Herbal medicine is now globally accepted as an authenticated alternative system of therapy in the form of pharmaceuticals, functional foods, and nutraceuticals; a trend recognized and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). For decades herbal drugs have shown to be promising for a number of diseases and their use has been supported by physicians and patients for their improved therapeutic benefits as they have less adverse effects when compared with many modern medicines. In this thesis, it was decided to explore the therapeutic potential of n- hexane, DCM and methanol crude extracts from the Nigella sativa plant obtained by using novel Soxhlet extraction. The studies have been conducted on the antibacterial activity of these crude extracts of Nigella sativa and also demonstrated the in vitro antitumour potential of the above crude extracts of the plant. The results indicated that hexane extract of Nigella sativa seeds showed the most potent antibacterial and antitumour activity. The research also aimed at designing novel drug delivery systems for herbal constituent. Lipid emulsion (Intralipid) as a drug carrier was selected to carry the hexane extract obtained from one Soxhlet cycle extraction from the Nigella sativa seeds and determined its antitumour effects. This herbal formulation was investigated using both in vitro and in vivo target systems. Both, in vitro and in vivo findings showed that the Intralipid could carry the active ingredient(s) of the hexane extract across the filtered membrane and the drug carrier (IL) showed the minimal toxicity. Furthermore, the possibility of using ultrasound to enhance the cytotoxicity of the herbal drug formulation was explored using both in vivo and in vitro target system. The results suggested that ultrasound enhanced the therapeutic potential of the antitumour herbal drug in both the systems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:588594 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Mazumder, Anisha |
| Publisher | University of Ulster |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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