Molecular Insights into the Antistress Potentials of Brazilian Green Propolis Extract and Its Constituent Artepillin C

Propolis, also known as bee-glue, is a resinous substance produced by honeybees from materials collected from plants they visit. It contains mixtures of wax and bee enzymes and is used by bees as a building material in their hives and by humans for different purposes in traditional healthcare practices. Although the composition of propolis has been shown to depend on its geographic location, climatic zone, and local flora; two largely studied types of propolis: (i) New Zealand and (ii) Brazilian green propolis have been shown to possess Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE) and Artepillin C (ARC) as the main bioactive constituents, respectively. We have earlier reported that CAPE and ARC possess anticancer activities, mediated by abrogation of mortalin-p53 complex and reactivation of p53 tumor suppressor function. Like CAPE, Artepillin C (ARC) and the supercritical extract of green propolis (GPSE) showed potent anticancer activity. In this study, we recruited low doses of GPSE and ARC (that did not affect either cancer cell proliferation or migration) to investigate their antistress potential using in vitro cell based assays. We report that both GPSE and ARC have the capability to disaggregate metal- and heat-induced aggregated proteins. Metal-induced aggregation of GFP was reduced by fourfold in GPSE- as well as ARC-treated cells. Similarly, whereas heat-induced misfolding of luciferase protein showed 80% loss of activity, the cells treated with either GPSE or ARC showed 60–80% recovery. Furthermore, we demonstrate their pro-hypoxia (marked by the upregulation of HIF-1α) and neuro-differentiation (marked by differentiation morphology and upregulation of expression of GFAP, β-tubulin III, and MAP2). Both GPSE and ARC also offered significant protection against oxidative stress and, hence, may be useful in the treatment of old age-related brain pathologies.     

Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics to Explore the Action Mechanism of the Pharmaceutical-Grade Triticum vulgare Extract in Speeding Up Keratinocyte Healing

Plant extracts have shown beneficial properties in terms of skin repair, promoting wound healing through a plethora of mechanisms. In particular, the poly-/oligosaccharidic aqueous extract of Triticum vulgare (TVE), as well as TVE-based products, shows interesting biological assets, hastening wound repair. Indeed, TVE acts in the treatment of tissue regeneration mainly on decubitus and venous leg ulcers. Moreover, on scratched monolayers, TVE prompts HaCat cell migration, correctly modulating the expression of metalloproteases toward a physiological matrix remodeling. Here, using the same HaCat-based in vitro scratch model, the TVE effect has been investigated thanks to an LFQ proteomic analysis of HaCat secretomes and immunoblotting. Indeed, the unbiased TVE effect on secreted proteins has not yet been fully understood, and it could be helpful to obtain a comprehensive picture of its bio-pharmacological profile. It has emerged that TVE treatment induces significant up-regulation of several proteins in the secretome (153 to be exact) whereas only a few were down-regulated (72 to be exact). Interestingly, many of the up-regulated proteins are implicated in promoting wound-healing-related processes, such as modulating cell–cell interaction and communication, cell proliferation and differentiation, and prompting cell adhesion and migration.     

Supercritical CO2 Plant Extracts Show Antifungal Activities against Crop-Borne Fungi

Fungal infections of cultivated food crops result in extensive losses of crops at the global level, while resistance to antifungal agents continues to grow. Supercritical fluid extraction using CO₂ (SFE-CO₂) has gained attention as an environmentally well-accepted extraction method, as CO₂ is a non-toxic, inert and available solvent, and the extracts obtained are, chemically, of greater or different complexities compared to those of conventional extracts. The SFE-CO₂ extracts of Achillea millefolium, Calendula officinalis, Chamomilla recutita, Helichrysum arenarium, Humulus lupulus, Taraxacum officinale, Juniperus communis, Hypericum perforatum, Nepeta cataria, Crataegus sp. and Sambucus nigra were studied in terms of their compositions and antifungal activities against the wheat- and buckwheat-borne fungi Alternaria alternata, Epicoccum nigrum, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium poae. The C. recutita and H. arenarium extracts were the most efficacious, and these inhibited the growth of most of the fungi by 80% to 100%. Among the fungal species, B. cinerea was the most susceptible to the treatments with the SFE-CO₂ extracts, while Fusarium spp. were the least. This study shows that some of these SFE-CO₂ extracts have promising potential for use as antifungal agents for selected crop-borne fungi.     

Phytochemical Profiling,In Vitro Biological Activities,and In Silico Molecular Docking Studies of Dracaena reflexa

Dracaena reflexa, a traditionally significant medicinal plant, has not been extensively explored before for its phytochemical and biological potential. The present study was conducted to evaluate the bioactive phytochemicals and in vitro biological activities of D. reflexa, and perform in silico molecular docking validation of D. reflexa. The bioactive phytochemicals were assessed by preliminary phytochemical testing, total bioactive contents, and GC-MS analysis. For biological evaluation, the antioxidant (DPPH, ABTS, CUPRAC, and ABTS), antibacterial, thrombolytic, and enzyme inhibition (tyrosinase and cholinesterase enzymes) potential were determined. The highest level of total phenolic contents (92.72 ± 0.79 mg GAE/g extract) was found in the n-butanol fraction while the maximum total flavonoid content (110 ± 0.83 mg QE/g extract) was observed in methanolic extract. The results showed that n-butanol fraction exhibited very significant tyrosinase inhibition activity (73.46 ± 0.80) and acetylcholinesterase inhibition activity (64.06 ± 2.65%) as compared to other fractions and comparable to the standard compounds (kojic acid and galantamine). The methanolic extract was considered to have moderate butyrylcholinesterase inhibition activity (50.97 ± 063) as compared to the standard compound galantamine (53.671 ± 0.97%). The GC-MS analysis of the n-hexane fraction resulted in the tentative identification of 120 bioactive phytochemicals. Furthermore, the major compounds as identified by GC-MS were analyzed using in silico molecular docking studies to determine the binding affinity between the ligands and the enzymes (tyrosinase, acetylcholinesterase, and butyrylcholinesterase enzymes). The results of this study suggest that Dracaena reflexa has unquestionable pharmaceutical importance and it should be further explored for the isolation of secondary metabolites that can be employed for the treatment of different diseases.     

生晒参、全须生晒参中19种有机氯残留农药的毛细管气相色谱测定

建立了生晒参、全须生晒参中19种有机氯农药残留的毛细管气相色谱分析方法。对样品中六六六的4种异构体、滴滴涕的5种异构体、四氯苯胺、六氯苯、五氯硝基苯、七氯、五氯苯胺、艾氏剂、百菌清、环氧七氯、狄氏剂及异狄氏剂共19种有机氯农药的残留量进行了测定。以石油醚-丙酮混合物作为提取剂,样品采用索氏提取,提取液用弗罗里硅土柱层析净化。采用OV-1701石英毛细管气相色谱柱分离样品,ECD检测器进行检测。在3个水平添加时的回收率(n=5)分别为75.7%~96.1%、78.8%~111.6%和81.7%~115·2%;相对标准偏差分别为2.4%~10.6%、2.1%~9.8%和1.4~10.0%。方法用于生晒参和全须生晒参样品中农药残留的测定,结果满意。     

西洋参中挥发油化学成分的分析

利用气相色谱－质谱－计算机联用装置分析吉林栽培西洋参挥发油中的化学成分及相对含量。由于没有按照常规的乙醚提取，而紧 ８０％的甲醇提取，因此得到的挥发油成分及含量与文献报道有很大的差别，共鉴定出２３种化合物，其中醌类及酸类约占总挥发油含量的６５％，为该部分挥发油的主要成分。     

煤中砷,铅,铍,铬等元素的存在状态

煤是由有机物和无机物组成的混合物。无机物按其在煤中的浓度大小可分为三类:(1)常量元素,在煤中浓度大于0.5%,如Si,Al,Fe,Ca等。(2)次要元素,约占煤的0.02%—.5%,包括K,Mg,Na,Ti,有时还有P,Ba等。(3)微量元素,在煤中浓度<0.02%,这类元素目前已测出60种左右。60年代以来,基于能源需求的增加,国内外煤炭消耗量都很大,考虑到有害的微量元素对环境的污染,国外进行了大量的煤     

Rapid Sample Pretreatment,Identification and Determination of Active Constitutents in Water‐soluble Radix isatidis Extract via MAE,ESI‐MS and RODWs‐HPLC

In this study, we successfully studied water‐soluble extract from Radix isatidis. Optimized conditions of MAE were listed, the sample can be extracted completely in 10 minutes under microwave power of 400W and solid/liquid ratio of 1:80. Active compounds in water‐soluble extract from R. isatidis were identified with HPLC‐DAD/ESI‐MS, these compounds followed by cytidine, uridine, guanosine, (R,S)‐goitrin and adenosine. RODWs–HPLC as a new sensitive chromatography were also first proposed and investigated, we favoringly used this method for simultaneous determination of these active constitutents in water‐soluble R. isatidis extract. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Diamonsil C18 column (5 μm, 150 mm × 4.6 mm) with a mobile phase gradient consisting of methanol and water at a flow‐rate of 1.0 mL/min, detection wavelengths 240, 250, 260 and 270 nm, the retention times of the tested five compounds were about 4.2, 5.8, 11.1, 14.2 and 20.8 min respectively, the limits of detection were 15, 12, 20, 5.8 and 24 ng/mL for cytidine, uridine, guanosine, (R,S)‐goitrin and adenosine respectively, their linear ranges were between 0.045 and 350 μg/mL with correlation coefficient (R) of 0.9998‐0.9999. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of intra‐day and inter‐day assays were 0.30‐2.36% and 0.86‐2.54% respectively. Extraction recoveries were 94.25‐106.21%. This novel analytical method was shown to be simple, low‐cost, sensitive and reliable for multiple components in complex or undeveloped materials via MAE, ESI‐MS and RODWs‐HPLC.     

BCA法测定蜜蜂变应原中的蛋白含量

建立了用二喹啉甲酸(BCA)法测定蜜蜂变应原中蛋白含量的方法。经t检验证明,该方法的测定结果与微量凯氏定氮法无显著差异,测定结果的相对标准偏差为3．1％。该方法操作简便,结果准确可靠,可替代微量凯氏定氮法。     

离子色谱法测定甘草提取物中草酸的含量

建立了用离子色谱测定甘草提取物中残留草酸含量的新方法。选用DionexIonPacAS11-HC阴离子分析柱(250mm×4mmi.d.),淋洗液为18mmol/LNaOH溶液,流速为1.0mL/min,抑制电导检测器检测。草酸色谱峰面积(Y)与浓度(X)在1.004～10.04mg/L内线性关系良好,线性回归方程为Y=0.1939X-0.0326,相关系数r=0.9999,检出限为0.012mg/L。样品回收率为96.8%～98.6%,相对标准偏差为0.78%。该方法简便、快速。