Antiproliferative, protective and antioxidant effects of artichoke, dandelion, turmeric and rosemary extracts and their formulation.

Artichoke, dandelion, turmeric extracts and rosemary essential oil are commonly used as ingredients in many herbal preparations to treat hepatic and gallbladder disorders. In the present work we compare the activity of each single extract with a commercial mixture for antiproliferative, antiradical and protective effects against induced oxidant stress effect. In ABTS and DPPH tests, turmeric extract is the most active, followed by artichoke and dandelion. All samples exhibited antiproliferative activity in a dose-dependent manner against HepG2 cells. In the same cell lines, the protective effect of pre-treatment with the extracts were detected by evaluating the prostaglandin E2 release, a marker of oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide. The treatments with the extracts were efficient in reducing the release of PGE2 induced by oxidative stimulus. The positive results of the cell viability test, together with the protective and antiradical activity confirm the rationale for the use of these ingredients in commercial formulations as a health aid tool in modern phytotherapy.

Grapefruit: the last decade acquisitions.

This review reports the last decade acquisitions on grapefruit. New coumarins and limonoids were isolated and characterised. The bioavailability of many drugs was tested with grapefruit juice (GJ) coadministration; the inhibition on cytochrome P450 seems due to a synergic action between flavonoids and coumarins. Antimicrobial, antifeeding, insecticidal, and antitumour activities were also reported.

The volatile organic compounds from the mycelium of Tuber borchii Vitt.

The mycelium of T. borchii (characterized by DNA analysis) grown in sterile liquid medium produced some VOCs. The VOCs were retained on carbographs by passing a flow of helium, isolated and characterized in a GC-MS equipment after a thermal desorption. The compounds present in the VOCs from the mycelium cultures, but not in the VOCs from the control cultures, contained 29 compounds. The main compounds were 1,3-ditertbutylbenzene (16.1 ng/l), 3-methylheptane (9.2 ng/l), butan-2-one (8.8 ng/l), ethynylbenzene (5.6 ng/l), and octan-3-one (4.9 ng/l).

Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oil of Piper angustifolium.

The essential oil for Piper angustifolium Lam. was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) technique. Camphor and camphene were the main constituents. This oil exhibited bacteriostatic and fungistatic activities against Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Escherichia coli.

Analysis of coumarins by micro high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry with a particle beam interface.

Coumarins are a large group of compounds that are naturally present in plant tissues and that exhibit a wide range of pharmacological properties. Analytical methods based on chromatographic techniques and conventional detectors are inadequate to accurately analyze coumarins in complex matrices such as plant extracts. In this article a new method based on a modified particle beam liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry interface is described. The method allows specific and accurate determination of several coumarins in biological matrices. An application regarding the analysis of 18 coumarins in the extract of Smyrnium perfoliatum L. is also reported.

Acetaldehyde, ethanol and acetone concentrations in blood of alcohol-treated mice receiving aldehyde dehydrogenase-loaded erythrocytes.

Blood levels of acetaldehyde (ACh), ethanol and acetone were investigated in mice treated with ethanol for 6 months and receiving compatible erythrocytes (RBCs) overloaded with aldehyde dehydrogenase (AlDH). Following an acute dose of ethanol, ACh levels were significantly lower in these animals than in alcohol-treated mice receiving AlDH-unloaded RBCs, and were similar to the ACh levels of normal mice. The peak ethanol concentration was higher in normal mice than in both groups of alcohol-treated animals, while acetone concentrations were not significantly different in the three groups of animals.

Cyclic GABA-GABOB analogues. III - Synthesis and biochemical activity of new alkyl and acyl derivatives of 4-hydroxy-2-pyrrolidinone.

The synthesis of new N-substituted 4-hydroxy (III) and 4-acyloxy- or 4-alkoxy-2-pyrrolidinones (IV), as analogues of oxiracetam (III c), is reported. For this purpose, a convenient procedure for N-alkylation of the base-labile 4-hydroxy-2-pyrrolidinones (II a, c, d) was developed. Compounds (III) and (IV) were examined on phospholipid synthesis in brain microsomal membranes of rats, both in vivo and in vivo-in vitro, and on protein synthesis in brain slices. Results showed that only oxiracetam (III c), and to a lesser extent piracetam, are active both on phospholipid and brain protein synthesis.

The effect of chronic ethanol administration on membrane-bound enzymes of rat liver.

The chronic treatment with small amounts of ethanol associated with a fat-poor diet produces enzyme modifications in rat liver subcellular fractions. All the enzymic activities tested in this paper increased or remained unaffected after alcohol treatment. Part of the observed effects could be ascribed to the proliferation of the endoplasmic reticulum which follows to ethanol intoxication; the increase of some enzyme activities, in the plasma membranes of treated animals seems to be probably due to modification of the environment of the membrane.

Potassium stimulated release of axonally transported radioactivity from slices of rabbit superior colliculus.

The radioactivity in the trichloroacetic acid (TCA) soluble pool in the terminals of the retinal ganglion cells in the superior colliculus (SC) was studied one month after labelling of the nerve cell bodies in the retina with different radioactive amino acids. The TCA soluble fraction in the SC represented a few per cent of the total radioactivity of the isolated tissue and was mainly derived from protein degradation. The perfused slice of the SC responded to high K+ depolarization with an increased release of TCA-soluble radioactivity, while small changes occurred for TCA-precipitable fractions. The evoked release of TCA-soluble radioactivity was particularly prominent after labelling with [3H]glycine. The release was Ca2+-dependent and the response to repetitive depolarization indicated a continuous replenishment of the releasable pool.

The effect of acute ethanol administration on phosphorylcholine uptake and metabolism in rat liver slices.

Liver slices obtained from normal and acutely ethanol-intoxicated rats were incubated with labelled choline plus unlabelled orthophosphate or labelled phosphorylcholine (PC). After variable times of incubation hydrosoluble compounds and choline phosphoglycerides (CPG) were extracted from the tissue and analyzed. When compared to controls, the slices obtained from intoxicated livers accumulated more PC and synthesized more CPG when incubated with PC; on the other hand, when incubated with choline, they accumulated less PC. From these results it can be concluded that PC is a better lipid precursor in intoxicated livers, than in normal ones. In any case CPG becomes better labelled after incubation with choline than with PC; base-exchange could be liable for this result.

Involvement of CDP-choline in phospholipid metabolism of brain tissue in vitro.

The ability of phosphorylcholine and CDP-choline to act as lipid precursors was tested in chick brain microsomes (plus supernatant). CDP-choline was, in every case, a much better precursor of choline glycerophospholipids than phosphorylcholine. The cytidylyltransferase reaction which forms CDP-choline appears, therefore, as the limiting step of the metabolic pathway which introduces phosphorylcholine into lipids. This reaction can be stimulated by the addition of phospholipids to the incubation mixture. Choline lysoglycerophospholipids are the most active in this connection.

The effect of acute ethanol administration on phosphorylethanolamine uptake and metabolism in rat liver slices.

Double-labelled phosphorylethanolamine with a [32P]//[14IA1 ratio of 1 was incubated in vitro with rat liver slices prepared from control and ethanol-intoxicated rats, and the radioactivity measured at given time intervals in liver ethanolamine, phosphorylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine. Evidence is presented that after 10 and 15 minutes phosphorylethanolamine enters the slices as an intact molecule, which is directly converted into lipid forms by the Kennedy's pathways. At longer times a hydrolysis of the ester occurs which lowers considerably the theoretical [32P]/[14C]ratio. Fatty liver slices produced by acute ethanol intoxication uptake from the medium more phosphorylethanolamine than controls, and hydrolyze less efficiently than controls the phosphoric ester to ethanolamine and inorganic phosphate.