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Hypoestes forskaolii is one of the most important species of the family Acanthaceae, known for its high economic and medicinal importance. It is well distributed in the Arab region as well as on the African continent. Previous studies on ethnomedicine have reported that H. forskaolii has an anti-parasitic effect as well as antimalarial and anthelmintic activities. Previous studies mainly focused on the ethnomedicinal properties, hence, there is no information on the genomic architecture and phylogenetic positions of the species within the tribe Justiceae. The tribe Justicieae is the most taxonomically difficult taxon in Acanthoideae due to its unresolved infratribal classification. Therefore, by sequencing the complete chloroplast genome (cp genome) of H. forskaolii, we explored the evolutionary patterns of the cp genome and reconstructed the phylogeny of Justiceae. The cp genome is quadripartite and circular in structure and has a length of 151,142 bp. There are 130 genes (86 coding for protein, 36 coding for tRNA and 8 coding for rRNA) present in the plastome. Analyses of long repeats showed only three types of repeats: forward, palindromic and reverse were present in the genome. Microsatellites analysis revealed 134 microsatellites in the cp genome with mononucleotides having the highest frequency. Comparative analyses within Justiceae showed that genomes structure and gene contents were highly conserved but there is a slight distinction in the location of the genes in the inverted repeat and single copy junctions. Additionally, it was discovered that the cp genome includes variable hotspots that can be utilized as DNA barcodes and tools for determining evolutionary relationships in the Justiceae. These regions include: atpH-atpI, trnK-rps16, atpB-rbcL, trnT-trnL, psbI-trnS, matK, trnH-psbA, and ndhD. The Bayesian inference phylogenetic tree showed that H. forskaolii is a sister to the Dicliptra clade and belongs to Diclipterinae. The result also confirms the polyphyly of Justicia and inclusion of Diclipterinae within justicioid. This research has revealed the phylogenetic position of H. forskaolii and also reported the resources that can be used for evolutionary and phylogenetic studies of the species and the Justicieae. Full article

The anthelminthic efficacy of the crude extracts of Hypoestes forskaolii (Vahl) R.Br (Acanthaceae) against gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) in sheep was investigated using the in vitro egg hatch inhibition assay. Faecal samples were collected from sheep with naturally occurring infection of GIN (Trichostrongylus spp., Chabertia ovina, Cooperia spp., Haemonchus contortus and Teladorsagia spp.). Crude leaf extracts of H. forskaolii was obtained using increasing polarity solvents: n-hexane, chloroform, chloroform:methanol 9:1, methanol. Thiabendazole (0.2 µg/mL and 0.5 µg/mL) was used as a positive control and untreated GIN eggs in deionised water served as the negative control. All the extracts exhibited a weak ovicidal activity against GIN (less than 50% of egg hatch). Noteworthy, the n-hexane extract showed a percentage of inhibition of egg hatching greater than other extracts inhibiting the 30.8% at the concentration of 1 mg/mL showing a dose-dependent effect on nematode eggs hatching. Further studies are needed to investigate the effects of extracts used and to evaluate the ovicidal effects of other extracts of H. forskaolii. Full article