The antimicrobial activity of fruits from some cultivar varieties of Rubus idaeus and Rubus occidentalis.

Raspberries, derived from different cultivar varieties, are a popular ingredient of everyday diet, and their biological activity is a point of interest for researchers. The ethanol-water extracts from four varieties of red (Rubus idaeus'Ljulin', 'Veten', 'Poranna Rosa') and black (Rubus occidentalis'Litacz') raspberries were evaluated in the range of their antimicrobial properties as well as phenolic content - sanguiin H-6, free ellagic acid and anthocyanins. The antimicrobial assay was performed with the use of fifteen strains of bacteria, both Gram-negative and Gram-positive. The antimicrobial activity of the extracts varied and depended on the analysed strain of bacteria and cultivar variety, with the exception of Helicobacter pylori, towards which the extracts displayed the same growth inhibiting activity. Two human pathogens Corynebacterium diphtheriae and Moraxella catarrhalis proved to be the most sensitive to raspberry extracts. Contrary to the extracts, sanguiin H-6 and ellagic acid were only active against eight and nine bacterial strains, respectively. The determined MIC and MBC values of both compounds were several times lower than the tested extracts. The highest sensitivity of Corynebacterium diphtheriae to extracts from both black and red raspberries may be due to its sensitivity to sanguiin H-6 and ellagic acid.

Studies on the enzymatic hydrolysis of amino acid carbamates.

Several commercially available enzymes were tested for their ability to hydrolyze amino acid carbamates. No activity was found with pig liver esterase, the hydantoinase from Pseudomonas fluorescens DSM 84, or the urease from jack beans. A stereoselective cleavage of the carbamyl group yielding L-amino acids was observed by acylase and acetylcholinesterases from bovine and human erythrocytes. Racemic mixtures of N-(methoxycarbonyl)-DL-alanine, N-(ethoxycarbonyl)-DL-alanine, and the corresponding valine carbamates are hydrolyzed to L-alanine and L-valine, respectively, by acylases leaving the D-amino acid carbamates unchanged. The lysine carbamates were not hydrolyzed by acylases. In contrast only the methoxycarbonyl amino acids were split by acetylcholinesterases, which, however, also cleave alpha, epsilon-(N-methoxycarbonyl)-DL-lysine stereoselectively at the alpha position, yielding epsilon-N-methoxycarbonyl-L-lysine. The optimum pH for enzymatic activity of hog kidney acylase was 7.5 and a Km value of 8.2 mM for N-(methoxycarbonyl)-DL-alanine was determined. For the acetylcholinesterases the reaction rate reaches an optimum between pH 7.5 and 8. The Km value was 68 mM for N-(methoxycarbonyl)-DL-alanine.