[Antioxidant activity of the fruits and hydrophilic compounds of Physalis alkekengi]. / A Physalis alkekengi termésének és hidrofil anyagainak antioxidáns hatása.

Physalis alkekengi L. (bladder cherry, Chinese lantern, winter cherry) is an unusual species of the family Solanaceae. Although accumulation of alkaloids is characteristic to Solanaceae species, and accordingly the root and above ground parts of P. alkekengi are toxic, its fruits are in exceptionally edible. The present paper deals with the investigation of antioxidant hydrophilic compounds of the fruits in order to find correlation between the quantity of the constituents and antioxidant capacity of the extracts. Dried and fresh, freeze stored fruits were extracted with water, and the ascorbic acid and total polyphenol content of the fruits was determined. Furthermore, the antioxidant effect was investigated by DPPH test, and in vitro using the rat-brain homogenate method. The antioxidant activity measured by DPPH (fresh fruit: IC50 = 2.48 mg/ml; dried fruit: IC50 = 22.32 mg/ml) showed good correlation with the ascorbic acid content of the fruit (fresh fruit: 1.095%; dried fruit: 0.162%), and exhibited substantial decrease due the drying process. Lipid peroxidation inhibitory activity was found to be weaker as the DPPH radical scavenger capacity, however, also showed a decrease during the drying process of the fruit (fresh fruit: IC50 = 6.43 mg/ml; dried fruit: IC50 = 15.59 mg/ml). Our results clearly demonstrated the radical scavenger and lipid peroxidation inhibitory activity of aqueous extracts of bladder cherry, and indicate that the conservation and processing technology significantly influenced the antioxidant activity and the content of the active ingredients.

[Investigation of the diterpene alkaloids of Aconitum species native to the Carpathian Basin]. / Kárpat-medencében honos Aconitum fajok diterpénalkaloidjainak vizsgálata.

Aconitum species accumulate highly toxic diterpene alkaloids, which have attracted considerable interest because of their complex structure, interesting chemistry and noteworthy physiological effects. The authors carried out phytochemical analysis of two Aconitum species native to the Carpathian Basin, aiming the isolation of diterpene alkaloids. The multistep chromatographic purification of the extracts of A. vulparia whole plant and A. toxicum root resulted in the isolation of 16 alkaloids. Structure elucidation by means of spectroscopic investigations revealed the presence of 3 (acovulparine, vulparine, acotoxinine) new and 13 already known compounds (anthranoyllycoctonine, delectinine, delcosine, finetiadine, lycoctonine, N-methyl-N-deethyllycocotine, septentriodine, aconitine, aconosine, dolaconine, neoline, songorine, songo-ramine). Alkaloids isolated from A. vulparia are C19 diterpene alkaloids possessing aconitane skeleton, whilst from A. toxicum two C20 diterpene alkaloids with napelline and five diterpene alkaloids with aconitane skeleton were identified. The pharmacological testing of the majority of the isolated compounds has not been reported in the literature yet. Since some of the diterpene alkaloids are structurally very similar to compounds which were active in different in vitro or in vivo experiments, the pharmacological testing of the alkaloids reported in this article seems to be reasonable. The investigation of the compounds may help to reveal structure-activity relationships as well.