In an effort to document the antibacterial properties of plants commonly used by the people of Puerto Rico, we studied the effects of 172 plant species, utilizing the disc diffusion method, against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The methanolic extracts of 14 species showed antibacterial activities during this preliminary screen. These positive plant extracts were tested successivel...

Tamarind seed polysaccharide (TSP) obtained from the seed kernel of Tamarindus indica, possesses properties like high viscosity mucilage, broad pH tolerance, no carcinogenicity, mucoadhesive nature, and biocompatibility. It is used as stabilizer, thickener, gelling agent, and binder in food and pharmaceutical industries. The objective of present investigation was to search for a cheap and effec...

An outbreak of cough and dyspnoea among workers in textile factories was recently reported by Murray, Dingwall-Fordyce, and Lane (1957). A new sizing agent prepared from the kernel of the seed of Tamarindus indica had been introduced and it was thought that the condition was a reaction to a constituent of this size. The present investigation was designed to confirm that the illnesses were due t...

Bioassay-guided fractionation of the methanolic extract of Tamarindus indica fruits led to the isolation of L-(-)-di-n-butyl malate which exhibited a pronounced cytotoxic activity against sea urchin embryo cells. In order to study structure-activity relationships, close-structure relatives of di-n-butyl malate were synthesized using D-(+)- and L-(-)-malic acid as starting materials, and their c...

BACKGROUND Tamarindus indica (T. indica) is a medicinal plant with many biological activities including anti-diabetic, hypolipidaemic and anti-bacterial activities. A recent study demonstrated the hypolipidaemic effect of T. indica fruit pulp in hamsters. However, the biochemical and molecular mechanisms responsible for these effects have not been fully elucidated. Hence, the aims of this study...