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Piper nigrum (Black pepper), popularly called the "King of Spices" is one of nature's most ancient and miraculous traditional plants to treat several deadly maladies. The essential oil of P. nigrum is highly considered to have illustrious therapeutic significance in domestic and industrial applications. To validate the traditional claim of its essential oil's efficacy, the proposed study was designed to analyze the volatile profile and assess the antimicrobial and antiproliferative effect of P. nigrum fruit essential oil. This is the first study on the analysis of essential oil of P. nigrum collected from Eastern India. The Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of P. nigrum essential oil revealed β-caryophyllene (25.6%), limonene (15.7%), sabinene (11.6%), β-pinene (11.1%) and δ-carene (8.6%) as its major constituents. In antibacterial assays, P. nigrum essential exhibited significant activity against multiple microbial pathogens like Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (ZOI-19±0.4 mm; MIC-0.781 μg/ml), Escherichia coli (ZOI-18±0.4 mm; MIC-1.562 μg/ml) and Staphylococcus saprophyticus (ZOI-18±0.4 mm; MIC-1.562μg/ml). MTT assay demonstrated selective cytotoxicity against cancerous cells such as HepG-2 (IC50-71.2±1.3 μg/ml); PC-3 (IC50-68.38±1.2 μg/ml) as compared to noncancerous 3T3L-1 cells (IC50- 235.77±1.6 μg/ml).To the best of our knowledge, this is the first-ever study from India on the cytotoxic potential of P. nigrum essential oil against the above two robust cancerous cell lines. The present findings revealed that P. nigrum essential oil exhibited remarkable therapeutic potential, which could enhance its medicinal worth and commercial significance in current scenario and in future perspectives for designing antimicrobial and anticancer drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melaleuca polandii, commonly known as "Gold-tipped Bottlebrush", is widely grown in Indian gardens and parks as an ornamental plant. In the present study, the chemical composition, antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of M. polandii leaf essential oil (MPLEO) have been investigated. GC-MS analysis of MPLEO isolated from plants grown along the coastal plains of Eastern India revealed the presence of 50 constituents with α-pinene (46.17%), 3Z-hexenyl acetate (10.10 %), α-terpineol (5.43%), limonene (3.63%) and ρ-cymene (2.44 %) as the major constituents. MPLEO exhibited moderate antioxidant capacity in DPPH, ABTS and Reducing ability assays with IC50 values of 7.94 ± 0.34 μg/mL, 5.71 ± 0.21 μg/mL and EC50 7.09 ± 0.35 μg/mL, respectively. Of the 5 bacterial strains tested, the EO exhibited highest sensitivity against Bacillus subtilis with the ZOI of 12.66 ± 0.57 mm and strong antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus saprophyticus with MIC value of 6.25 μg/mL. MPLEO exhibited significant cytotoxic effects against Human alveolar lung adenocarcinoma (A549), Human hepato-cellular carcinoma (HepG2), Human cervix adenocarcinoma (HeLa) and normal Human Embryonic Kidney cell (HEK-293) as evaluated through MTT assay with IC50 values of 9.5 ± 0.38 μg/mL, 22.73 ± 0.95 μg/mL, 20.41 ± 0.82 μg/mL and 237.68 ± 9.26 μg/mL, respectively. The findings of the present study demonstrated that MPLEO could be considered as a potential bioresource having applications in pharmaceutical industries as an antibacterial and antiproliferative agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eugenia roxburghii (Myrtaceae), known as Roxburgh's Cherry, is a wild edible fruit-producing plant having multiple use in traditional and folk medicines in India and Sri Lanka. In spite of its nutritional and medicinal importance, there is no report on the chemical composition and bioactivities of the essential oil (EO) of this species. In this article, the chemical composition of the leaf EO of E. roxburghii has been reported for the first time along with its antioxidant, antimicrobial and antiproliferative activities. GC–MS analysis of EO led to the identification of 41 compounds with β-caryophyllene (22.32%) as the major constituent. The EO exhibited strong antioxidant capacity in DPPH and ABTS assays with IC50 values of 15.12 ± 0.23 μg/mL and 7.32 ± 0.05 μg/mL, respectively. It also exhibited strong reducing power ability (EC50 = 1.47 ± 0.06 μg/mL). The EO showed highest sensitivity against enteric pathogenic bacteria, Shigella flexneri (ZOI = 24 ± 0.4 mm, MIC = 31.25 μg/mL) validating its ethnomedicinal claim against dysentery. Further, E. roxburghii EO showed significant antiproliferative activity against human colon (HCT-116, IC50 = 64.84 μg/mL) and prostatic adenocarcinoma (PC-3, IC50=70.11 μg/mL) cell lines. The present study suggests that EO can be used as an antiproliferative agent and for the treatment of enteric diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inside the biological milieu, nanoparticles with photocatalytic activity have potential to trigger cell death non‐specifically due to production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon reacting with biological entities. Silver nanoparticle (AgNP) possessing narrow band gap energy can exhibit high light absorption property and significant photocatalytic activity. This study intends to explore the effects of ROS generated due to photocatalytic activity of AgNP on antimicrobial and cytotoxic propensities. To this end, AgNP was synthesized using the principle of green chemistry from the peel extract of Punica granatum L., and was characterized using UV–Vis spectroscope, transmission electron microscope and x‐ray diffraction, and so forth. The antimicrobial activity of AgNP against studied bacteria indicated that, ROS generated at AgNP interface develop stress on bacterial membrane leading to bacterial cell death, whereas Alamar Blue dye reduction assay indicated that increased cytotoxic activity with increasing concentrations of AgNP. The γH2AX activity assay revealed that increasing the concentrations of AgNP increased DNA damaging activity. The results altogether demonstrated that both antimicrobial and cytotoxic propensities are triggered primarily due interfacial ROS generation by photocatalytic AgNP, which caused membrane deformation in bacteria and DNA damage in HT1080 cells resulting in cell death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]