Production of flavonoids by Psoralea hairy root cultures

Eighteen transformed root cultures from 7 Psoralea plant species (Leguminosae) were established with the objective of producing daidzein and related flavonoids. All the 18 hairy root lines grew fast and had the same capacities for biomass production. Each of them produced daidzein as an intracellular secondary metabolite. The Lach5 hairy root line, obtained from P. lachnostachys, was a high producing line for daidzein and was further studied for biomass and flavonoid production. This root line showed exponential growth. Chitosan was used for elicitation purposes as well as for its permeabilizing effect. Little elicitation effect could be demonstrated and the metabolite release in the medium was weak (about 1%) and limited to the first 29 h after chitosan addition. Daidzein was demonstrated to be more concentrated in young parts (apexes) whereas coumestrol content was higher in older parts (brown tissues). Compared to callus cultures from the same plant species, hairy roots displayed comparable concentrations. However, high-producing lines were more frequently found with hairy roots (4 out of 18) than with callus cultures (4 out of 217) This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Polycephalums A and B,New Anticoagulant Constituents Isolated from Clinopodium polycephalum

Two previously undescribed compounds ( 1 and 2 ) were isolated from Clinopodium polycephalum, a medicinal plant distributed in southwestern and eastern China. Their structures were elucidated using MS analyses and extensive 2D-homo and heteronuclear NMR data interpretations. Both compounds 1 and 2 could significantly shorten APTT and PT, and their procoagulant effect was comparable to that of positive drugs. At the same time, compound 2 had certain antioxidant activity (IC₅₀ value of 2.25±0.05 μM in ABTS assay).     

Diabetic Nephropathy and Extracellular Matrix

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a serious complication in diabetes. Major typical morphological changes are the result of changes in the extracellular matrix (ECM). Thus, basement membranes are thickened and the glomerular mesangial matrix and the tubulointerstitial space are expanded, due to increased amounts of ECM. One important ECM component, the proteoglycans (PGs), shows a more complex pattern of changes in DN. PGs in basement membranes are decreased but increased in the mesangium and the tubulointerstitial space. The amounts and structures of heparan sulfate chains are changed, and such changes affect levels of growth factors regulating cell proliferation and ECM synthesis, with cell attachment affecting endothelial cells and podocytes. Enzymes modulating heparan sulfate structures, such as heparanase and sulfatases, are implicated in DN. Other enzyme classes also modulate ECM proteins and PGs, such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and serine proteases, such as plasminogen activator, as well as their corresponding inhibitors. The levels of these enzymes and inhibitors are changed in plasma and in the kidneys in DN. Several growth factors, signaling pathways, and hyperglycemia per se affect ECM synthesis and turnover in DN. Whether ECM components can be used as markers for early kidney changes is an important research topic, whereas at present, the clinical use remains to be established.     

Effects of serum concentration on some growth characteristics of cultured murine parietal yolk sac carcinoma cells

Murine parietal yolk sac carcinoma cells were examined by scanning and transmission electron microscopy to determine the ultrastructural changes resulting from growth, in vitro, in media containing different serum concentrations. Cells grown in medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) formed spherical bodies, were generally oval with numerous surface microvilli, well-organized microtubules, abundant free polysomes and a well-developed Golgi apparatus. By contrast, cells grown in 1% FBS failed to form multicellular spheres, were generally flattened over the growth surface and lacked the surface and intracellular features demonstrated when cells were grown in 10% serum. These differences could explain the alterations in the glycosylation of secreted glycoprotein associated with culture in the presence of low serum.     

α-Hydroxychalcones as intermediates in flavonoid biogenesis: The significance of recent chemical analogies

α-Hydroxychalcones are shown to be prominent metabolites amongst the flavonoids of certain heartwoods. Their existence mainly in the keto-form confers properties which are presumably responsible for their previous oversight. Indications of the wider distribution of α-hydroxychalcones raises interesting speculation regarding their hitherto unconsidered role in the biogenesis of 3-hydroxyflavonoids. Cyclization involving the β-position of the trans-enolic isomer of α-hydroxychalcones to form both 2,3-cis- and 2,3-trans-dihydroflavonols, infers for the first time biosynthetic paths which lead by way of successive reductions to 2,3-cis- and 2,3-trans-diastereoisomers of flavan-3,4-diols and flavan-3-ols, and hence by condensation via carbonium ion or quinonemethide intermediates to polyflavonoid tannins. Alternative cyclization to the α-position, or more likely to the equivalent carbonyl of the keto-form, represents the only feasible mode of biogenesis of 2-hydroxy-2-benzylcoum aranones. Newly-established associations of the complete range of peltogynoid analogues in heartwoods, often with α-hydroxychalcones or their peltogynoid equivalent, permits similar conjecture.     

Disjunction of Prosopis reptans and the origin of the North American populations

Several populations of Prosopis reptans collected along the Texas Gulf coast were examined for their flavonoids and leaf morphology. Seventeen flavonoids were detected and the nine major ones were isolated and identified: apigenin 6- and $\text{8-C-}\text{glucoside}$, luteolin and its $\text{7-O-}\text{glucoside}$, quercetin and its $\text{3-O-}\text{glucoside}$, and myricetin, its $\text{3-O-}\text{rhamnoside}$ and $\text{3-O-}\text{glucoside}$. The presence of a single chemical race was established, since all specimens from the Texas Gulf coast populations were uniform in their chemistry and leaf morphology, and chemically identical to the plant material from Argentina. However, the Argentina material exhibited slight morphological differences in that the leaves possessed less pubescence than the Texas Gulf coast plants.     

Flavonoidmuster im knospenexkret der betulaceen

In the Betulaceae, buds of the genus Alnus, Betula (Betuleae) and Ostrya (Coryleae) excrete a lipophilic “coat” consisting of terpenoids and flavonoid aglycones. The variation of the substitution pattern of these latter compounds has been investigated in relation to taxonomy. Characteristic compounds which occur are the methyl ethers of 6-hydroxykaempferol, ermanin (kaempferol-3,4′-Me), acacetin and pectolinarigenin. Other methyl derivatives of kaempferol, quercetin, apigenin and naringenin also occur more or less frequently. Evidence is given for the species-specifity of the flavonoid pattern in many of these exudates.     

Triangularin,a new chalcone from Pityrogramma triangularis

2′,6′-Dihydroxy-4′-methoxy-3′-methylchalcone has been isolated from the exudate farina of the ceroptin chemotype of Pityrogramma triangularis. The analogous flavanone was also detected as a minor component in the extract.     

Biosynthesis of pulmonary glycoconjugates. Mechanism of glucosylation of protein and lipid acceptors

In sheep lung microsomes, we have shown that glucosyl-transferases catalize the transfer of glucose from UDP-glucose into four different acceptors. The glucosylated products obtained are as follows: - a glucosyl-phosphoryl-polyprenol (product A) extractable by chloroform/methanol (2:1 by volume). - a product B extractable by chloroform/methanol/water (10:10:3 by volume). The product B was a mixture of five glycolipids, one of them having a chromatographic behaviour similar to the behaviour of a tetrahexosylceramide (asia-lo-GM1). - a product C insoluble in water and organic solvents which has been demonstrated to be a glycoproteinic compound. The molecular weight of this product C was 160 000 as estimated by gel-filtration. The carbohydrate moiety is composed of small oligosaccharides which are found to be attached by O-glycosidic bond to the protein chain. This linkage is not a collagen-like bond.     

Comparative lipid and uric acid suppressing properties of four common herbs in high fat-induced obese mice with their total phenolic and flavonoid index

Our present study was designed to investigate the comparative anti-obesity efficacy of ethanolic extract of Azadirachta indica A. Juss., Trigonella foenum-graecum L., Allium sativum L. and Zingiber officinale Roscoe in high fat-induced mice with their total phenolic and flavonoid profile. Total phenolic and flavonoid content were determined by Folin–Ciocalteu's and Aluminium chloride UV method respectively. In our study, 55 healthy mice were separated into 11 groups to take their respective treatments. Lipid and uric acid profile were estimated by using the enzymatic colourimetric method. Ethanolic extract of A. indica contained the highest phenolic and flavonoid content. A. indica normal and high fat diet group showed reduced weight gaining tendency than other extract groups. A. indica at a dose of 400 mg/kg body weight significantly (p < 0.001) reduced serum cholesterol (SC), triglyceride (TG), and uric acid (UA) level than other three extracts when compared with the control group. Thus, a considerable correlation was found between serum uric acid reducing potentials of the present experimental extracts with a lipid-lowering profile. Pathological examination revealed that the average weight of liver and kidney were significantly decreased in A. indica normal. Results obtained from the present study it can be concluded that ethanolic extract of A. indica possesses better lipid-lowering efficacy than the other three herbs.