Anti-inflammatory activity of cubebin, a lignan from the leaves of Zanthoxyllum naranjillo Griseb.

Cubebin, a dibenzylbutyrolactone lignan isolated from the crude hexane extract of the leaves of Zanthoxyllum naranjillo, showed a significant anti-inflammatory activity by using the paw edema induced by carrageenin in rats, but did not provide a significant reduction in the cell migration for the acute carrageenin-induced inflammatory reaction in the peritoneal cavity of rats. Neither was it effective in reducing the edema induced by dextran nor the edema induced by histamine. It partially reduced the edema induced by serotonin. Moreover, it significantly reduced the edema induced by prostaglandin PGE2 and the number of writhings induced by both acetic acid and PGI2 in mice. Therefore, it may be suggested that the mechanism of action of cubebin is similar to that observed for most of the non-steroidal drugs.

Acute phase proteins: clinical and laboratory diagnosis. A review.

Acute phase proteins play an important role in clinical laboratory diagnosis, especially after recent development of quantitation methods. Turbidimetry and nephelometry, spectrophotometric procedures based on the quantitation of scattered and reflected light, permit laboratory analyses of higher precision, sensitivity and specificity compared to previously employed methods.

[Aminoaciduria screening in newborn infants using, comparatively, chromatographic and colorimetric methods]. / Triagem para aminoacidúrias em recém-nascidos utilizando-se comparativamente métodos chromatográficos e colorimétricos.

The authors showed that the colorimetric methods used to effect aminoacidopathies screening are inadequate and unspecific. The thin layer chromatography was chosen to effect such screening and the authors showed the incidence in newborns of some aminoacid metabolism abnormalities.