0000000000648902
AUTHOR
Laura Casu
Ethnopharmacology of Love
Background: Elixirs conferring eternal youth or inducing amatory and erotic attraction have been searched for without success. Lovesickness is a widespread affliction resulting from unrequited love and/or the impossibility for physical and emotional union. The symptoms are reflections of altered dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline, testosterone and cortisol levels and range from frenzy and intrusive thinking to despair and depression, sharing traits with the neurochemistry of addiction and compulsive behavior disorder. Although it can seriously impact the quality of life, lovesickness is currently not considered in official disease classification systems. Consequently, no official therapeuti…
Delivery of liquorice extract by liposomes and hyalurosomes to protect the skin against oxidative stress injuries.
Liquorice extract, obtained by percolation in ethanol of Glycyrrhiza glabra L. roots, was incorporated in liposomes and hyalurosomes, new phospholipid-sodium hyaluronate vesicles, and their protective effect against oxidative stress skin damages was probed. As a comparison, raw glycyrrhizin was also tested. All the vesicles were small in size (≤ 100 nm), with a highly negative zeta potential ensuring long-term stability, and able to incorporate a high amount of the extract. In vitro tests showed that the liquorice extract loaded in vesicles was able to scavenge DPPH free radical (80% inhibition) and to protect 3T3 fibroblasts against H2O2-induced oxidative stress, restoring the normal condi…