Serial alcohol consumption causes alcoholic liver disease (ALD), which can lead to fatty liver, hepatitis, and cirrhosis. Terminalia ferdinandiana (Kakadu plum) is an indigenous fruit of Australia, which is utilized as a functional food. It is a commercially important antioxidant as it contains a more eloquent level of ascorbic acid than other oranges. In this study, we analyzed the chemical constituents of vitamin C, gallic acid, ellagic acid, and daidzin via High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the Kakadu plum from two different regions including the Northern Territory (NT) and Western Australia (WA), and compared their biochemical properties. The vitamin C content was much higher (almost 70%) in Kakadu plum (KKD) from the NT than WA. Moreover, ROS generation was inhibited significantly in HepG2 (human hepatoma) cells with the KKD-NT extract treatment when compared to the KKD-WA extract treatment. The cytotoxicity produced by ethanol was significantly suppressed in response to the treatment with both of the samples. In addition, our samples (KKD-NT and KKD-WA) increased the activity of two key enzymes involving alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) that metabolize ethanol. These results show the biochemical confirmation of the mechanism by which KKD exhibits its biological functions including relief from alcohol hangovers as well as protection of the liver cells by the suppression of ROS production and toxic insults.

Objective: Antioxidants are compounds that can inhibit free radical reactivity. They become very interesting to be observed because they can prevent some diseases such as goat arthritis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and macular degeneration. Since Indonesia is rich for its biodiversity, there are a lot of plants that have potential to be developed as new alternative antioxidants. The aim of this research was to evaluate antioxidant activity from 10 species of Myrtaceae (Syzygium cumini, Syzygium samarangense, Syzygium aqueum, Syzygium aromaticum, Syzygium polyanthum, Syzygium jambos, Syzygium malaccense, Psidium guajava, Eucalyptus deglupta, and Melaleuca leucadendra). Methods:Continuous extraction with Soxhlet apparatus was selected as extraction method. Three solvents (n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol) with different polarity were used in this process. 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity was used to evaluate antioxidant activity with ascorbic acid as a standard drug.Results: Based on the experiments, methanol extracts showed higher activity than other extracts with their inhibitory concentration 50% (IC 50 ) was below than 25 µg/ml. The lowest IC 50 was exhibited by methanol extract of S. jambos, which was 7.8 µg/ml. Conclusion:It can be concluded that S. jambos is potential to be developed as a new alternative antioxidant.

Phenolics are phytochemicals in plants, fruits, and vegetables have potential health-promoting efficacies. However, mostly available as a complex form. So, to increase the contents and nutritional value of the phenolic compounds, fermentation is most readily used in the food industry. Especially, the hydrolyzable tannins present in the pomegranate that can be liberated into monomolecular substances, which enhances biological activity. Thus, this study aims to convert hydrolyzable tannins to ellagic acid by fermentation using Tannin acyl hydrolase (TAH) and a novel bacteria strain Lactobacillus vespulae DCY75, respectively to investigate its effect on Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) mRNA expression along with inflammation inhibition. As a result, the fermentation enhanced the ellagic acid content up to 70% by the synergetic effect of TAH and DCY75. Furthermore, fermented pomegranate (PG-F) increased cellular proliferation as well as upregulated the gene expression of estrogen regulators such as ERα, ERβ, and pS2 in breast cancer cell line (MCF-7), which commonly used to evaluate estrogenic activity. Moreover, to study the inflammation associated with low estrogen in menopause, we have analyzed the inhibition of nitric oxide (NO)/inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in RAW 264.7 cells. The PG-F juice did not exert any cytotoxicity in RAW 264.7 cells and inhibited NO production along with the downregulation of a major pro-inflammatory cytokine iNOS which indicates the anti-inflammatory potential of it. To sum it up, the fermented commercial pomegranate juice using a novel bacteria strain increased the amount of ellagic acid that the value added bioactive of pomegranate and it has significantly increased the estrogenic activity via upregulating estrogen related biomarkers expression and reduced the risk of related inflammation via NO/iNOS inhibition. This study could be a preliminary study to use fermented pomegranate as a potential health functional food after further evaluation.

Terminalia ferdinandiana (Kakadu plum) is an Australian native plant that has recently gained the attention of researchers due to its highly antioxidant compounds that have substantial health benefits. To raise the value, in this study, it is used for the first time to synthesize ZnO nanoparticles for anti-lung cancer and anti-inflammatory activities. The formation of KKD-ZnO-NPs (ZnO particles obtained from Kakadu plum) were confirmed using a UV-Visible spectrophotometer. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis confirmed the functional groups that are responsible for the stabilization and capping of KKD-ZnO-NPs. The flower shape of the synthesized KKD-ZnO-NPs was confirmed by field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and field emission-transmission electron microscopy (FE-TEM) analyses. The crystallites were highly pure and had an average size of 21.89 nm as measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The dynamic light scattering (DLS) revealed size range of polydisperse KKD-ZnO-NPs was 676.65 ± 47.23 nm with a PDI of 0.41 ± 0.0634. Furthermore, the potential cytotoxicity was investigated in vitro against human lung cancer cell lines (A549) and Raw 264.7 Murine macrophages cells as normal cells to ensure safety purposes using MTT assay. Thus, KKD-ZnO-NPs showed prominent cytotoxicity against human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) at 10 μg/mL and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production as well, which could promote toxicity to cancer cells. Moreover, upregulation of p53 and downregulation of bcl2 gene expression as apoptosis regulators were confirmed via RT-PCR. In addition, KKD-ZnO-NPs possess a similar capacity of reduction in proinflammatory-nitric oxide (NO) production when compared to the L-NMMA as inflammation’s inhibitor, indicating anti-inflammatory potential. Incorporation of Kakadu plum extract as reducing and stabilizing agents enabled the green synthesis of flower-shaped KKD-ZnO-NPs that could be an initiative development of effective cancer therapy drug.

Penuaan kulit merupakan proses alami yang tidak dapat dihindari, yang ditandai dengan keriput dan pigmentasi pada kulit. Kesehatan kulit wajah merupakan aspek penting bagi manusia, terutama bagi wanita. Sejak dahulu masyarakat Indonesia sudah memanfaatkan tumbuhan sebagai bahan kosmetik dan pengobatan penyakit kulit. Saat ini, trend “back to nature” semakin meningkat dimana kepercayaan masyarakat terhadap senyawa aktif dari bahan alam relatif aman dibandingkan senyawa-senyawa kimia sintetik. Ketersediaan hayati yang beragam di Indonesia merupakan faktor pendukung pengembangan produk kosmetik dan perawatan kulit dari bahan alam. Kecamatan Ciwaringin Kabupaten Cirebon merupakan salah satu daerah di Jawa Barat yang kekayaan alamnya dapat dimanfaatkan sebagai jamu kecantikan dan bahan sediaan kosmetika. Oleh karena itu, perlu dilakukan program peningkatan pemahaman dan pengetahuan masyarakat dalam pemanfaatan herbal untuk kesehatan kulit dan sediaan kosmetika. Selain itu, diharapkan dapat meningkatkan nilai ekonomi tanaman herbal yang banyak tumbuh di daerah Kecamatan Ciwaringin Kabupaten Cirebon khususnya di Desa Gintung Ranjeng.