Portulacaoleraceal extract alleviates trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid-induced colitis in rats.

Portulacaoleraceal (POL) has been widely used as an edible plant and a folk medicine in many countries, due to its several health benefits. This study examined the effects of POL on trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis via enema administration. Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups: untreated, TNBS, TNBS + POL 10 g/kg, TNBS + POL 5 g/kg and TNBS + POL 2.5 g/kg groups. Rats were subjected to enema treatment once a day for 10 consecutive days with POL extract or distilled water after induction of TNBS. The changes of body weight, histological parameters, myeloperoxidase (MPO), superoxide dismutase (SOD), nitric oxide synthase activity (NOS), malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO) levels in colon tissues were investigated. After POL extract treatment, body weights of rats significantly increased, macroscopic and microscopic damage scores reduced, MPO and NOS activity, as well as MDA and NO level significantly decreased, while SOD activity increased in a dose-dependent manner in the TNBS + POL groups compared with the TNBS group. Our results demonstrated that POL enema treatment attenuated pathologic changes of TNBS-induced colitis in rats through restoring colonic damage and reducing inflammatory response in the intestine. Thus, POL enema might be considered as a potential effective treatment for ulcerative colitis patients.

Geographic patterns and pollination ecotypes in Claytonia virginica.

Geographical variation in pollinators visiting a plant can produce plant populations adapted to local pollinator environments. We documented two markedly different pollinator climates for the spring ephemeral wildflower Claytonia virginica: in more northern populations, the pollen-specialist bee Andrena erigeniae dominated, but in more southern populations, A. erigeniae visited rarely and the bee-fly Bombylius major dominated. Plants in the northern populations experienced faster pollen depletion than plants in southern populations. We also measured divergent pollen-related plant traits; plants in northern populations produced relatively more pollen per flower and anther dehiscence was more staggered than plants in southern populations. These plant traits might function to increase pollen dispersal via the different pollen vectors.

New C-methylated flavonoids and α-pyrone derivative from roots of Talinum triangulare growing in Nigeria.

The first chemical examination of roots of the traditionally used medicinal plant Talinum triangulare (Portulacaceae) from Nigeria led to the isolation of two new C-methylated flavonoids, 5,6-dimethoxy-7-hydroxy-8-methyl-flavone (1), 5,6-dimethoxy-8-methyl-2-phenyl-7H-1-benzopyran-7-one (2), and one new α-pyrone derivative, 4-methoxy-6-(2-hydroxy-4-phenylbutyl)-2H-pyran-2-one (3), along with thirteen known compounds, including nine amides (4-12), indole-3-carboxylic acid (13), p-hydroxy benzoic acid (14), and two steroids (15-16). Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic measurements including 1D, 2D NMR, MS, and by comparison with the literature. All isolated compounds were screened for their cytotoxic and antifungal activities. However, none of them showed significant activity.

Chemical compounds isolated from Talinum triangulare (Portulacaceae).

This first phytochemical study of Talinum triangulare Leach (Portulacaceae), also known as 'cariru', which is a commonly consumed food in Northern Brazil, allowed the isolation and structural determination of four new compounds: one acrylamide, 3-N-(acryloyl, N-pentadecanoyl) propanoic acid (5), and three new phaeophytins named (15(1)S, 17R, 18R)-Ficuschlorin D acid (3(1),3(2)-didehydro-7-oxo-17(3)-O-phytyl-rhodochlorin-15-acetic acid), (13), Talichorin A (17R, 18R)-phaeophytin b-15(1)-hidroxy, 15(2),15(3)-acetyl-13(1)-carboxilic acid (14), and (15(1)S, 17R, 18R)-phaeophytin b peroxylactone or (15(1)S, 17R, 18R)-hydroperoxy-ficuschlorin D (16), together with twelve known compounds, including four phaeophytins (11,12, 15 and 17). The structures of the compounds were established on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR, IR, HRESI-MS spectra, including GC-MS, and HPLC-UV analysis, as well as comparisons with the literature data. The CD spectra data analysis were used to define the absolute configuration of phaeophytins 12 (13(2)R, 17R, 18R)-13(2)-hydroxyphaeophytin a, 13 and 16, 15 (15(1)S, 17R, 18R)-3(1),3(2)-didehydro-15(1)-hydroxyrhodochlorin-15-acetic acid δ-lactone-15(2)-methyl-17(3)-phytyl ester and 17 (17R, 18R)-purpurin 18-phytyl ester.

Studies on antimicrobial efficacy of medicinal tuberous shrub Talinum cuneifolium.

Talinum cuneifolium (Vahl.) Willd. an erect shrub with subterranian tuber (Portulacaceae) is endowed with wide range of pharmacological activities. The antimicrobial efficacy of the plant is evaluated against three bacteria and two fungal species by disc diffusion method. Preliminary phytochemical screening was carried out among hexane, ethylacetate, methanolic extracts of leaf and roottuber for different potent chemicals. The leaf methanolic extract of T cuneifolium showed maximum effect on the growth of Proteus (25.8 mm) followed by Bacillus (24.62 mm) and E. coli (19.42 mm). The tuberous methanolic extract of T cuneifolium showed maximum effect on growth of Proteus (28.15 mm) followed by Bacillus (26.88 mm) and E. coli (24.51 mm). The Gram-positive bacterial strains (Bacillus) were more susceptible to the extractions of T cuneifolium as compared to Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and Klebsiella pneumoneia). The antifungal activity of selected plant leaf and root tubers exhibit pronounced activity against Candida albicans rather than Aspergillus niger. These studies showed that the methanolic extracts of T cuneifolium plant parts were certainly much better and powerful. This may be due to the better solubility of the action components in organic solvent.

Studies on the antioxidant and hepatoprotective activities of polysaccharides from Talinum triangulare.

UNLABELLED: ETHNOPHAMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCY: The whole plant of Talinum triangulare (Family: Portulacaceae) is used in variety of diseases including hepatic ailments in Africa and Taiwan of China. AIMS OF THE STUDY: The study was aimed to evaluate the antioxidant and hepatoprotective activity of polysaccharides from T. triangulare (TTP). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The TTP was extracted using boiling water, and removed protein by Sevag method. 40%, 60% and 80% ethanol precipitating TTP (40%, 60%, 80% TTP) were gained by the successive addition of absolute ethanol. The antioxidant activities of 40%, 60%, 80% and crude TTP were evaluated using three different models in vitro, including reducing power, hydroxyl radicals, superoxide anion. To investigate the hepatoprotective potential, mice were treated with crude polysaccharides (50, 100 and 200mg/kg, p.o.) for 7 days. Liver injures were induced by CCl(4) (0.1% in arachis oil, 10mg/kg, i.v.) 1h after the drug administration on day 7. Mice were sacrificed at 24h after the CCl(4) injection. The levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in serum, and glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver tissues were measured. Histopathological examinations were carried out to supplement the biochemical results. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In vitro assays, TTP showed remarkably different degrees of antioxidant activities in dose-dependent manners. The crude TTP demonstrated a relatively strong antioxidant activity, while the 40% TTP showed the strongest antioxidant activity, and the 60% TTP had the weakest antioxidant ability. In vivo assay, pretreatment with TTP had significantly decreased the levels of AST, ALT and MDA against CCl(4) injures, and restored the activities of defense antioxidant substances SOD and GSH towards normalization. These results supported the effect of T. triangulare in fork use with scientific evidence.

Pro- and antioxidant effects and cytoprotective potentials of nine edible vegetables in southwest Nigeria.

Antioxidant and cytoprotective activities of boiled, cold, and methanolic extracts of nine edible vegetables in Southwest Nigeria were evaluated in the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical assay and hemagglutination assay in bovine erythrocytes, respectively. Crassocephalum rubens showed the highest antioxidant activity (56.5%), Solanum americanum and Vernonia amygdalina exhibited moderate antioxidant activity (26.0-37.5% and 14.8-36.2%, respectively), Solanum macrocarpon, Telfaria occidentalis, Amaranthus hybridus, and Jatropha tanjorensis produced weak activity (1.6-15.8%, 1.6-7.7%, 2.8-6.62%, and 10.7-12.1%, respectively), while Celosia argentea and Talinum triangulare were pro-oxidants. It was also shown that extracts from all the vegetables are pro-oxidants at high concentrations of either 1 or 5 mg/mL or both. On the other hand, the studies on the cytoprotective effect showed that all the plant extracts demonstrated a very low hemagglutination titer value between 0.32 and 5.56 except S. americanum methanolic extract, which had a titer of 50.0. These results indicated correlation between the antioxidant properties and the hemagglutination values of these plant extracts; however, the membrane stabilizing capacity of the extracts supports the plants' antioxidant activity.