Volume 78, Issue 7-8

In this study, the fatty acid, carbohydrate, and mineral profiles and proximate composition of Halopteris scoparia , Padina pavonica , Zanardinia typus , Cladostephus spongiosum , Sargassum vulgare , and Sargassum acinarium brown macroalgae collected from Türkiye seas were determined. According to the results, the ash and total carbohydrate contents of all macroalgae ranged from 20.79 to 53.49% in dry weight (dw) and from 15.32 to 55.13% dw, respectively. Their protein, lipid and crude fiber contents changed between 4.22 and 9.89% dw, 0.25 and 0.90% dw, and 12.28 and 16.01% dw, respectively. Palmitic acid (29.36–48.55% dw) and oleic acid (8.92–20.92% dw) were at the highest levels in all brown macroalgae. In addition, they included prominent levels of saturated fatty acids (51.87–69.56% dw of total fatty acid content). Magnesium (6.97–18.78 mg/kg dw), potassium (1.34–3.78 mg/kg dw), iron (1.27–8.24 mg/kg dw), and manganese (63.10–252.23 μg/kg dw) were found to be the major minerals. The main soluble carbohydrates of macroalgae were found to be mannitol (1149.99–8676.31 mg/kg dw), glucose (368.78–1305.59 mg/kg dw), myo-inositol (225.96–956.78 mg/kg dw), fructose (137.05–689.21 mg/kg dw), and sucrose (189.55–328.06 mg/kg dw). This study revealed that brown macroalgae are particularly rich in potassium, magnesium, iron, manganese, and zinc and they may have potential for use in the food industry.

The structure and complete NMR assignments of aspidoreticulofractine, an aspidofractinine N -oxide, are reported. Its structure was elucidated based on a combination of spectroscopic techniques including 1D and 2D NMR, high-resolution mass spectrometry, and electronic circular dichroism.

Crotofoligandrin ( 1 ), a new endoperoxide crotofolane-type diterpenoid was isolated from the dichloromethane/methanol (1:1) extract of the twigs of Croton oligandrus Pierre Ex Hutch along with thirteen known secondary metabolites including 1-nonacosanol ( 2 ), lupenone ( 3 ), friedelin ( 4 ), β -sitosterol ( 5 ), taraxerol ( 6 ), (−)-hardwickiic acid ( 7 ), apigenin ( 8 ), acetyl aleuritolic acid ( 9 ), betulinic acid ( 10 ), fokihodgin C 3-acetate ( 11 ), D-mannitol ( 12 ), scopoletin ( 13 ) and quercetin ( 14 ). The structures of the isolated compounds were determined based on their spectroscopic data. The crude extract and the isolated compounds were assessed in vitro for their antioxidant, lipoxygenase, butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), urease and glucosidase inhibitory potentials. Compounds 1 – 3, and 10 displayed activities on all the performed bioassays. All the tested samples showed strong to significant antioxidant activity with compound 1 being the most potent (IC 50 39.4 μM).

The family Asteraceae comprises many species that have medicinal importance in terms of their chemical components. Some species of the genus Lactuca have been used in folk medicine for a long time ago. One of them is L. serriola L., a wild plant that is a weed in agriculture. To date, few studies have been published on its chemical profile. In this research, we investigated the volatile compounds and fatty acids of L. serriola roots, leaves, and seeds. To this end, a microsteam distillation-solid phase microextraction technique (MSD-SPME) followed by a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis was performed. Aldehydes and terpenoids were predominantly present in the leaves with phenylacetaldehyde as the major compound (up to 18%) while 2-ethyl hexanol (up to 36.9%) was the most abundant substance in the roots. Among the fatty acids, nonadecanoic acid (38.3%) was the main one detected in the leaves, while linoleic acid (57.7%) was predominant in the seeds. Some of the detected constituents have already demonstrated importance in medicinal and industrial areas. As a result, this species could be further investigated for its biological features and be considered as a source of ingredients beneficial in different fields, including pharmaceuticals.

Knema is one of the genera in the Myristicaceae family. The genus includes 60 species in Southeast Asia and is traditionally used for treating skin disorders. Here, for the first time, the essential oil, anti-tyrosinase, and molecular docking studies of Knema intermedia were evaluated. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation and fully characterized by gas chromatography (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Anti-tyrosinase activity was evaluated against mushroom tyrosinase, whereas molecular docking studies were performed using Autodock vina embedded in PyRx to evaluate the binding interactions of major components. A total of 37 components (97.3%) were successfully identified in the essential oil, which was characterized by high amounts of t -muurolol (20.1%), α-copaene (14.4%), δ-cadinene (13.9%), germacrene B (9.5%), and δ-selinene (7.0%). The essential oil displayed moderate inhibitory activity towards tyrosinase with an IC 50 value of 70.2 μg/mL. The best docking energy was observed with δ-selinene (−7.8 kcal/mol), and it also forms interactions with His85, His263, and His244 which are important amino acid residues of the tyrosinase receptor. Hence, this study provides valuable scientific data on K. intermedia as potential candidate for the development of natural antiaging formulations.

Common ragweed ( Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) is an invasive plant in Europe with spreading use in the contemporary folk medicine. The chemical composition of the above-ground parts is extensively studied, however, the metabolites of the roots are less discovered. By multiple chromatographic purification of the root extracts, we isolated thiophene A ( 1 ), n -dodecene ( 2 ), taraxerol-3- O -acetate ( 3 ), α -linoleic acid ( 4 ), (+)-pinoresinol ( 5 ), and thiophene E (7,10-epithio-7,9-tridecadiene-3,5,11-triyne-1,2-diol) ( 6 ). The 1 H NMR data published earlier for 1 were supplemented together with the assignment of 13 C NMR data. Thiophene E ( 6 ), which is reported for the first time from this species, exerted cytotoxic and antiproliferative effects on A-431 epidermoid skin cancer cells, whereas taraxerol-3- O -acetate ( 3 ) and α -linoleic acid ( 4 ) had slight antiproliferative effect on gynecological cancer cell lines. Thiophene E ( 6 ) and taraxerol-3- O -acetate ( 3 ) displayed antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects on MRC-5 fibroblast cells. Thiophene E ( 6 ) exerted weak antibacterial activity (MIC 25 μg/mL) on MRSA ATCC 43300, on Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Escherichia coli AG100 and E. coli ATCC 25922 both thiophenes were inactive. Although the isolated compounds exerted no remarkable cytotoxic or antiproliferative activities, the effects on MRC-5 fibroblast cells highlight the necessity of further studies to support the safety of ragweed root.

Aging is a natural phenomenon, which is characterised by progressive physiological changes at cellular and organ level. During aging, the defence mechanism of an organism declines over the period of time. The aim of this study was to investigate the biological efficacy of berberine in D-galactose induced aging rat models. For the study, rats were divided into four groups: Control received only vehicle, BBR received berberine orally, D-Gal received D-galactose subcutaneously and BBR + D-Gal received D-galactose and berberine simultaneously. D-galactose treatment increased the pro-oxidants such as malondialdehyde (MDA) level, protein carbonyl, plasma membrane redox system (PMRS) and advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) in the erythrocytes or plasma. It reduced the anti-oxidant level such as reduced glutathione (GSH), ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), plasma thiols, sialic acid and membrane transporters like Na + /K + ATPase and Ca 2+ ATPase activity in the erythrocyte membrane. Co-treatment of berberine in D-galactose induced aging rat models restored pro-oxidants and anti-oxidants in erythrocytes. Berberine also restored the activity of Na + /K + ATPase and Ca 2+ ATPase in the erythrocyte membrane. On the basis of these findings, we suggest that berberine treatment could attenuate erythrocyte aging in rats through stabilisation of the redox equilibrium.

The study was conducted to find new adaptive commercial sweet white lupin ( Lupinus albus L.) varieties and evaluate the effect of inoculum on herbage and seed yields of white and blue lupin varieties in Ethiopia for two growing seasons in two locations. For the experiment a factorial arrangement (seven variety * two inoculation) in a randomized complete block design with three replication was used. Three sweet blue (Bora, Sanabor and Vitabor), three sweet white (Dieta, Energy and Feodora) and one bitter white local landrace lupin varieties were tested in the experiment. Analysis of variance was done using the general linear model procedure in SAS. The effects of location and inoculum were insignificant ( P  ≥ 0.0761) on yield and yield parameters. The effect of variety was observed ( P  ≤ 0.035) only on plant height, fresh biomass yield and thousand seed weight in both seasons except for fresh biomass yield in season two. However, its effect on other parameters was not shown ( P  ≥ 0.134) in both growing seasons or only shown in either season. The mean dry matter yield of all varieties was 2.45 ton per ha. However, sweet blue entries performed better than white entries. The mean seed yield of blue sweet lupin entries and white local check was 2.6 ton per ha. Sweet blue and white local landrace varieties were found tolerant while, commercial sweet white lupin varieties were susceptible for anthracnose and fusarium diseases that occurred immediately after flowering. As a result imported commercial sweet white varieties failed to give seed yield. Developing adaptive, disease resistant and high yielding sweet white lupin through crossing the local and commercial varieties and looking for species specific inoculum should be the future research agendas.