Aims: The aim of the study was to assess the antibacterial effect of Ficus carica extracts against Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, & Staphylococcus aureus. Study Design: Evaluation of antimicrobial activity using Cup-cut agar method. Place and Duration of Study: Microbiology Research Laboratory, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Tripoli, from October 2015 to March 2016. Methodology: The leaves and stem part extracts of Ficus carica plant were prepared using maceration method. The antibacterial activities of the extracts were evaluated using Cup-cut agar method to determinate inhibitory zone diameters in millimeters of the plant extracts against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The measurement of exponential bacterial growth curves was used to determine the type of growth pattern spectrophotometrically at 600 nm. Furthermore, plate count methods were also used to enumerate the bacterial count and to determine the percentage of inhibition as well as IC50. Results: The results of this study showed that Ficus carica extracts used, exhibited antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus. The maximum zone of inhibition against S. aureus (27± 0.04mm, p
Basma Mohamed K Doro(1-2018)

Metronidazole is an antiprotozoal drug which is also effective against anaerobic bacteria. The availability of several brands of Metronidazole tablets in Libyan pharmacies today places health practitioners and a pharmacist in a problem of drug substitution in case of a particular brand is not available. The aim of the present study was the evaluation and comparison of pharmaceutical equivalence of five different Metronidazole coated tablets 500 mg, which are commercially available in the private pharmacies in Tripoli city, produced by various pharmaceutical companies with different trade names. The pharmaceutical quality of five brands of Metronidazole tablets was analyzed using official and unofficial quality control tests prescribed in different Pharmacopoeia including uniformity of weight, thickness, hardness, disintegration time, drug content as well as dissolution rate and assay. Acceptable external features as well as uniformity in diameter and thickness were revealed for all the tablets. The entire selected brands complied with the official specifications for uniformity of weight, hardness and disintegration, they released more than 75% of their drug content within 45 minutes. It can be concluded that all the brands could be regarded as bioequivalent and therefore can be interchanged in the clinical practice; this sort of study is good indicator for the evaluation of the idealness of commercial products and showed the importance of post marketing investigation for the drugs imported and distributed in Libya.
Sakina Salem Saadawi(12-2021)

ABSTRACT Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima D.) is an angiosperm belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family generally characterized by climbing herbaceous vine with tendrils. The fruits vary in size, colour, shape and weight and have a moderately hard rind, with a thick edible flesh, and numerous seeds in the fruit which are either plump and tan or soft white.Preliminary phytochemical evaluation on different extracts of seed and fruit of C.maxima reveals the presence of proteins, carbohydrates, flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids, steroids, coumerins, phenolic compounds, terpenoids, and glycosides. A C.maximum contains antioxidants (such as: tocopherols, flavonoids, and phenolic acids, carotenoids or ascorbic acid) which are molecule that are capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other molecules. They may protect cells from damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions by being oxidized themselves.Free radical scavenging or antioxidant activity of the extract was determined on the basis of their scavenging activity of the stable 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical. Antibacterial activity of the crude extract was determined by Cup-cut agar diffusion method.The pulp and seed extracts showed significant antioxidant activity in a dose-dependent manner with good IC50 values. For the pulp IC50(s) were 4.25 ± 0.05, 3.84 ± 1.18 and 4.12 ± 0.32 for petroleum ether, chloroform and Methanol extracts, respectively. In addition the the seed IC50(s) were 9.22 ± 0.20, 14.5 ± 0.14 and 5.97 ± 1.70 for petroleum ether, chloroform and Methanol extracts, respectively. C.maxima extracts contains antioxidants that prevent the oxidative damage to DNA in presence of DNA damaging agent (Sybr Gold) at a high concentration. The percentage of hydroxyl radical scavenging activity of C. maxima determines the ability of antioxidant to scavenge the hydroxyl radicals. The antioxidant activity of C. maxima extracts has high scavenging activity (thermodynamic property) and relatively high reaction rate (kinetic property); therefore, the second order rate constant (ks) of the H-atom transfer from antioxidant to the hydroxyl radical was seen. The seed extract showed antibacterial properties on both Gram- positive and Gram-negative bacteria used in this study. This means that C. maxima are useful as potential antibacterial agents. It was also observed from this study, the variations in the antibacterial activities of the C. maxima may be due to the differences in their bioactive compositions or concentrations. In conclusion, the physicochemical and preliminary phytochemical evaluation of fruit and seeds of C.maxima provide valuable information regarding their identification, authentication and chemical constituents which may be useful for the standardization and preparation of medicinal plants. The constituents of fruit and seeds of C. maxima may have several medicinal properties and can be utilized for the treatment of various diseases. Further research on this species in Libya may help in the isolation of therapeutically potent compounds which can be finally be subjected to pharmacological activities, thus leading to opening up new avenues in the use of natural products for therapeutic purpose.
إيناس عبدالله السعداوي (2016)