About the Authors

Chung Yeng Looi

looicy@um.edu.my

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Aditya Arya

Affiliations Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Foo Kit Cheah

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bushra Muharram

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kok Hoong Leong

Affiliation Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Khalit Mohamad

Affiliation Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Won Fen Wong

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Nitika Rai

Affiliation Amritum Bio-Botanica Herbs Research Laboratory Pvt. Ltd., Jogli, India

Mohd Rais Mustafa

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Competing Interests

The authors declare that all individuals named as authors in this manuscript have no competing interests, including Nitika Rai from Amritum Bio-Botanica Herbs Research Laboratory Pvt Ltd, Jogli, India. Nitika Rai is the CEO of Amritum Bio-Botanica Herbs Research Laboratory Pvt. Ltd., Jogli, India. The isolated compound, vernodalin is not patented, in development or marketed by the company. Dr. Aditya Arya was a former employee of Amritum Bio-Botanica Herbs Research Laboratory Pvt Ltd until 2007. At present, he does not hold any position or shares in this company. Thus, this does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CYL MRM. Performed the experiments: CYL FKC BM KHL. Analyzed the data: CYL BM WFW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AA KM NR. Wrote the paper: CYL WFW.