1,721,040 research outputs found
Food-derived nutraceuticals for hypercholesterolemia management, mode of action and active ingredients
Full text linkNutraceuticals and functional foods are considered useful tools in the management of moderate plasmatic cholesterol levels. Natural compounds derived from plant, animal, or bacterial foods sources can influence cholesterol levels acting with different mechanisms and literature revealed their mode of action, and their potential usefulness in hypercholesterolemia. This review summarizes the upgrade in the field of nutraceuticals and functional foods claimed with hypocholesterolemic properties considering relevant literature published in the years 2009 to present. Ingredients with these properties will be described considering their molecular targets, their occurrence, and effects. Food derived compounds will be discussed for their potentiality to became active ingredients of food or food supplements with hypo-cholesterolemic properties, with a specific action on a biological target. The information's obtained underline the new challenges for the nutraceuticals in hypercholesterolemia management indicating the most promising ingredients to be developed as new useful tools for the implementation of the human health
Secondary metabolites of alchemilla persica growing in Iran (East Azarbaijan)
Full text linkPhytochemical investigations of Alchemilla persica Rothm. growing in Iran were performed taking into account both the volatile and polar constituents. The hydrodistilled essential oil was analysed by GC-MS that revealed the presence of diterpenoids (19.6 %) and sesquiterpenes (17.1%) as the major constituents, while tannins and flavonol glycosides were identified as the most abundant constituents of the methanol extract by HPLC-MS. A. persica can be a valuable source of ellagitannins and polyphenols
Chemical analysis of essential oils from different parts of Ferula communis L. growing in central Italy
No full textFerula communis is a showy herbaceous plant typical of the Mediterranean area where it is used as a traditional medicine. In Italy most of phytochemical studies focused on Sardinian populations, while investigations on peninsular populations are scarce. In this work we report the chemical characterization of the essential oils obtained from different parts of F. communis growing in central Italy. The chemical profiles of the plant parts, as detected by GC-FID and GC-MS, were different each other and from those reported in insular populations. Notably, α-pinene (10,5%), γ-terpinene (7.6%) and hedycariol (8.4%) were the major volatile constituents in flowers; α-pinene (55.9%), β-pinene (16.8%) and myrcene (5.9%) in fruits; β-eudesmol (12.1%), α-eudesmol (12.1%) and hedycariol (10.3%) in leaves; (E)-β-farnesene (9.5%), β-cubebene (8.2%)
and (E)-caryophyllene (7.2%) in roots. The volatile profiles detected did not allow to classify the investigated central Italy population into the poisonous and nonpoisonous chemotypes previously described in Sardinia
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Antitrypanosomal activity of Tithonia Diversifolia
No full textThe African Trypanosomiases, also commonly called African sleeping sickness in humans (HAT) and
“Nagana” in domestic livestock, are fatal neglected diseases that occur in 36 sub-Saharan African
countries. The disease progresses through two stages and is caused by two subspecies of the
parasite T. brucei: T. b. gambiense (West Africa; Tbg) and T. b. rhodesiense (East Africa; Tbr).
T. brucei is also pathogenic to wild and domestic animals causing “Nagana”, a disease that has a
significant impact on socioeconomic development in many parts of rural Africa. Current treatments are
considered unsatisfactory due to treatment failures and high toxicity. Therefore, there is a great need
of new and cost-effective drugs to treat the disease, especially at later stages when the parasites
infect the brain. Drug discovery efforts are nowadays directed towards natural products and medicinal
plants represent a validated source for discovery of new lead compounds and standardized herbal
medicines against trypanosomiases [1].
Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsl.) A.Gray, well-known as Mexican sunflower, is a bushy perennial weed
commonly found on the fields, wasteland and road sides of tropical areas in South America, Asia and
Africa. The plant belongs to the Asteraceae family and used as traditional medicine for the treatment
of various diseases, including malaria [2]. The phytochemical analyses of T. diversifolia indicate1d the
presence of bioactive substances such as alkaloids, saponins, glycosides, flavonoid, tannins,
terpenoid and phenols in the methanolic extract [3]. The leaves methanolic extract showed a quite
remarkable inhibitory activity against Trypanosoma brucei brucei TC221. For this reason, a
chromatographic separation of total methanolic extract has been performed, obtaining 17 fractions.
The phytochemical composition of crude extract and purified fractions were investigated using HPLCESI-
MS/MS and 1D and 2D NMR spectra. The isolated fractions have been selected as valid
candidates for investigation as potential inhibitors of T. brucei. The results of this study will be
discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Pharmacokinetics and immunomodulatory effect of lipophilic Echinacea extract formulated in softgel capsules
Full text linkAn attractive herbal product, softgel capsules containing 10 mg of Echinacea angustifolia lipophilic extract, was given in a single oral administration to 10 human volunteers to perform a pharmacokinetic and immunological study. The plasma concentration of the major constituent was monitored, quantifying at predetermined time points the dodeca-2E,4E,8Z,10E/Z-tetraenoic isobutylamides (tetraene). The plasmatic levels of IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and TNF-a in samples collected before and 24 h after drug administration were analyzed by cytokine assay. The total RNA was extracted from limpho-monocyte isolated from the same blood samples and the same cytokines in terms of gene expression were evaluated. With the help of proper statistical tests the differences between the values obtained at 0 and 24 h were evaluated. Results of pharmacokinetic studies attest an approximately 3.5-fold improvement of tetraene oral bioavailability compared with previously published studies. Dodeca-2E,4E-dienoic acid isobutylamide exerts immunomodulatory effects down-regulating the gene expression and reducing the protein plasmatic levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, TNF-a and IL-8, and up-regulating the expression of anti-inflammatory molecules as IL-10. Student’s two-sided paired t-test and non-parametric
Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney signed rank test agree in the conclusions about the differences between the ln values at 24 h and corresponding ln values at 0 h
α-Glucosidase and glycation inhibitory activities of Rumex lunaria leaf extract: a promising plant against hyperglycaemia-related damage
Full text linkRumex lunaria L. is a Canarian medicinal plant, belonging to Polygonaceae. The potential antidiabetic activity of the methanolic extract of the leaves was investigated. For this purpose, the inhibition of α-glucosidase and albumin glycation by the extract was studied. Further, the anti-radical activity and the phytochemical composition were detected. The reduction of α-glucosidase activity was significant from 3 μg/mL, while the BSA glycation inhibition started from 100 μg/mL. Moreover, the extract exhibited a significant free-radical scavenger activity. Its phytochemical characterization showed the presence of carotenoids, phenolic and flavonoid compounds, whereas anthraquinones were not detected. C-flavonoid glycosides were identified and quercetin-O-hexoside-O-deoxyhexoside was the most detected (22.67 ± 0.02 mg/g). The findings indicate that the methanolic R. lunaria leaf extract has significant anti-α-glucosidase, anti-radical and anti-glycation activities. This research is the first showing the potential antidiabetic activity of R. lunaria
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