Recommendation: The results showed that S. serrulata is effective in treating prostatic diseases. The potency and safety is improved when used in combination with Urtica dioca, Cucurbita pepo, Zingiber officinalis and Echinacea angustifolia as compared with anti-prostatic conventional drugs Finasteride and Tamsulosin alone. The plant combination has also been shown to have improvement in the quality of life and as well enhancing the synergy of Finasteride and Tamsulon and their adverse effects. Effective medicinal plant combinations should be formulated into products and integrated into the usual treatment for prostatic diseases.

Amidst rising cases of antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are regarded as a promising alternative to traditional antibiotics. Even so, poor pharmacokinetic profiles of certain AMPs impede their utility necessitating, a careful assessment of potential AMPs’ absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) properties during novel lead exploration. Accordingly, the present study utilized ADMET scores to profile seven previously isolated African catfish antimicrobial peptides (ACAPs). After profiling, the peptides were docked against approved bacterial protein targets to gain insight into their possible mode of action. Promising ACAPs were then chemically synthesized, and their antibacterial activity was validated in vitro utilizing the broth dilution method. All seven examined antimicrobial peptides passed the ADMET screening, with two (ACAP-IV and ACAP-V) exhibiting the best ADMET profile scores. The ACAP-V had a higher average binding energy (−8.47 kcal/mol) and average global energy (−70.78 kcal/mol) compared to ACAP-IV (−7.60 kcal/mol and −57.53 kcal/mol), with the potential to penetrate and disrupt bacterial cell membrane (PDB Id: 2w6d). Conversely, ACAP-IV peptide had higher antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration, 520.7 ± 104.3 μg/ml and 1666.7 ± 416.7 μg/ml, respectively) compared to ACAP-V. Collectively, the two antimicrobial peptides (ACAP-IV and ACAP-V) are potential novel leads for the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Future research is recommended to optimize the expression of such peptides in biological systems for extended evaluation.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) constitute a broad range of bioactive compounds in diverse organisms, including fish. They are effector molecules for the innate immune response, against pathogens, tissue damage and infections. Still, AMPs from African Catfish, Clarias gariepinus, skin mucus are largely unexplored despite their possible therapeutic role in combating antimicrobial resistance. In this study, African Catfish Antimicrobial peptides (ACAPs) were identified from the skin mucus of African Catfish, C. gariepinus. Native peptides were extracted from fish mucus scrapings in 10% acetic acid (v/v) and ultra-filtered using 5 kDa molecular weight cut-off membrane. The extract was purified using C18 Solid-Phase Extraction. The antibacterial activity was determined using the Agar Well Diffusion method and broth-dilution method utilizing Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) and Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922). Thereafter, Sephadex G-25 gel filtration was further utilized in bio-guided isolation of the most active fractions prior to peptide identification using Orbitrap Fusion Lumos Tribrid Mass Spectrometry. The skin mucus extracted from African Catfish from all the three major lakes of Uganda exhibited antimicrobial activity on E. coli and S. aureus. Lake Albert’s C. gariepinus demonstrated the best activity with the lowest MIC of 2.84 and 0.71 μg/ml on S. aureus and E. coli, respectively. Sephadex G-25 peak I mass spectrometry analysis (Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD029193) alongside in silico analysis revealed seven short peptides (11–16 amino acid residues) of high antimicrobial scores (0.561–0.905 units). In addition, these peptides had a low molecular weight (1005.57–1622.05 Da) and had percentage hydrophobicity above 54%. Up to four of these AMPs demonstrated α-helix structure conformation, rendering them amphipathic. The findings of this study indicate that novel AMPs can be sourced from the skin mucus of C. gariepinus. Such AMPs are potential alternatives to the traditional antibiotics and can be of great application to food and pharmaceutical industries; however, further studies are still needed to establish their drug-likeness and safety profiles.

Background: Prostatic diseases which include prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer are the benign or malignant disorders that affect the prostate. Phytotherapies have been adopted as the alternative treatment/ management option especially for BPH since the current modern methods of treatment presents a lot of adverse effects. Methodology: The literature was searched using different databases including Medline/PubMed, Cochrane library, Scopus, Proquest library, Embase, EBooks and Google Scholar for relevant records for a period from 1988 to 2021 to identify all the published articles of S. serrulata regarding treatment of prostatic diseases. The key search terms were Serenoa serrulata, S. repens, Saw palmetto, Prostate cancer treatment with Serenoa serrulata, treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia with Serenoa serrulata, phytochemicals of Serenoa serrulata, ethnobotanical uses of Serenoa serrulata, toxicity of Serenoa serrulata, pharmacological activities of Serenoa serrulata and also traditional management and treatment of prostatic diseases using Serenoa serrulata and also clinical trials on treatment of prostatic diseases with Serenoa serrulata. The retrieved articles were reviewed, synthesized and analyzed qualitatively. The reference list of the retrieved articles was also reviewed and synthesized. The original research articles which reported an investigation of S. serrulata of any study design, original published research articles, any time of publication and grey literature (conference papers, reported articles, academic thesis) were included. The articles whose full texts were not freely available by the time of search and those without clear information about methodology and study design were excluded. Results: This review reported that Serenoa serrulata belonging to the Arecaceae family commonly known as saw palmetto is used traditionally for treating prostatic disease conditions and other infertility conditions in both men and women. Phytochemical screening of hexanic and ethanolic extracts of S. serrulata comprised of free fatty acids and phytosterols which together contribute to their antiprostatic activities. These extracts of S. serrulata exhibited antiandrogenic, anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative activities through inhibition of both isoenzymes 5α- reductase and inhibition of binding of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) to the cytosolic androgen receptors. This is a similar mechanism exhibited by finasteride and Tamsulosin both antiprostatic conventional drugs though the plant phytochemicals do not interfere with PSA secretion. S. serrulata has also been reported to be non-toxic in both non-clinical and clinical trial studies. The medicinal plants reported by this review to be used in combination include; stinging nettle (Urtica dioca), Zingiber officinalis, Echinacea angustifolia and pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo). The antiprostatic conventional drugs reported include Finasteride and Tamsulosin. Conclusion and Recommendation: The results showed that S. serrulata is effective in treating prostatic diseases. The potency and safety are improved when used in combination with Urtica dioca, Cucurbita pepo, Zingiber officinalis and Echinacea angustifolia as compared with anti-prostatic conventional drugs Finasteride and Tamsulosin alone. The plant combination has also been shown to have improvement in the quality of life and as well enhancing the synergy of Finasteride and Tamsulon and their adverse effects. Effective medicinal plant combinations should be formulated into products and integrated into the usual treatment for prostatic diseases.

Antimicrobial resistance remains a great threat to global health. In response to the World Health Organizations’ global call for action, nature has been explored for novel and safe antimicrobial candidates. To date, fish have gained recognition as potential source of safe, broad spectrum and effective antimicrobial therapeutics. The use of computational methods to design antimicrobial candidates of industrial application has however, been lagging behind. To fill the gap and contribute to the current fish-derived antimicrobial peptide repertoire, this study used Support Vector Machines algorithm to fish out fish-antimicrobial peptide-motif candidates encrypted in 127 peptides submitted at the Antimicrobial Peptide Database (APD3), steered by their physico-chemical characteristics (i.e., positive net charge, hydrophobicity, stability, molecular weight and sequence length). The best two novel antimicrobial peptide-motifs (A15_B, A15_E) with the lowest instability index (−28.25, −22.49, respectively) and highest isoelectric point (pI) index (10.48 for each) were selected for further analysis. Their 3D structures were predicted using I-TASSER and PEP-FOLD servers while ProSA, PROCHECK, and ANOLEA were used to validate them. The models predicted by I-TASSER were found to be better than those predicted by PEP-FOLD upon validation. Two I-TASSER models with the lowest c-score of −0.10 and −0.30 for A15_B and A15_E peptide-motifs, respectively, were selected for docking against known bacterial-antimicrobial target-proteins retrieved from protein databank (PDB). Carbapenam-3-carboxylate synthase (PDB ID; 4oj8) yielded the lowest docking energy (−8.80 and −7.80 Kcal/mol) against motif A15_B and A15_E, respectively, using AutoDock VINA. Further, in addition to Carbapenam-3-carboxylate synthase, these peptides (A15_B and A15_E) were found to as well bind to membrane protein (PDB ID: 1by3) and Carbapenem synthetase (PDB: 1q15) when ClusPro and HPEPDOCK tools were used. The membrane protein yielded docking energy scores (DES): −290.094, −270.751; coefficient weight (CW): −763.6, 763.3 for A15_B and A15_E) whereas, Carbapenem synthetase (PDB: 1q15) had a DES of −236.802, −262.75 and a CW of −819.7, −829.7 for peptides A15_B and A15_E, respectively. Motif A15_B of amino acid positions 2–19 in Pleurocidin exhibited the strongest in silico antimicrobial potentials. This segment could be a good biological candidate of great application in pharmaceutical industries as an antimicrobial drug candidate.