Introduction: The present study was contemplated to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and analgesic potentials in peels of some commercially grown Citrus fruits of South India viz, Lime (Citrus aurantifolia), Orange (Citrus reticulata), Sour Orange (Citrus aurantium), Pomello (Citrus grandis) and Citron (Citrus medica). Methods: The peel of the fruits were separated and subjected to cold extraction using 70% alcohol. The extracts obtained were screened for the presence of phytoconstituents by qualitative phytochemical analysis; the anti-inflammatory activity of extracts at 250 and 500mg/Kg body weight concentrations were assessed by in vivo Carrageenan induced rat paw edema model and in vitro HRBC membrane stabilization assay whereas Tail immersion and Hot plate methods have been used to evaluate their analgesic property. Results: The results revealed that, all extracts treated animals have shown significant decrease in paw edema volume at 3 rd and 4 th hour of treatment and increase in reaction time in tail immersion and hot plate readings at 120 and 150 min and are comparable to the standards. From the results it was evident that Citron peel extract exhibited significant antiinflammatory and analgesic property in all models. Preliminary phytochemical investigation revealed that extracts were bestowed with presence of flavonoids, terpenoids, steroids, glycosides, alkaloids, carotenoids and phenolic compounds which might be responsible for the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities. Conclusion: From the results it was evident that all citrus fruits have prominent activity in terms of parameters assessed in a dose dependent manner and are more effective in the later phase. The study thus documents that Citrus peels are good sources of anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive agents.

Pigeonpea, a drought tolerant, semi-arid pulse crop has been investigated for the expression of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under drought stress. The cDNA library of soybean leaf tissue retrieved from the Unigene database of the NCBI, were compared for in silico expression using IDEG6 web statistical tool. A list of 52 non-redundant DEGs consisting of 11 up-regulated and 41 down-regulated was obtained. Among these, more photosynthesis and light harvesting proteins were down-regulated in drought stress conditions. Pathways were assigned based on KEGG database, revealing 32 genes involved in 17 metabolic pathways. Homologous sequences of six up-regulated genes namely, ADF3, APB, ASR, DLP, LTP1, and UGE5 were then used for quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) in pigeonpea. The qRT-PCR result revealed the significant up-regulation of dehydrin-like protein (DLP) (5.02 log2 fold) and down-regulation of acid phosphatase class B family protein (APB) (9.43 log2 fold) and non-specific lipid transfer protein 1-like (LTP1) (18.81 log2 fold) in pigeonpea water-stressed leaf sample compared to well-watered leaf samples. No significant difference was observed in the stressed root compared to the stressed pigeonpea leaf sample except that APB showed an up-regulation of 11.35 log2 fold change.

Introduction: The genus Morus is well known for its medicinal benefits from time immemorial. The present work reported the health-promoting properties of the biologically active molecules present in different species of the genus Morus. Methods: Different solvent extracts of the three plant species of Morus were investigated initially for their antioxidant effects, followed by in vitro anticancer studies against MCF7 and 3T3 cell lines along with their bioactive isolates viz. cathafuran-B, moracin-M, and Ursolic acid. Further, in silico docking studies were performed for the isolated compounds to predict their probable mode of interaction with P38Map Kinase. Results: The results indicated that all three species under study possessed remarkable antioxidant effects which are supported by a linear and positive correlation between different antioxidant activities. The in vitro cell antiproliferative test indicated that the cell survivability decreased with an increase in the concentration of extracts and compounds. Among the extracts, M. laevigata methanol extract showed 21.57, 6.27% of cell survival against MCF7 and 3T3 cell lines at 800 µg/mL concentration while among the isolated compounds, ursolic acid showed 8.46, 17.58% of cell survival at 200 µg/mL concentration. Among the three compounds docked, ursolic acid showed greater binding affinity towards the target protein in terms of its binding energy (-9.97 kJ/mol) compared to Cathafuran B (-8.35 kJ/mol) and Moracin M (-6.91 kJ/mol). Conclusion: The study generated interesting results in terms of health benefits of Morus species by documenting their antioxidant and anticancer activities, thereby validating the folk claims of therapeutic benefits of mulberry.