This survey was undertaken in the Errachidia province in south-eastern Morocco in order to inventory the main medicinal plants used in folk medicine to treat arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Four hundred individuals who knew about and/or had used the medicinal plants for the indicated diseases, including some herbal healers, were interviewed throughout different regions of the provi...

the seeds of peganum harmala l. ( pgh ) (zygophyllaceae) have been used in moroccan traditional medicine for treatment of a various diseases and to relieve dolorous process. the major objective of this paper was to investigate the analgesic effect of ethyl acetate (eae), butanolic (be) and aqueous (aqe) extracts of seeds of peganum harmala and elucided the possible underlying action mechanism o...

Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders.  There are many documents about the effects of oxidative stress in Parkinson’s disease etiology. Angiotensin II activates NADPH dependent oxidases and causes superoxides formation.  Peganum harmala L. extract, which has angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory effect, is considered to evaluate oxidative stress inhi...

In the present work, rapid identification of elements and their relative chemical composition in various Peganum harmala seed samples were investigated using a calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique (CF-LIBS). A pulsed Nd:YAG laser-source with 5 ns pulse-duration, 10 Hz pulse repetition rates providing 400 200 mJ energy at 1064 532 nm wavelength, respectively, was focus...

Acanthamoeba castellanii is member of free living amoeba that may cause painful sight-threatening keratitis and life threatening encephalitis which involves central nervous system. Treatments for both infections are problematic because of the amoebic cysts resistance to therapeutic agents. Here we evaluated in vitro strength of methanolic seed extract of Peganum harmala on Acanthamoeba cysts an...

objective: peganum harmala (p. harmala), “espand” in persian, has small seeds and has been used in traditional medicine as emmenagogue and an abortifacient. it has various pharmacological effects such as antifungal, antibacterial, hypothermic, anticancer, antinociceptive, and reversible monoamine oxidase inhibition. case details: this case was a 45 years old woman who ingested about 50 grams se...