[Calcified amorphous tumor of the right atrium after open heart surgery; report of a case].

A 37-year-old woman, who had undergone surgery of atrial septal defect (ASD) at 12-year-old, developed bradycardia and referred to our hospital. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed high echoic tumor in the right atrium. The image of the tumor was of low intensity by T2 weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and floating mass with a stalk to the right atrium in cine MRI. She underwent tumor resection under cardiopulmonary bypass. Histopathologilal examination of the tumor was calcified amorphous tumor. The postoperative course was uneventful.

Conduritols as oviposition stimulants for the danaid butterfly, Parantica sita, identified from a host plant, Marsdenia tomentosa.

Host-plant chemicals responsible for egg-laying by the chestnut tiger butterfly, Parantica sita, were identified from one of its hosts, Marsdenia tomentosa. Ovipositing females responded positively to a methanolic extract of the plant. Solvent partitioning of the extract and oviposition bioassays indicated that the active principle resided in the aqueous fraction. Further activity-directed fractionation of the water-soluble constituents by various forms of column chromatography led to the isolation of several saturated and unsaturated cyclitols together with their glycosides. Of these, conduritol A, a predominant cyclitol present in the plant, moderately stimulated oviposition, while conduritol F 2-O-glucoside, although present in a very small amount, evoked a stronger response from females than conduritol A when tested at the same dose. In contrast, its aglycone, conduritol F, which was also a trace component, was almost inactive by itself. However, the oviposition-stimulatory activity of conduritol A was significantly enhanced when tested in combination with a small quantity of conduritol F. Addition of a small quantity of conduritol F 2-O-glucoside to conduritol A resulted in a substantial elevation in female responses. Consequently, the synergistic action of a large amount of conduritol A and small amounts of co-occurring conduritol F and its glucoside can account for the stimulation of egg-laying by P. sita on M. tomentosa.

Ursolic acid as a trypanocidal constituent in rosemary.

The MeOH extract of the leaves of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) completely inhibited the motility of cultured epimastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi at the concentration of 2 mg/ml after 2 h of incubation. Activity-guided fractionation of the MeOH extract has resulted in the isolation of three triterpene acids, betulinic, oleanolic and ursolic acids. Ursolic acid stopped the movement of all T. cruzi epimastigotes at the minimum concentration (MC(100)) of 40 micro g/ml (88 micro M) after 48 h of incubation. Oleanolic acid was less active (MC(100): 250 micro g/ml, 550 micro M) and betulinic acid was practically inactive.

Trypanocidal constituents in plants 1. Evaluation of some Mexican plants for their trypanocidal activity and active constituents in Guaco, roots of Aristolochia taliscana.

Crude extracts of Mexican medicinal plants were screened for trypanocidal activity against Trypanosoma cruzi, which is the etiological agent for Chagas' disease, one of the most serious protozoan diseases in Latin America. There were 43 kinds of methanolic and other organic extracts from 39 plants which were examined by the preliminary screening test to see immobilization of epimastigotes of T. cruzi in vitro. Eighteen of them showed activity at the concentration of 2 mg/ml after incubation for 2 h, while 13 showed activity at the concentration of 1 mg/ml after incubation for 48 h. Among them, the MeOH extract of roots of Aristolochia taliscana (Aristolochiaceae), locally known as "Guaco," immobilized all the epimastigotes even at lower concentration of 0.5 mg/ml (48 h). In order to identify principal compounds for this activity, the MeOH extract of Guaco was subjected to bioassay-guided fractionation. From the active fractions, four neolignans, eupomatenoid-7 (1), licarin A (2), eupomatenoid-1 (5) and licarin B (6), and two lignans, austrobailignan-7 (3) and fragransin E1 (4) were isolated. Compounds 1-4 immobilized all the epimastigotes at the minimum concentration of 25-75 microg/ml after incubation for 48 h, while compounds 5 and 6 were inactive. Corresponding concentration of gossypol, berberine chloride and harmine was 280 microg/ml, 300 microg/ml and >500 microg/ml, respectively.