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• Antifungal activity of aqueous extracts from wild and nursery Diospyros cuneata was similar. • Antifungal activity of aqueous extracts from Diospyros cuneata leaves collected in the dry season was the highest. • Abundance of metabolites of aqueous extracts from wild plants of the dry season was the highest. • Hexane fractions of the nursery plants were the most active. • HPTLC-bioautography is a fast technique to correlate antifungal activity with metabolites. The synthetic fungicides used in agriculture cause environmental and human health problems and favor the rise of resistant fungal strains. An alternative to decrease this negative impact is those products derived from native plants. Nevertheless, anthropogenic activities cause the loss of native plants with biotechnological potential, and the ex situ conservation is one way to protect them even though their biological activity may decrease in comparison with wild plants. Diospyros cuneata Standl., native species from the coastal dune of Yucatan, was collected in dry and rainy seasons from wild and nursery plants. The antifungal activity of its leaves aqueous extracts (AE) was tested against six phytopathogenic fungi through a dilution method, including four AE. The antifungal activity against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides of the AE of the dry season from wild and nursery plants was similar and higher than those of the rainy season. A liquid-liquid partition chromatographic technique was used to obtain organic fractions. The hexane fraction (HF) of wild and nursery plants of the dry season inhibited the germination of C. gloeosporioides and C. truncatum (Syn. C. capsici) spores. The chromatographic analysis of AE from the wild plant of the dry season indicated that the abundance of metabolites was the highest. The bioautography showed that in both fungi the most active zone corresponds to the HF of the nursery plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leaves of Jodina rhombifolia (Hook. & Arn.) Reissek (Santalaceae) are utilized as anti-alcoholic in Argentine folk medicine. This study was designed to investigate the anti-alcohol properties in adolescent male Wistar rats (postnatal day 29; 83–105 g of weight). We utilized the “self-administration model”, which ethanol was offered in the standard home-cage through two-bottle free-choice regimen between an ethanolic solution (20% in tap water, v/v) and tap water with unlimited access for 24 h per day for 10 consecutive days. The results obtained show that repeated administration of J. rhombifolia lyophilized extract, markedly reduced ethanol voluntary intake on dose dependent bases. The magnitude in reduction of daily ethanol intake was approximately 29%, 44% and 68%, for the rat groups treated with 62.5, 125 and 250 mg/kg of extract, respectively. Ethanol preference (proportion of ethanol intake versus total fluid intake) was significantly reduced: 21.37%±0.79 (0 mg/kg); 15.83%±0.93 (62.5 mg/kg); 15.22%±1.30 (125 mg/kg) and 9.38%±0.57 (250 mg/kg). Daily food intake was significantly higher ( p <0.05) in the group treated with 250 mg/kg of JRLE in comparison with vehicle-dose group; the reduction in ethanol intake was associated with a compensatory increase in food intake, probably because in the control group animals a part of the total caloric intake was supplied by ethanol. Treatment was very well tolerated by all animals and without apparent side-effects. These results contribute to the scientific validation of the antialcoholic indication of this botanic species in Argentine folk medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Argentine traditional medicine it is recorded the use of Jodina rhombifolia (Hook. & Arn.) Reissek (Santalaceae) leaves for treating various affections that compromise the intestinal normal functioning. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of J. rhombifolia leaves lyophilized aqueous extract on the intestinal function by means of in vivo and ex vivo experimental assays for determinate the antidiarrheal and antispasmodic capacity. Furthermore, was to evaluate its acute toxicity potential by oral and intraperitoneal administration of extract. The in vivo assays were conducted by the experimental techniques of intestinal transit in mice, intestinal fluid accumulation in rats and Castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice. In the ex vivo assays, isolated rat duodenum and ileum segments were used for to evaluate the antispasmodic activity through contractile concentration-response curves induced by Carbachol and CaCl 2. The acute toxicity of the extract was also investigated by oral and intraperitoneal administration. The extract intraperitoneal administration at the doses 125, 250 and 500 mg/kg, caused a marked reduction in the normal intestinal transit and in the number of diarrheal episodes in a dose-dependent manner. However, the extract did not produce significant changes in the intestinal fluid accumulation with any of the tested dose. The extract demonstrated a non-competitive inhibitory effect on the contractions of intestinal smooth muscle experimentally provoked by the spasmogenic agents Carbachol and CaCl2 in a dose-dependent manner (IC 50 = 10.57 ± 1.38 and 6.29 ± 1.54 mg extract/ml Tyrode solution in the isolated organ bath, respectively). ANOVA indicated a significative effect of treatment (p < 0.001). The scientific evidence achieved based in the used experimental models allows us to indicate that J. rhombifolia leaves lyophilized aqueous extract manifest an antispasmodic activity on intestinal smooth muscle without observation of apparent toxicity symptoms. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]