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Long-term use of the nitroimidazole-derived antibiotic metronidazole has been associated with neuronal damage due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Polyphenol-rich plants, such as anise seeds and clove buds, are suggested to have neuroprotective effects. However, their intracellular protective pathway against metronidazole-induced neurotoxicity remains unexplored. This study aims to evaluate the potential neuroprotective benefits of anise seeds and clove buds and elucidate the proposed metronidazole-induced neurotoxicity mechanism. This study divided rats into six groups, each containing six rats. In Group I, the control group, rats were administered saline orally. Group II rats received 200 mg/kg of metronidazole orally. Group III rats received 250 mg/kg b.w. of anise seed extract and metronidazole. Group IV rats received 500 mg/kg b.w. of anise seed extract (administered orally) and metronidazole. Group V rats received 250 mg/kg b.w. of clove bud extract (administered orally) and metronidazole. Group VI rats were administered 500 mg/kg b.w. of clove bud extract and metronidazole daily for 30 consecutive days. The study evaluated the phenolic compounds of anise seeds and clove buds. Moreover, it assessed the inflammatory and antioxidant indicators and neurotransmitter activity in brain tissues. A histological examination of the brain tissues was conducted to identify neuronal degeneration, brain antioxidants, and apoptotic mRNA expression. The study found that metronidazole treatment significantly altered antioxidant levels, inflammatory mediators, and structural changes in brain tissue. Metronidazole also induced apoptosis in brain tissue and escalated the levels of inflammatory cytokines. Oral administration of metronidazole resulted in a decrease in GABA, dopamine, and serotonin and an increase in ACHE in brain tissue. Conversely, oral administration of anise and clove extracts mitigated the harmful effects of metronidazole. The neurotoxic effects of metronidazole appear to stem from its ability to reduce antioxidants in brain tissue and increase nitric oxide production and apoptosis. The study concludes that neuronal damage caused by metronidazole is significantly mitigated by treatment with anise and clove extracts.

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In metabolomics studies, independent analyses or replicating the metabolite concentration measurements are often performed to anticipate errors. On the other hand, the size of the dataset is increasing. For clustering purposes, obtaining representative information chemically from independent analyses is needed. The objective of this study is to develop a data reduction method such that a dataset that represents chemical information is obtained. Overall a proper data reduction method would simplify the clustering of metabolite data. We propose the modified Weiszfeld algorithm (MWA) to reduce independent analyses. To obtain comprehensive results, we compare MWA with some other well-known reduction methods, including PCA, CMDS, LE, and LLE. Then reduced datasets are clustered using the fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm with the Tang Sun Sun (TSS) index and silhouette index as the cluster validity indices. The results show that MWA, together with PCA, present the optimal number of clusters, namely four clusters. This result aligns with the optimal number of clusters before dimensionality reduction. The present results show that MWA is robust to perform dimensionality reduction of independent analyses while maintaining chemical information on the reduced dataset. Therefore, we recommend the reliability of MWA as one of the chemometric techniques, and the present finding has enriched chemometric techniques in metabolomics studies.

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Background: Cloves are aromatic spices containing diverse chemically active substances with biological properties. They have also been used in traditional medicine. Aim: This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of clove bud powder (CBP) dietary administration on the performance and jejunum morphology of the broiler chickens. Methods: A total of 360 1-day-old chicks (Ross 308) were distributed according to a completely randomized design on 3 experimental groups according to CBP% in feed (0.0%, 0.5%, and 1.0%), with 6 replicates for each treatment group. The studied traits included body weight, daily weight gain, daily feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, mortality%, European broiler index (EBI), villus height, crypt depth, and villus height/crypt depth ratio. Results: The broilers final body weight, daily weight gain, and daily feed consumption reduced significantly (p ≤ 0.01) in groups consuming different percentages of CBP, and a significant increase (p < 0.05) in feed conversion ratio was noted in the CBP groups. Adding CBP to feed caused a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in the EBI. However, CBP increased (p ≤ 0.01) villus height and villus height/crypt depth ratio (h/c ratio) compared to the control group. On the other hand, the results showed that there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) between treatment groups in mortality% and crypt depth. Conclusion: This study concluded that the addition of CBP had a negative effect on daily feed consumption, daily body weight gain, final body weight, feed conversion ratio, and EBI at a dose used in this study. But it improved intestinal morphology.

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In present work, we demonstrate a single step environmentally benign approach to synthesize Au/Ag bimetallic nanoparticles (BMNPs) using aqueous extract of Clove buds for the first time. Clove bud's (CB) extract has proficiency to act as a reducing and stabilizing agent for the formation of Au/Ag BMNPs. In presence of extract, AuIII and AgI are reduced competitively within same solution and produce Au/Ag alloy NPs. The kinetics besides the formation of NPs was studied using UV-visible spectroscopy and efficiency of the extract was monitored by varying contact time, temperature, pH and extract concentration. The electron microscopic studies revealed the presence of NPs with peculiar morphology at alkaline pH. Further, the existence of Au and Ag atoms was investigated using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) techniques. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed that Eugenol in the extract is mainly responsible for the production of NPs which are also surrounded by various phytochemicals. Zeta potential of all the NPs is found to be negative which prevents their agglomeration due to inter-repulsion and the biosynthesized Au/Ag BMNPs revealed greater catalytic efficiency for the degradation of methyl orange (MO), methylene blue (MB) and reduction of p-nitrophenol (p-NP). Significant enhancement induced by BMNPs compared to individual monometallic nanoparticles (MMNPs) was assigned to the synergistic effect of MMNPs and coating of phytochemicals present in the CB extract.

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So far, the occurrence of the flavor constituent 1-phenylethyl acetate in a natural source has not been unambiguously confirmed. The present work provides the detailed identification of 1-phenylethyl acetate from clove (Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M. Perry) buds. In addition, headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis revealed further occurrence of 1-phenylethyl acetate in cocoa pulp and grape hyacinth flowers. A total of 15.2 g of essential oil was recovered from 7.2 kg of clove buds by simultaneous distillation-extraction followed by vacuum distillation. The distillate obtained was fractionated by silica column chromatography, whereby a significant enrichment of 1-phenylethyl acetate was achieved. The fraction containing the target analyte was further purified by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography, resulting in a final purity of ∼93.0%, yielding a total of 1 to 2 mg of 1-phenylethyl acetate. Identification of the isolated compound was achieved by GC/MS, infrared spectroscopy, enantioselective GC, isotope ratio MS, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Enantioselective GC/MS analysis revealed an enantiomeric excess of 60% (1S)-(-)-1-phenylethyl acetate in the isolate. The δ13CV-PDB value of -32.5 ± 0.5‰ was in accordance with that of C3-plants and other constituents found in genuine clove extracts.

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In recent decades, several spices have been studied for their potential in the prevention and treatment of cancer. It is documented that spices have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and anticancer effects. The main mechanisms of spices action included apoptosis induction, proliferation, migration and invasion of tumour inhibition, and sensitization of tumours to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In this study, the ability of clove buds extract (CBE) to induce oxidative stress, DNA damage, and stress/survival/apoptotic pathways modulation were analysed in MCF-7 cells. We demonstrated that CBE treatment induced intrinsic caspase-dependent cell death associated with increased oxidative stress mediated by oxygen and nitrogen radicals. We showed also the CBE-mediated release of mitochondrial pro-apoptotic factors, signalling of oxidative stress-mediated DNA damage with modulation of cell antioxidant SOD (superoxide dismutase) system, and modulation activity of the Akt, p38 MAPK, JNK and Erk 1/2 pathways.

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Focusing on its application in reproductive biotechnology, we evaluated the effects of the essential oil of Syzygium aromaticum (EOSA) on bovine epididymal sperm quality variables, including morphology, membrane functional integrity, membrane structural integrity, mitochondrial activity, metabolic activity, motility and oxidative stress by reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. Bovine spermatozoa from eight males were incubated into the following groups: EOSA0 (without EOSA), EOSA10 (10 µg/ml of EOSA), EOSA15 (15 µg/ml of EOSA) and EOSA20 (20 µg/ml of EOSA); the incubation time with and without the EOSA was 1 or 6 hr. None of the sperm quality variables presented difference among the EOSA concentrations. However, the incubation time had a significant effect on the membrane functional integrity, membrane structural integrity, mitochondrial activity, progressive motility and some kinetic parameters. The effect of interaction among EOSA and incubation time was significant only on ROS levels. Spermatozoa incubated in the presence of 15 µg/ml of the EOSA for 1 hr had significantly reduced ROS levels compared with all other groups in the same time. In conclusion, the EOSA at a concentration of 15 µg/ml has antioxidant effects and protects bovine epididymal spermatozoa; hence, the EOSA may potentially be used in the field of reproductive biotechnology.

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