Microbiological and Pharmacological Evaluation of the Micropropagated Rubus liebmannii Medicinal Plant

Abstract

Rubus liebmannii is an endemic species from Mexico used in traditional medicine primarily to treat dysentery and cough. The in vitro activity against Giardia lamblia and Entamoeba histolytica that produces the ethanolic extract of the aerial parts of the plant led us to expand the pharmacological and phytochemical research of this species. Gastrointestinal disorders including amebiasis remain one of the health problems that need to be addressed and it is of interest to find alternatives that improve their treatment. Also, it is important to emphasize that R. liebmannii grows wild in the country and is not found in abundance; therefore, alternatives that avoid overexploitation of the natural resource are mandatory. Ongoing with the evaluation of the potentialities that R. liebmannii possesses for treating infectious gastrointestinal diseases, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the biological effects and the chemical composition of the micropropagated plant.

Figure 1

Photomicrographs of liver, kidney, spleen, and intestine from male Sprague-Dawley rats in subacute toxicity of the extract from aerial parts of Rubus liebmannii. Cross-sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin at ×400 (for liver and kidney) and at ×100 (for spleen and intestine). Observations were conducted at different amplified levels. The liver cross-section shows the hepatic artery (HA), bile duct (BD), central vein (CV), sinusoids (S), and hepatocytes (H), all clearly conserved. Cross-section of kidney shows, on magnification, renal corpuscles (RC), tubules (T), and Bowman's space (BS), all sealed. Spleen cross-section shows red pulp (RP) and white pulp (WP) containing central arteries (CAs), all well defined. Cross-section of intestine shows Peyer patches (PPs) and intestinal mucosa (IM), with all of these structures also found to be totally conserved.