Hemostasis is a tightly regulated process which maintains a fluid state of blood within the vasculature and provides thrombotic response upon tissue injury. Various scientific studies have implicated the role of plant latex proteases in hemostasis using in vitro experiments. However, in vivo models substantiate their role in hemostasis. Therefore, in the present study, the effect of plant latex thrombin-like proteases (PTLPs) on hemostasis was investigated systematically using mice tail bleeding as a preclinical model. In this direction, latex protease fractions (LPFs), which showed potent thrombin-like activity, were selected as they act directly on fibrinogen to form clot and quickly stop bleeding.Thrombin-like activity was exhibited mainly by cysteine proteases. Calotropis gigantea, Carica papaya, Jatropha curcas, Oxystelma esculentum, Tabernaemontana divaricata, and Vallaris solanacea LPFs and papain from C. papaya latex significantly reduced bleeding on a topical application in normal and aspirin administered mice. In addition, PTLPs accelerated the clotting of factor VIII deficient plasma, while, papain brought back the clotting time to normal levels acting like a bypassing agent. Further, papain failed to show activity in the presence of specific cysteine protease inhibitor iodoacetic acid; confirming protease role in all the activities exhibited. At the tested dose, PTLPs except C. gigantea did not show toxicity. Further, structural and sequence comparison between PTLPs and human thrombin revealed structural and sequence dissimilarity indicating their unique nature. The findings of the present study may open up a new avenue for considering PTLPs including papain in the treatment of bleeding wounds. K E Y W O R D S bypassing agent, hemophilia, hemostasis, intrinsic pathway, papain, procoagulant protease

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Background: Ficus racemosa Linn. (FR) is commonly known as gula fig/cluster fig. It is moderate sized avenue tree found throughout India either wild or cultivated for its fruits eaten by villagers. Objective: The main aim of the study was to evaluate the antidiabetic potential of various polar and non-polar extracts of leaves and bark of FR in animals. Materials and Methods: The crude drugs were extracted using various polar and non-polar solvents and preliminary phytochemical screening was performed for the presence of various phytocompounds. Diabetes was induced by a single I.P. injection of streptozotocin in normal control animals and treatment of different polar and non-polar extracts of leaves and bark of FR in diabetic animals. Blood glucose levels and various lipid parameters were evaluated in normal, diabetic, and various drug-treated animals. Results: In 21-day, glibenclamide as standard drug restored the blood glucose level and it is highly significantly(P < 0.001) in 14 days, where as methanolic extracts of FR (200 and 400 mg/kg) reduced the glucose level moderately and highly significant (P < 0.001). Petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and ethanolic extracts of FR had moderately significant effects (P < 0.01) on 14 th and 21 st days. Conclusion: This study reveals that methanolic extract of the plant is more effective in both cause of potential evaluation. In future, this plant can be used as antidiabetic and hypolipidemic drug for developing new pharmaceuticals and treatment of several diseases.

Vast applications of peroxidases create an increasing demand to characterize peroxidases from new sources with more applicability potential. The aim of the present study was to check the presence of peroxidase activity from Caralluma umbellata. This is the first report on the C. umbellata peroxidase (CUP). The presence of peroxidase was revealed by the histochemical analysis of the stem sections, zymographic studies, and in vitro peroxidase activity assay using various reducing substrates viz., 2, 2'-azinobis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), guaiacol, o-dianisidine, and ferulic acid. The band pattern in zymogram confirms that CUP has a molecular weight less than that of horseradish peroxidase (44 kDa). Comparative evaluation of peroxidase activity of CUP with respect to horseradish peroxidase (HRP) indicates that CUP catalyzes ABTS and ferulic acid in a similar pattern as HRP but with guaiacol, the extent of catalysis shown by CUP over HRP is high. The standard inhibitors sodium azide and sodium meta bisulphite inhibited CUP activity in a dose dependent manner.