DIVERSIDAD GENÉTICA Y MEJORAMIENTO DE PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants and improvement of medicinal herbs

Pharmacol. active ingredients in plants can cause significant morbidity through their increasingly common use in herbal alternative medicines and dietary supplements. Monitoring consumer products for the presence of toxic plants is encumbered by the lack of rapid and specific assays. To create a sensitive, reliable, fast, and broad-spectrum assay for medicinal or toxic plant species, the authors tested multiplexed ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), which requires partial genomic DNA sequences from species of plants that are not well represented in currently available genetic databases. Genomic DNA was obtained from 21 species of medicinal and/or toxic plants. The PCR products were amplified from these plants and cloned for sequencing. The MLPA method was successful with DNA samples from many different species. The use of a microarray to facilitate screening of potentially thousands of plants in a single assay also was successful. The combination of the specificity of the MLPA assay with the broad-scale capabilities of microarray technol. should make this an esp. useful tool in screening in foods and com. herbal prepns. to identify the plant compds. actually present. Other applications could potentially extend to the identification of any plant species in samples for academic botanical studies and for biodefense and forensics applications. 

ÚLTIMOS AVANCES EN LA QUÍMICA Y ACTIVIDADES BACTERIOLÓGICAS EN LAS PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants, last advances on chemistry and bacteria activities on the medicinal herbs

1) The aim of the present study was to evaluate antioxidative activities of the essential oil, methanol and water exts. of Iranian pennyroyal in vegetable oil during storage.  Different concns. (0, 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 ppm) of essential oil, water and methanol exts. and beta-hydroxy toluene (BHT; 200 ppm) were added to sunflower oil emulsion in the presence of cupric ions and incubated for 7 days at 60 °C.  Peroxide values (PVs) and thiobarbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS) levels were measured in each day up to day of seven.  Furthermore, antioxidant capacity of the essential oil and exts. were detd. using DPPH and beta-carotene-linoleic acid methods.  Values were compared among groups in each incubation time points using ANOVA.  Results showed that DPPH and beta-carotene-linoleic acid assay findings on the Mentha pulegium exts. were comparable to those found on BHT.  Furthermore, in all incubation time points, M. pulegium exts. lowered PVs and TBARS levels when compared to the control (p < 0.001).  In this respect, water ext. was more potent than the methanol ext.  Essential oil did not show considerable antioxidative effect.  It seems that water ext. of M. pulegium is a potent antioxidant which makes it as a potential antioxidant for oil and oily products during storage.

2) The Leaves of Mentha pulegium, a traditional herbal medicine in Morocco were collected in the region of Boulmane (Skoura) and then dried in the open air for seventeen days and kept for extn.  The essential oils were extd. by hydrodistn. method and analyzed by gas chromatog. equipped with flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and gas chromatog. coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to det. their chem. compn. of the volatile fraction and identify their chemotypes.  The leaf exts. were used to test the antimicrobial activity against seven bacteria: Staphylococcus intermedius, Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsielle pneumoniae, and Proteus mirabilis.  Twenty eight constituents were identified.  The essential oil yields and the total oil of the studies were 1.66% and 97.34% resp.  The major component was piperitone (35.56%), other predominant constituents were: piperitenone (21.18%), alpha-terpineol (10.89%), pulegone (6.452%), piperitone oxide (4.02%), menthol (3.28%), menthone (3.09%), neomenthol (2.80%), menthofuran (2.15%), isomenthone (1.56%), carvone (1.13%), geranyl acetate (1.06%), germacrene D (1.03%) and limonene (1.02%).  Staphylococcus intermedius, Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus luteus were the most sensitive strain tested to the oil of Mentha pulegium with the strongest inhibition zone 32, 24 and 21mm resp.

3) The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of essential oils from 13 different plants from Lamiaceae family against different species of Streptococci using broth micro-diln. assay.  The essential oils were identified using GC and GC/MS.  Zataria multiflora, Ziziphora tenuir, Satureja hortensis showed the most antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus species.  Conversely, Zhumeria majdae, Salvia officinalis, Mentha spicata, and Rosmarinus officinalis were less effective.  Perovskia abrotanoides, Mentha pulegium, Mentha piperita, Hyssopus officinalis, Ocimum basilicum and Lavandula stoechas showed moderate activity.  An isolate of Streptococcus mutans was the most susceptible cocci to these compds. (MIC values £1 ml/mL).  Conversely, with the exception of Z. multiflora oil (MIC values = 1 ml/mL), Enterococcus faecalis (group D streptococci) was resistant to all tested essential oils (MIC >2 ml/mL).  The results suggest that the differences in antimicrobial activity of oils may be attributable to the major chem. components of the essential oils.  The essential oils from Zataria multiflora and Satureja hortensis possessed antimicrobial properties against streptococci apparently related to their high phenolic content, particularly thymol and carvacrol.  Further in vivo expt. should be done for confirmation of their potency in practical uses.

Uses: gross carpal, local pain, fever, infantile colic,belly ache, diarrhea, constipation, worm, colic-baby, change of life, expectorant, cold, cough, renal colic.                                                

Origin: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United States.                 

PARTE UTILIZADA= Used part: Partes aéreas. 

ACCIÓN FARMACOLÓGICA= Pharmacological action: Emenagogo y estomacal.

POSOLOGÍA= Posology: La infusión se emplea como emenagogo y estomacal. Infusión al 1-5 %

COMPOSICIÓN QUÍMICA= Chemical composition: Aceite esencial (0,5-2%): pulegona (60-90%)), cis y transisopulegona, mentona (0,4-7%), isomentona (5,15%), mentofurano (5%), piperitona (0,1%), isopiperitona, linalol, d-limoneno, cineol, carvacrol, eugenol, mentol, isomentol, neomentol, neoisomentol, 3-octanol, canfeno, alfa-fenandreno, gama-terpineno, lippiona. Esta última le da el aroma característico. El aceite esencial es casi transparente, incoloro (o tenuemente amarillo) y con un aroma y sabor mentolado. Es soluble en alcohol de 70 grados. Otros: flavonoides (diosmina y hesperidina). 

ZONA GEOGRÁFICA= Geografical zone: Uruguay. 

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Distribución: Regiones Coquimbo, Valparaiso, Metropolitana de Santiago, O’Higgins, Maule, Nuble, Biobio, Araucania, Los Rios, Los Lagos.

Usos medicinales: Planta vulneraria que se aplica en cataplasmas para tratar heridas. Tambien se usa como tonico estomacal, digestivo, carminativo y contra el reumatismo. En infusion se bebe para evitar el meteorismo, dolores de cabeza y para combatir la tos. El jugo de las flores aplicadas en las fosas nasales se utiliza para combatir las molestias de la sinusitis. Finalmente, la infusion de la planta bebida antes de dormir, se usa para conciliar el sueno.
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Partes usadas:
talloshojas-flores

Usos tradicionales:
malestares digestivos (dispepsia, cólicos, dolor de estómago, flatulencia, estreñimiento); menstruaciones escasas.
La infusión se prepara con 1 cucharada del vegetal para 1 litro de agua recién hervida: beber 1 taza 3 veces en el día.

Efecto:
antiespasmódico, carminativo, estomacal, emenagogo.

Precauciones:
no administra durante el embarazo, la lactancia ni a niños menores de edad. No exceder la dosis aconsejada especialmente personas con problemas hepáticos. No administrar junto a paracetamol. Puede disminuir el efecto terapéutico de hipoglicemiantes orales e insulina. Puede aumentar el efecto terapéutico de antihistamínicos. No tomar junto con la hierba de San Juan (hipericon) y Kava.

1) ALONSO PAZ, Eduardo ; BASSAGODA, María Julia ; FERREIRA, Fernando. Yuyos : uso racional de las plantas medicinales. Montevideo : Fin de siglo, 1992, p. 83.

2) ALONSO, Jorge R. Tratado de fitomedicina : bases clínicas y farmacológicas. Buenos Aires : ISIS, 1998, p. 615.

3) BARTHELSON, Roger A.; SUNDARESHAN, Padma; GALBRAITH, David W.; WOOSLEY, Raymond L. Development of a comprehensive detection method for medicinal and toxic plant species. American Journal of Botany. 2006, vol.93, nº4, p.566-574.
 
4) KAMKAR, Abolfazl; et al.   The antioxidative effect of Iranian Mentha pulegium extracts and essential oil in sunflower oil. Food and Chemical Toxicology. 2010, vol.48, nº7, p.1796-1800.
 
5) ELHOUSSINE, Derwich; ZINEB, Benziane; ABDELLATIF, Boukir. GC/MS analysis and antibacterial activity of the essential oil of Mentha pulegium grown in Morocco. Research Journal of Agriculture and Biological Sciences. 2010, vol.6, nº3, p.191-198.
 
6) MAHBOUBI, M.; FEIZABADI, M. M.  Antimicrobial activity of essential oils from 13 different plants against streptococci.  International Journal of Essential Oil Therapeutics. 2009, vol.3, nº1, p.40-44.

7) Geraldini , Isanete, Journal of Ethnopharmacology v. 173, 2015 . -- p. 383-423

8) Plantas silvestres comestibles y medicinales de Chile y otras partes del mundo/Cordero R., Sebastián; Abella A., Lucía; Galvez L. Francisca; Corporación chilena de la madera: Concepción, 2017 . -- 292 p.

9) Hierbas medicinales/ Chile. Ministerio de Agricultura.  p.64