Fernando Almeida-Souza

By Amanda Mara Teles, Adenilde Nascimento Mouchreck, Gustavo Oliveira Everton, Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva, Kátia da Silva Calabrese and Fernando Almeida-Souza

There are many food-borne pathogens in the wild and they are considered the cause of serious public health problems in both developed and developing countries. The use of natural products, such as antimicrobial compounds, has been increasing, in an attempt to control bacteria present in foods, mainly pathogens resistant to conventional antibiotics. This chapter is intended to provide the antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of essential oils of Cinnamomum zeylanicum (cinnamon), Origanum vulgare (oregano), Zingiber officinale (ginger), Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary), Citrus latifolia (tahiti lemon) and Curcuma longa (saffron) as well as to determinate its chemical composition. The oils had been extracted by hydrodistillation with a Clevenger type apparatus and the antimicrobial activity was performed against standard strains Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The antioxidant activity was carried out using the ABTS [2,2-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)] method. The essential oils presented a mixture of mono- and sesquiterpenes. The best minimum inhibitory concentration was determined to C. zeylanicum against S. aureus. O. vulgare antioxidant activity presented inhibition of 90.74% and EC50 of 14 μg mL−1. These results demonstrate that the essential oils analyzed presented efficient antibacterial activity and antioxidant action being able to satisfy the demand of use as control of microorganisms in the food.

Part of the book: Essential Oils

By Amanda Mara Teles, Bianca Araújo dos Santos, Cleidiane Gomes Ferreira, Adenilde Nascimento Mouchreck, Kátia da Silva Calabrese, Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva and Fernando Almeida-Souza

Zingiber officinale Roscoe, commonly known as gengibre, ajengibre, jengibre dulce (Brazil, Argentina, and Spain), ginger (United States and England), and gingembre (France), is a perennial herbaceous plant that produces a fleshy and articulated rhizome, with rough brownish epidermis. As a medicinal plant, ginger is one of the oldest and most popular in the world. Several properties of the ginger have been verified in scientific experiments, with emphasis to the antimicrobial activity. Ginger essence oil has been investigated by several in vitro microbiological techniques, in which most of its essential oils presented antimicrobial activity against all selected bacteria. The antimicrobial effect is attributed mainly to several phytochemicals, such as camphene, phellandrene, zingiberene, and zingerone. This review provides an overview of the experimental evidence for the antimicrobial potential of Z. officinale.

Part of the book: Ginger Cultivation and Its Antimicrobial and Pharmacological Potentials

By Isadora de Fátima Braga Magalhães, Carla Junqueira Moraga Tellis, Kátia da Silva Calabrese, Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva and Fernando Almeida-Souza

Essential oils are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry for their antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal, antiparasitic, and insecticidal properties. Their anticancer activity has been increasingly explored as the natural constituents of essential oils play an important role in cancer prevention and treatment. The chemical composition of essential oils includes monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, oxygenated monoterpenes, phenolic sesquiterpenes, and others. Several mechanisms of action such as antioxidant, antimutagenic, antiproliferative, enhancement of immune functions, modulation of multidrug resistance, and synergistic mechanism of volatile constituents are responsible for their chemotherapeutic properties. This review focuses on the activity of essential oils and their chemical composition in regard to breast cancer.

Part of the book: Essential Oils

By Isadora de Fátima Braga Magalhães, Kátia da Silva Calabrese, Ana Letícia Marinho Figueirêdo, Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva and Fernando Almeida-Souza

The importance of a new anticancer drug for breast cancer is well established. Natural compounds that can prevent this disease or be used as an adjuvant treatment associated with conventional drugs could be the solution for this. This chapter is an overview of agents extracted from plants with outstand results in the last six years. Green tea, berberine, thymoquinone and cannabidiol are compounds isolated from medicinal plants. These agents showed action through induction of apoptosis, down regulation of inflammation, epigenetics, hormonal modulation, among other. In vitro effect against cancer cells, in vivo experiments mainly with murine model and clinical trials reassured their efficacy against breast cancer. A protective effect against recurrence cases and chemosensitization to standard drugs was also successful. The use of nanotechnology provided a optimize delivery of these therapeutical molecules. Taken together this information led us to acknowledgement that we do probably have the natural agents for a future adjuvant treatment against breast cancer.

Part of the book: Breast Cancer

By Allana Barros Freitas, Sandra Alves Araújo, Fernando Almeida-Souza and Tatiane Aranha da Penha-Silva

Feline leishmaniasis has a nonspecific clinical condition, like the clinical signs presented by dogs, including anorexia, lymphadenomegaly, dermatitis, emaciation, hyperthermia and atrophy of the temporal muscle. Cats have been identified as an alternative reservoir; however, felines are increasingly sought after as companion animals, further exposing man. Diagnosis in these animals is still considered a challenge, since most cats are asymptomatic. Although infected cats are less often sick than dogs, likely due to natural feline resistance, clinical illness has been linked to immunosuppressive coinfections with feline immunodeficiency virus and feline leukemia virus. The feline immune response to Leishmania infection has been poorly investigated. In cats, the same drugs prescribed for dogs are used in the treatment, namely pentavalent antimonials, allopurinol and miltefosine. Felines play an important role in the epidemiology of leishmaniasis, acting mainly as alternative reservoirs and accelerating the spread of the disease. Thus, there is a need for standardization of diagnostic and treatment methods, including thorough clinical evaluation. It is important to alert to the definition of public policies and to awaken feline owners, as well as the population in general, about care and prevention.

Part of the book: Leishmania Parasites

By Fernando Almeida-Souza, Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva, Kátia da Silva Calabrese and Flávia de Oliveira Cardoso

Part of the book: Leishmania Parasites

By Helen Silva Ribeiro, Flávia de Oliveira Cardoso, Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva, Kátia da Silva Calabrese and Fernando Almeida-Souza

Neoplasms in dogs are estimated to account for up to 83% of all canine malignancies, while canine leishmaniasis is endemic and highly incident in areas like Brazil, east Africa, and India. The worldwide incidence of both diseases may indicate the presence of these two pathologies in the same tissue sample as eventual cases. However, a relationship between leishmaniasis and malignant disorders has been postulated in human and veterinary medicine. Depending on several direct or indirect factors, leishmaniasis can affect the clinical manifestation, diagnosis, therapeutic protocols, and the outcome of various malignant disorders. In addition, the similarity of the clinical presentation of cutaneous or visceral leishmaniasis with the clinical signs observed in many tumors may lead to misdiagnosis. Clinical cases of co-localization of Leishmania parasites and tumor cells in dogs were more associated with transmissible venereal tumors than histiocytic tumors, non-histiocytic lymphoma, or squamous cell carcinoma. This chapter reviews the circumstances involving canine leishmaniasis and malignant disorders, and the current challenge that the association between them represents to misdiagnosis or tumor-promoting potential of leishmaniasis, providing an overview of dog cases.

Part of the book: Leishmania Parasites