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Caesalpinia sappan (CS) has been commonly used in beverage and folk medicine in China and ASEAN countries because of its various therapeutic properties. Only the heartwood has long been used in traditional medicines due to the presence of high concentration of brazilin (one of the most important bioactive compounds), whereas the other parts are limited in use. Thus, this work aimed to investigate ways of utilizing other parts of CS. This information is important for further use of other CS parts to promote zero waste and hence sustainable resource utilization. Herein, the crude ethanolic (CEE) and crude aqueous (CAE) extracts from twelve parts of CS were evaluated for their biological activities for the first time. Our work demonstrates that not only the heartwood, but also other parts of CS exhibit interesting biological activities. CAE from heartwood of branches exhibits the highest antioxidant activity, which is higher than that of the positive control, butylated hydroxytoluene. CEE from florets shows the highest inhibitory effect against α-amylase, while CAE of barks shows better α-glucosidase inhibitory activity than the existing glucosidase inhibitor (acarbose). Molecular docking of brazilin (key bioactive compound) to both α-amylase and glucosidase can also confirm the tight binding of brazilin to α-glucosidase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to investigate the mixed culture of Bacillus subtilis, B. licheniformis and B. megaterium to control acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) or EMS (Early Mortality Syndrome) in white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei as a model. The infected shrimps with Vibrio parahaemolyticus AHPND strain were divided into tanks and different feeding of either B. subtilis, B. licheniformis, B. megaterium or all Bacillus strains. The infected shrimps that were fed with a mixed culture of Bacillus showed significantly highest survival rate and revealed lower percent detection of V. parahaemolyticus AHPND strain by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) (57.14%) with a small amount of viability count in their hepatopancreas. In contrast, the infected shrimps that were fed with each of B. subtilis, B. licheniformis or B. megaterium, revealed the spread of V. parahaemolyticus AHPND strain in all tissue by PCR detection (86.67%-100%) with a large amount of viability count (3.53 - 4.24 × 103 CFU/g). This study indicated that the mixed culture of Bacillus subtilis, B. licheniformis and B. megaterium could control the dissemination of V. parahaemolyticus in shrimps, especially in hepatopancreatic that is the target tissue of AHPND in white shrimp (L. vannamei). The result of this study revealed the efficiency and mechanism of the mixed culture of B. subtilis, B. licheniformis and B. megaterium to control the virulence of AHPND and support the application of this mixed culture in aquaculture of shrimp farms to avoid chemical and antibiotic treatment by using it as a biological control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]