RESUMO

The antioxidant properties of six medical herbs used in the traditional Paraguayan medicine were studied using free radical-generating systems. The methanol extracts from Aristolochia giberti, Cecropia pachystachya, Eugenia uniflora, Piper fulvescens, Schinus weinmannifolia and Schinus terebinthifolia protected against enzymatic and non-enzymatic lipid peroxidation in microsomal membranes of rat. C. pachystachya, E. uniflora, S. weinmannifolia and S. terebinthifolia showed the highest scavenging activity on the superoxide and DPPH radicals.

Assuntos

RESUMO

This study describes the screening of extracts obtained from 18 plants and two fungi used in the Chinese and Mediterranean traditional medicines on epimastigote forms of Trypanosoma cruzi. The extracts were tested against epimastigote of T. cruzi Bra C15C2 clone in vitro at 27 degrees C and at a concentration of 250 microg/ml in axenic culture. Angelica dahurica, A. pubescens, A. sinensis, Astragalus membranaceus, Coptis chinensis, Haplophyllum hispanicum, Phellodendron amurense, Poria cocos, Ranunculus sceleratus and Scutellaria baicalensis showed significant effects against the parasite with a percentage of growth inhibition between 20 and 100%. C. chinensis and R. sceleratus showed the greatest activity with IC(50) values of 1.7 microg/ml for C. chinensis and 10.7 microg/ml for R. sceleratus. These activities are greater than that of allopurinol. C. chinesis and R. sceleratus extracts did not show cytotoxic effects on rat polimorphonuclear cells using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide and lactic dehydrogenase assays. These results allowed us to suggest that R. sceleratus and C. chinensis could be a source of new compounds clinically active against T. cruzi.

Assuntos

Assuntos

RESUMO

The antioxidant properties of twenty medical herbs used in the traditional Mediterranean and Chinese medicine were studied. Extracts from Forsythia suspensa, Helichrysum italicum, Scrophularia auriculata, Inula viscosa, Coptis chinensis, Poria cocos and Scutellaria baicalensis had previously shown anti-inflammatory activity in different experimental models. Using free radical-generating systems H. italicum. I. viscosa and F. suspensa protected against enzymatic and non-enzymatic lipid peroxidation in model membranes and also showed scavenging property on the superoxide radical. All extracts were assayed at a concentration of 100 microg/ml. Most of the extracts were weak scavengers of the hydroxyl radical and C. chinensis and P. cocos exhibited the highest scavenging activity. Although S. baicalensis inhibited the lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes and red blood cells, the extract showed inhibitory actions on aminopyrine N-demethylase and xanthine oxidase activities as well as an pro-oxidant effect observed in the Fe3+-EDTA-H2O2 system. The results of the present work suggest that the anti-inflammatory activities of the same extracts could be explained, at least in part, by their antioxidant properties.

Assuntos

RESUMO

This work describes a protocol to obtain pure populations of extracellular amastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi. The amastigote stage was obtained by means of temperature changes and human plasma added to the culture medium. Epimastigotes (clon BraC15C2) were first grown in F69 medium at 27 degrees C during 96 h and then at 36.5 degrees C. After three subcultures of 96 h each at the latter temperature a subsequent incubation in the presence of 5% human plasma, was needed to obtain a population of amastigotes that could be maintained indefinitely in the F69 or F29 media. This amastigote population was similar morphologically to that obtained through other methods. The kinetic of growth depended on the culture medium used (F29 or Brain-Heart Infusion, BHI). When culture was incubated at 27 degrees C in both media, the pre-exponential and logarithmic phases of growth were observed at 72-96 h and 24-48 h respectively. The change in stage from amastigote to epimastigote dependent whether amastigote were subcultured or not. The growth of amastigotes in BHI medium at 36.5 degrees C did not occurred. The growth of amastigotes was similar to those observed at 27 degrees C when F29 medium was used although the transformation to epimastigotes did not take place at this temperature. A population over 99% of amastigotes were maintained at 36.5 degrees C indefinitely by means of subcultures in F29 medium.

Assuntos

RESUMO

In this work we investigate the antioxidant properties of an aqueous extract prepared from an infusion of Ilex paraguariensis (Aquifoliaceae) using free radical-generating systems. The extract inhibited the enzymatic and nonenzymatic lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes in a concentration-dependent fashion, with IC(50) values of 18 microg/ml and 28 microg/ml, respectively. The extract also inhibited the H(2)O(2)-induced peroxidation of red blood cell membranes with an IC(50) of 100 microg/ml and exhibited radical scavenging properties toward superoxide anion (IC(50) = 15 microg/ml) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical. In the range of concentrations used, the extract was not a scavenger of the hydroxyl radical. Our results suggest that ingestion of extracts of Ilex paraguariensis could contribute to increase the antioxidant defense of an organism against free radicals attack.

Assuntos

RESUMO

This study examines the anti-ulcerogenic activity of a chloroform extract of Tanacetum vulgare and purified parthenolide, the major sesquiterpene lactone found in the extract. Gastric ulcers induced by oral administration of absolute ethanol to rats were reduced dose-dependently by oral pretreatment of animals with the chloroform extract (2.5-80 mg kg(-1)) or parthenolide (5-40 mg kg(-1)). When administered 30 min before challenge with the alcohol the protection ranged between 34 and 100% for the extract and 27 and 100% for parthenolide. When the products were administered orally 24 h before treatment with ethanol, 40 mg kg(-1) of the extract and of the lactone reduced the mean ulcer index from 4.8+/-0.3 for control animals to 1.4+/-0.2 and 0.5+/-0.1, respectively. The products also prevented alcohol-induced reduction of the number of sulphydryl groups within the gastric mucosa (50.6+/-2.3 microg (mgprotein)(-1) for normal animals compared with 17.7+/-3.0 microg (mg protein)(-1) for alcohol-treated animals). Administration of the extract (80 mg kg(-1)) or parthenolide (40 mg kg(-1)) 24 h before ethanol treatment restored the numbers of mucosal -SH groups to values near those found for normal animals. These results suggest that the products assayed, in particular parthenolide, might find therapeutic application, although further work is required to establish their profit/risk ratio.

Assuntos

Assuntos

RESUMO

In recent years the role of phenolic compounds and sesquiterpene lactones, particularly parthenolide, in the anti-migraine and anti-inflammatory effects of Tanacetum parthenium (Asteraceae) has attracted much attention. However, the closely-related cosmopolitan species T. vulgare has remained outside the mainstream of research in this field. After treating the aerial parts of T. vulgare with dichloromethane and methanol, and applying conventional column and thin-layer chromatographic techniques, it was possible to isolate from the moderately lipophilic fractions the principles responsible for the anti-inflammatory activity of this plant against the mouse-ear oedema induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate. These were identified by ultraviolet and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy as parthenolide (93% oedema inhibition at 0.5 mg/ear, ID50 (dose of drug inhibiting the oedema by 50%) = 0.18 micromol/ear) and the methoxyflavones jaceosidin (80% oedema inhibition at 0.5 mg/ear, ID50 = 0.50 micromol/ear), eupatorin, chrysoeriol and diosmetin. Because in molar terms the potency of parthenolide was nearly three times greater than that of the most active of the flavones and because it is obtained from the plant in considerably larger amounts, the flavonoids must only be partially responsible, and to a minor extent, for the observed in-vivo anti-inflammatory local effect.

Assuntos

RESUMO

Adult male rats were treated orally with sodium arsenate (10 mg As/kd/day) for 2 days, and in increase in hepatic glutathione level was seen. Ascorbic acid content increased in both liver and plasma of intoxicated animals. Hepatic activities of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase did not change with the treatment and there was no increase in the level of lipid peroxidation measured as thiobarbituric acid-reacting substances (TBARS). Arsenic decreased the plasma level of uric acid and increased the plasma triglycerides content without modifying vitamin E levels. Both total lipoproteins and very low density lipoprotein plus low density lipoprotein (VLDL + LDL) fractions demonstrated greater propensity for in vitro oxidation than the corresponding untreated rats. The last finding might be a useful parameter for determining the degree of oxidative stress in the initial steps of intoxication with arsenic.

Assuntos