The Bioavailability, Extraction, Biosynthesis and Distribution of Natural Dihydrochalcone: Phloridzin.

Phloridzin is an important phytochemical which was first isolated from the bark of apple trees. It is a member of the dihydrochalcones and mainly distributed in the plants of the Malus genus, therefore, the extraction method of phloridzin was similar to those of other phenolic substances. High-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC), resin adsorption technology and preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were used to separate and purify phloridzin. Many studies showed that phloridzin had multiple pharmacological effects, such as antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycaemic, anticancer and antibacterial activities. Besides, the physiological activities of phloridzin are cardioprotective, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, immunomodulatory, antiobesity, antioxidant and so on. The present review summarizes the biosynthesis, distribution, extraction and bioavailability of the natural compound phloridzin and discusses its applications in food and medicine.

Recent Research Progress in Taxol Biosynthetic Pathway and Acylation Reactions Mediated by Taxus Acyltransferases.

Taxol is one of the most effective anticancer drugs in the world that is widely used in the treatments of breast, lung and ovarian cancer. The elucidation of the taxol biosynthetic pathway is the key to solve the problem of taxol supply. So far, the taxol biosynthetic pathway has been reported to require an estimated 20 steps of enzymatic reactions, and sixteen enzymes involved in the taxol pathway have been well characterized, including a novel taxane-10ß-hydroxylase (T10ßOH) and a newly putative ß-phenylalanyl-CoA ligase (PCL). Moreover, the source and formation of the taxane core and the details of the downstream synthetic pathway have been basically depicted, while the modification of the core taxane skeleton has not been fully reported, mainly concerning the developments from diol intermediates to 2-debenzoyltaxane. The acylation reaction mediated by specialized Taxus BAHD family acyltransferases (ACTs) is recognized as one of the most important steps in the modification of core taxane skeleton that contribute to the increase of taxol yield. Recently, the influence of acylation on the functional and structural diversity of taxanes has also been continuously revealed. This review summarizes the latest research advances of the taxol biosynthetic pathway and systematically discusses the acylation reactions supported by Taxus ACTs. The underlying mechanism could improve the understanding of taxol biosynthesis, and provide a theoretical basis for the mass production of taxol.

Biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles for the treatment of osteoarthritis alone or in combination with Diacerein® in a rat model.

Gold (Au) compounds were used as an effective therapeutic agent for various inflammatory diseases; however, the use of Au compounds becomes limited because of its association with several side effects. Hence, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were developed as a new option for the medical proposes. However, the safety evaluation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in osteoarthritis (OA) treatment remains vague. This study aimed to biosynthesize, characterize and evaluate the therapeutic effects of biosynthesized AuNPs and/or Diacerein® (DIA) in experimental OA. OA was induced by a single injection of monosodium iodoacetate (3 mg/joint) in the intra-articular knee of female rats. Normal rats (N-rats) and OA-rats were treated orally for 5 weeks as follow: untreated N-rats; untreated OA-rats; N-rats received DIA (50 mg/kg b.w); N-rats received AuNPs (30 µg/kg b.w.); N-rats received AuNPs plus DIA; OA-rats received DIA; OA-rats received AuNPs, and OA-rats received AuNPs plus DIA. Blood, knee cartilage, liver and kidney samples were collected for biochemical and histological analysis. The synthesized AuNPs were nearly spherical with average size of 20 nm and zeta potential of 33 mV. AuNPs and DIA induced a significant improvement in serum inflammatory cytokines, biochemical parameters, estrogen level, hepatic and renal oxidative markers, hepatic DNA fragmentation, genomic template stability and cartilage joint histology of OA-rats. AuNPs were more effective than DIA and the combined treatment was more effective than the single treatment. It could be concluded that AuNPs are promising for the treatment of OA alone or in combination with DIA.

Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses reveal several critical metabolic pathways and candidate genes involved in resin biosynthesis in Pinus massoniana.

Pine resin, which typically consists of terpenoids, is a natural product used in various industrial applications. Oleoresin can be obtained from the xylem tissue by wounding the stem bark. Pinus massoniana (masson pine) is an important resin-tapping tree species that originated in southern China. Masson pines with different genetic backgrounds typically have different resin-yielding capacities (RYCs). However, the mechanisms underlying high resin yield in masson pines are unclear. The aim of this study was to identify the possible genetic regulation pathways and functional genes that influence the resin yield. In this study, we conducted transcriptomic and metabolomic studies of masson pine secondary xylem with high, medium, and low RYCs. A total of 230,068 unigenes and 3894 metabolites were identified from the tissue of the secondary xylem. Several differentially expressed regulation factors, including WRKY, bHLH, and ERF, and functional genes such as PKc and LRR-RLKs, were identified among these masson pines. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways were mainly focused on diterpenoid biosynthesis, plant hormone signal transduction, and ABC transporters. Furthermore, integration of the transcriptomic and metabolomic data indicated that the PKc- and LRR-RLK-related regulatory and metabolic pathways may play critical roles in the biosynthesis of terpenoids. These above results improve our understanding of the biosynthesis mechanism of oleoresin in P. massoniana and facilitate further research work into the functional analysis of these candidate genes.

Single components of botanicals and nature-identical compounds as a non-antibiotic strategy to ameliorate health status and improve performance in poultry and pigs.

In the current post-antibiotic era, botanicals represent one of the most employed nutritional strategies to sustain antibiotic-free and no-antibiotic-ever production. Botanicals can be classified either as plant extracts, meaning the direct products derived by extraction from the raw plant materials (essential oils (EO) and oleoresins (OR)), or as nature-identical compounds (NIC), such as the chemically synthesised counterparts of the pure bioactive compounds of EO/OR. In the literature, differences between the use of EO/OR or NIC are often unclear, so it is difficult to attribute certain effects to specific bioactive compounds. The aim of the present review was to provide an overview of the effects exerted by botanicals on the health status and growth performance of poultry and pigs, focusing attention on those studies where only NIC were employed or those where the composition of the EO/OR was defined. In particular, phenolic compounds (apigenin, quercetin, curcumin and resveratrol), organosulfur compounds (allicin), terpenes (eugenol, thymol, carvacrol, capsaicin and artemisinin) and aldehydes (cinnamaldehyde and vanillin) were considered. These molecules have different properties such as antimicrobial (including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and antiprotozoal), anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, as well as the improvement of intestinal morphology and integrity of the intestinal mucosa. The use of NIC allows us to properly combine pure compounds, according to the target to achieve. Thus, they represent a promising non-antibiotic tool to allow better intestinal health and a general health status, thereby leading to improved growth performance.

Hybrid sequencing of the Gynostemma pentaphyllum transcriptome provides new insights into gypenoside biosynthesis.

BACKGROUND: Gypenosides are a group of triterpene saponins from Gynostemma pentaphyllum that are the same as or very similar to ginsenosides from the Panax species. Several enzymes involved in ginsenoside biosynthesis have been characterized, which provide important clues for elucidating the gypenoside biosynthetic pathway. We suppose that gypenosides and ginsenosides may have a similar biosynthetic mechanism and that the corresponding enzymes in the two pathways may have considerable similarity in their sequences. To further understand gypenoside biosynthesis, we sequenced the G. pentaphyllum transcriptome with a hybrid sequencing-based strategy and then determined the candidate genes involved in this pathway using phylogenetic tree construction and gene expression analysis. RESULTS: Following the PacBio standard analysis pipeline, 66,046 polished consensus sequences were obtained, while Illumina data were assembled into 140,601 unigenes with Trinity software. Then, these output sequences from the two analytical routes were merged. After removing redundant data with CD-HIT software, a total of 140,157 final unigenes were obtained. After functional annotation, five 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclase genes, 145 cytochrome P450 genes and 254 UDP-glycosyltransferase genes were selected for the screening of genes involved in gypenoside biosynthesis. Using phylogenetic analysis, several genes were divided into the same subfamilies or closely related evolutionary branches with characterized enzymes involved in ginsenoside biosynthesis. Using real-time PCR technology, their expression patterns were investigated in different tissues and at different times after methyl jasmonate induction. Since the genes in the same biosynthetic pathway are generally coexpressed, we speculated that GpOSC1, GpCYP89, and GpUGT35 were the leading candidates for gypenoside biosynthesis. In addition, six GpWRKYs and one GpbHLH might play a possible role in regulating gypenoside biosynthesis. CONCLUSIONS: We developed a hybrid sequencing strategy to obtain longer length transcriptomes with increased accuracy, which will greatly contribute to downstream gene screening and characterization, thus improving our ability to elucidate secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways. With this strategy, we found several candidate genes that may be involved in gypenoside biosynthesis, which laid an important foundation for the elucidation of this biosynthetic pathway, thus greatly contributing to further research in metabolic regulation, synthetic biology and molecular breeding in this species.

Assessment of flux through oleoresin biosynthesis in epithelial cells of loblolly pine resin ducts.

The shoot system of pines contains abundant resin ducts, which harbor oleoresins that play important roles in constitutive and inducible defenses. In a pilot study, we assessed the chemical diversity of oleoresins obtained from mature tissues of loblolly pine trees (Pinus taeda L.). Building on these data sets, we designed experiments to assess oleoresin biosynthesis in needles of 2-year-old saplings. Comparative transcriptome analyses of single cell types indicated that genes involved in the biosynthesis of oleoresins are significantly enriched in isolated epithelial cells of resin ducts, compared with those expressed in mesophyll cells. Simulations using newly developed genome-scale models of epithelial and mesophyll cells, which incorporate our data on oleoresin yield and composition as well as gene expression patterns, predicted that heterotrophic metabolism in epithelial cells involves enhanced levels of oxidative phosphorylation and fermentation (providing redox and energy equivalents). Furthermore, flux was predicted to be more evenly distributed across the metabolic network of mesophyll cells, which, in contrast to epithelial cells, do not synthesize high levels of specialized metabolites. Our findings provide novel insights into the remarkable specialization of metabolism in epithelial cells.

Tropane Alkaloids: Chemistry, Pharmacology, Biosynthesis and Production.

Tropane alkaloids (TA) are valuable secondary plant metabolites which are mostly found in high concentrations in the Solanaceae and Erythroxylaceae families. The TAs, which are characterized by their unique bicyclic tropane ring system, can be divided into three major groups: hyoscyamine and scopolamine, cocaine and calystegines. Although all TAs have the same basic structure, they differ immensely in their biological, chemical and pharmacological properties. Scopolamine, also known as hyoscine, has the largest legitimate market as a pharmacological agent due to its treatment of nausea, vomiting, motion sickness, as well as smooth muscle spasms while cocaine is the 2nd most frequently consumed illicit drug globally. This review provides a comprehensive overview of TAs, highlighting their structural diversity, use in pharmaceutical therapy from both historical and modern perspectives, natural biosynthesis in planta and emerging production possibilities using tissue culture and microbial biosynthesis of these compounds.

Identification, characterization and expression analysis of genes involved in steroidal saponin biosynthesis in Dracaena cambodiana.

Dracaena cambodiana is a traditional medicinal plant used for producing dragon's blood. The plants and dragon's blood of D. cambodiana contain a rich variety of steroidal saponins. However, little is known about steroidal saponin biosynthesis and its regulation in D. cambodiana. Here, 122 genes encoding enzymes involved in steroidal saponin biosynthesis were identified based on transcriptome data, with 29 of them containing complete open reading frames (ORF). Transcript expression analysis revealed that several genes related to steroidal saponin biosynthesis showed distinct tissue-specific expression patterns; the expression levels of genes encoding the key enzymes involved in the biosynthesis and early modification of steroidal saponins were significantly down-regulated in the stems in response to the inducer of dragon's blood, exhibiting positive correlations with the content of steroidal saponins. These results provide insights on the steroidal saponins biosynthetic pathway and mechanisms underlying induced formation of dragon's blood in D. cambodiana.

Rapid Evaluation of Chemical Consistency of Artificially Induced and Natural Resina Draconis Using Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Quadrupole-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry-Based Chemical Profiling.

Resina Draconis is a highly valued traditional medicine widely used in Arabia since ancient times, and it has been commonly used as an antidiarrheic, antimicrobial, antiulcer, blood circulation promoter as well as an anti-inflammatory agent. The tree source from which this medicine orignates grows extremely slowly, producing a very low yield of Resina Draconis. To meet the increasing market demand, artificial methods for stimulating Resina Draconis formation have been developed and applied. However, the chemical differences between artificially induced Resina Draconis (AIRD) and natural Resina Draconis (NRD) have been rarely studied. The aim of this research was to explore and identify the chemical constituents of AIRD and NRD using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) based chemical profiling. A total of 56 chromatographic peaks were detected in AIRD, of these, 44 peaks have had their structures tentatively characterized based on high-resolution mass spectra (HRMS) data, fragmentation ions information, reference standards data and literature review. In total, 40 peaks were found both in AIRD and NRD. The potential chemical transformation mechanisms active in Resina Draconis during formation were explored. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of the chemical profiles of both AIRD and NRD. Furthermore, these findings are expected to provide a rational basis for the quality assessment of AIRD and the use of AIRD as a substitute for NRD.

Enhanced Production of Gypenoside LXXV Using a Novel Ginsenoside-Transforming ß-Glucosidase from Ginseng-Cultivating Soil Bacteria and Its Anti-Cancer Property.

Minor ginsenosides, such as compound K, Rg3(S), which can be produced by deglycosylation of ginsenosides Rb1, showed strong anti-cancer effects. However, the anticancer effects of gypenoside LXXV, which is one of the deglycosylated shapes of ginsenoside Rb1, is still unknown due to the rarity of its content in plants. Here, we cloned and characterized a novel ginsenoside-transforming ß-glucosidase (BglG167b) derived from Microbacterium sp. Gsoil 167 which can efficiently hydrolyze gypenoside XVII into gypenoside LXXV, and applied it to the production of gypenoside LXXV at the gram-scale with high specificity. In addition, the anti-cancer activity of gypenoside LXXV was investigated against three cancer cell lines (HeLa, B16, and MDA-MB231) in vitro. Gypenoside LXXV significantly reduced cell viability, displaying an enhanced anti-cancer effect compared to gypenoside XVII and Rb1. Taken together, this enzymatic method would be useful in the preparation of gypenoside LXXV for the functional food and pharmaceutical industries.

Production of eurycomanone from cell suspension culture of Eurycoma longifolia.

CONTEXT: Eurycomanone is found in the Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Simaroubaceae) tree, exhibits significant antimalarial activity, improves spermatogenesis, suppresses expression of lung cancer cell tumour markers and regulates signalling pathways involved in proliferation, cell death and inflammation. OBJECTIVES: Establishment of cell suspension culture of E. longifolia to determine the eurycomanone accumulation during cultures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Callus of E. longifolia was cultured in MS medium supplemented with 0.8% agar, 30/L sucrose, 1.25 mg/L NAA and 1 mg/L KIN for biomass production. Cell suspension culture was established by transferring friable calli to the same medium without agar. Eurycomanone content during cell culture was determined by HPLC with a C18 column, flow rate of 0.8 mL/min, run time of 17.5 min, detector wavelength of 254 nm. The stationary phase was silica gel and the mobile phase was acetonitric:H2O. Roots of 5 year-old trees were used as the control. RESULTS: The cells from 3 g of inoculum increased in biomass with a maximum value of 16 g fresh weight (0.7 g dry weight) at 14th day of culture. The cell growth then decreased from day 14 to day 20. Eurycomanone was produced during culture from the beginning to 20th day, its highest content (1.7 mg/g dry weight) also obtained at 14th day (the control is 2.1 mg/g dry weight). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Cell suspension culture of E. longifolia is a suitable procedure to produce eurycomanone. The yield of eurycomanone biosynthesis in 14 days-old cells are relatively high, approximately 0.8 times the control.

In vitro propagation and cell cultures of memory tonic herb Evolvulus alsinoides: a best source for elicited production of scopoletin.

Evolvulus alsinoides L. is used for preparation of 'Shankhapushpi', an important popular ayurvedic drug that contributes considerably to the improvement of memory power. The improvement is attributed to the presence of furanocoumarin scopoletin, a metabolite with a wide range of biological activities. This report describes, for the first time, an in vitro culture system for propagation and enhanced production of scopoletin. Different concentrations of auxins and cytokinins individually and in combination were used in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium to induce shoot regeneration in cotyledonary nodal explants and callus formation in leaf explants. The best response was achieved in MS medium fortified with 5.0 µM 6-benzyladenine (BA) in which 96 % of cultures produced 7.6 ± 0.6 shoots per explant. Regenerated shoots were rooted on MS medium with 5.0 µM indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Plantlets were successfully acclimatized and established in soil. MS medium fortified with 10 µM BA + 5.0 µM IAA showed maximum growth and accumulation of scopoletin in cell cultures. Cell cultures could be maintained over 24 months. The influences of auxins, cytokinins, organic acids, amino acids, and fungal-derived elicitors on production of scopoletin were studied. Presence of either L-arginine, sodium pyruvate, or yeast extract highly promoted scopoletin production as compared with control and achieved 75.02-, 72.13-, and 57.98-fold higher accumulation, respectively. The results presented herein have laid solid foundation for large-scale production of scopoletin and further investigation of its purification and utilization as a novel pharmaceutical drug.

Plant-mediated biosynthesis of nanoparticles as an emerging tool against mosquitoes of medical and veterinary importance: a review.

Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are a key threat for millions of people worldwide, since they act as vectors for devastating parasites and pathogens. Mosquito young instars are usually targeted with organophosphates, insect growth regulators and microbial control agents. Indoors residual spraying and insecticide-treated bed nets are also employed. However, these chemicals have strong negative effects on human health and the environment. Newer and safer tools have been recently implemented to enhance control of mosquitoes. In this review, I focus on characterization, effectiveness, and non-target effects of mosquitocidal nanoparticles synthesized using botanical products (mosquitocidal nanoparticles, MNP). The majority of plant-fabricated MNP are silver ones. The synthesis of MNP is usually confirmed by UV-visualization spectroscopy, followed by scanning electron microscopy or transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction studies. Interestingly, plant-synthesized metal nanoparticles have been reported as effective ovicides, larvicides, pupicides, adulticides, and oviposition deterrents against different mosquito species of medical and veterinary importance. Few parts per million of different MNP are highly toxic against the malaria vector Anopheles stephensi, the dengue vector Aedes aegypti, and the filariasis mosquito Culex quiquefasciatus. However, despite the growing number of evidences about the effectiveness of MNP, moderate efforts have been carried out to shed light on their possible non-target effects against mosquito's natural enemies and other aquatic organisms. In the final section, particular attention was dedicated to this issue. A number of hot areas that need further research and cooperation among parasitologists and entomologists are highlighted.

Biosynthesis, characterization, and acute toxicity of Berberis tinctoria-fabricated silver nanoparticles against the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, and the mosquito predators Toxorhynchites splendens and Mesocyclops thermocyclopoides.

Aedes albopictus is an important arbovirus vector, including dengue. Currently, there is no specific treatment for dengue. Its prevention solely depends on effective vector control measures. In this study, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were biosynthesized using a cheap leaf extract of Berberis tinctoria as reducing and stabilizing agent and tested against Ae. albopictus and two mosquito natural enemies. AgNPs were characterized by using UV­vis spectrophotometry, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. In laboratory conditions, the toxicity of AgNPs was evaluated on larvae and pupae of Ae. albopictus. Suitability Index/Predator Safety Factor was assessed on Toxorhynchites splendens and Mesocyclops thermocyclopoides. The leaf extract of B. tinctoria was toxic against larval instars (I­IV) and pupae of Ae. albopictus; LC50 was 182.72 ppm (I instar), 230.99 ppm (II), 269.65 ppm (III), 321.75 ppm (IV), and 359.71 ppm (pupa). B. tinctoria-synthesized AgNPs were highly effective, with LC50 of 4.97 ppm (I instar), 5.97 ppm (II), 7.60 ppm (III), 9.65 ppm (IV), and 14.87 ppm (pupa). Both the leaf extract and AgNPs showed reduced toxicity against the mosquito natural enemies M. thermocyclopoides and T. splendens. Overall, this study firstly shed light on effectiveness of B. tinctoria-synthesized AgNPs as an eco-friendly nanopesticide, highlighting the concrete possibility to employ this newer and safer tool in arbovirus vector control programs.

Genetic and correlation analysis of oleoresin chemical components in slash pine.

This is the first comprehensive study of the genetic analysis of the majority of oleoresin components of slash pine (Pinus elliottii). Pine oleoresin, the resin secreted from the pine tree, is a raw material widely used in industrial products. The objective of this study was to explore the genetic variation and correlation between the major oleoresin components of 50 open pollinated families of slash pine. The individual narrow-sense heritability of the 23 oleoresin components and genetic correlations between them were estimated using the residual maximum likelihood in the flexible mixed modeling program, ASReml-R. A high heritability of 0.424 was observed for ß-pinene. Moderate levels of heritability were estimated for ß-phellandrene, methyl abietate, estragole, 15-hydroxy-dehydroabietic acid, and isopimaric acid methyl ester at 0.303, 0.294, 0.27, 0.258, and 0.2, respectively. The heritabilities for pimaric acid methyl ester, abieta-8, 13-diene-18-oic acid methyl ester, sandaracopimaric acid, methyl ester, and camphene were relatively low and ranged from 0.11 to 0.17. Many negative genetic correlations were observed as unfavorable while the corresponding phenotypic correlations presented no significant relationships or positive phenotypic correlations. However, the heritabilities and genetic correlations showed that single or multiple component selections and improvement, directly or indirectly, were effective. We postulate that genetic parameters estimated in this study will work as a reference in breeding programs of oleoresin components, especially in slash pine.

An Overview of Plant Phenolic Compounds and Their Importance in Human Nutrition and Management of Type 2 Diabetes.

In this paper, the biosynthesis process of phenolic compounds in plants is summarized, which include the shikimate, pentose phosphate and phenylpropanoid pathways. Plant phenolic compounds can act as antioxidants, structural polymers (lignin), attractants (flavonoids and carotenoids), UV screens (flavonoids), signal compounds (salicylic acid, flavonoids) and defense response chemicals (tannins, phytoalexins). From a human physiological standpoint, phenolic compounds are vital in defense responses, such as anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities. Therefore, it is beneficial to eat such plant foods that have a high antioxidant compound content, which will cut down the incidence of certain chronic diseases, for instance diabetes, cancers and cardiovascular diseases, through the management of oxidative stress. Furthermore, berries and other fruits with low-amylase and high-glucosidase inhibitory activities could be thought of as candidate food items in the control of the early stages of hyperglycemia associated with type 2 diabetes.

Transcriptome Analysis of Nine Tissues to Discover Genes Involved in the Biosynthesis of Active Ingredients in Sophora flavescens.

Sophora flavescens AITON (kurara) has long been used to treat various diseases. Although several research findings revealed the biosynthetic pathways of its characteristic chemical components as represented by matrine, insufficient analysis of transcriptome data hampered in-depth analysis of the underlying putative genes responsible for the biosynthesis of pharmaceutical chemical components. In this study, more than 200 million fastq format reads were generated by Illumina's next-generation sequencing approach using nine types of tissue from S. flavescens, followed by CLC de novo assembly, ultimately yielding 83,325 contigs in total. By mapping the reads back to the contigs, reads per kilobase of the transcript per million mapped reads values were calculated to demonstrate gene expression levels, and overrepresented gene ontology terms were evaluated using Fisher's exact test. In search of the putative genes relevant to essential metabolic pathways, all 1350 unique enzyme commission numbers were used to map pathways against the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. By analyzing expression patterns, we proposed some candidate genes involved in the biosynthesis of isoflavonoids and quinolizidine alkaloids. Adopting RNA-Seq analysis, we obtained substantially credible contigs for downstream work. The preferential expression of the gene for putative lysine/ornithine decarboxylase committed in the initial step of matrine biosynthesis in leaves and stems was confirmed in semi-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. The findings in this report may serve as a stepping-stone for further research into this promising medicinal plant.

Phenolic Compounds from the Roots of Rhodiola crenulata and Their Antioxidant and Inducing IFN-γ Production Activities.

In the present study, two new phenolic compounds 1 and 11, a pair of lignan isomers 12 and 13 with their absolute configurations established for the first time, were isolated from the ethanol extract of the roots of Rhodiola crenulata, together with 13 known phenolic compounds, and their structures were elucidated via NMR, HRESIMS, UV, IR and CD analyses. All the isolated compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antioxidant activities using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging assays. Ten of them exhibited significant antioxidant activities compared to ascorbic acid. Furthermore, the inducibilities of the isolated compounds to IFN-γ production were also assessed. Compounds 1, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15 could moderately stimulate IFN-γ expression.

Ursolic Acid--A Pentacyclic Triterpenoid with a Wide Spectrum of Pharmacological Activities.

Ursolic acid (UA) is a natural terpene compound exhibiting many pharmaceutical properties. In this review the current state of knowledge about the health-promoting properties of this widespread, biologically active compound, as well as information about its occurrence and biosynthesis are presented. Particular attention has been paid to the application of ursolic acid as an anti-cancer agent; it is worth noticing that clinical tests suggesting the possibility of practical use of UA have already been conducted. Amongst other pharmacological properties of UA one can mention protective effect on lungs, kidneys, liver and brain, anti-inflammatory properties, anabolic effects on skeletal muscles and the ability to suppress bone density loss leading to osteoporosis. Ursolic acid also exhibits anti-microbial features against numerous strains of bacteria, HIV and HCV viruses and Plasmodium protozoa causing malaria.