Search results for "herbs"

Innovative technologies for encapsulation of Mediterranean plants extracts

2017

Abstract Background High-added value biological compounds (BACs) from herbal and plant sources, such as essential oils (EO), antioxidants and volatile compounds, often exhibit remarkable features, ranging from nutritive and medicinal properties, as well as antimicrobial and antioxidant activities, which can be exploited in the production of functional foods. However, most BACs exhibit low water solubility, strong off-flavors/odors, and are generally unstable and easily degraded under common processing and storage conditions. Encapsulation is a technology that enables the delivery in food systems, the protection, as well as the controlled and targeted release of BACs. Scope and approach The …

Does an ant-dispersed plant, Viola reichenbachiana, suffer from reduced seed dispersal under inundation disturbances?

2008

Many plant species use ants as seed dispersers. This dispersal mode is considered to be susceptible to disturbances, but the effect of natural, small-scale disturbances is still unknown. We investigated how small-scale disturbances due to inundation affect seed dispersal in Viola reichenbachiana, a dominant myrmecochorous herb in riparian forests. Inundation disturbances were high in depressions and low on hillocks of the forest floor. We found that V reichenbachiana was similarly abundant at highly and less disturbed sites, contrary to other, non ant-dispersed species. We also found that the motivation of ants to disperse seeds was higher at highly disturbed sites. Nevertheless, the number…

Is Danggui Safe to be Taken by Breast Cancer Patients?-A Skepticism Finally Answered by Comprehensive Preclinical Evidence.

2019

Angelica sinensis (AS, Danggui) has long been regarded to stimulate breast cancer growth; hence, the use of AS in breast cancer patients remains a major concern for both patients and practitioners. Since safety studies of herbs would be unethical to carry out in patients, the present study aimed to investigate the potential unsafe effects of AS in a systematic pre-clinical approach. Human breast cancer cells, breast orthotopic tumor-bearing mouse models, as well as primary breast cancer cells from patients’ tumors were used to evaluate the effect of AS hot water extract on the progression of breast tumors and/or growth of breast cancer cells. We showed that AS is not that stimulatory in bre…

A chromatographic objective function to characterise chromatograms with unknown compounds or without standards available

2015

Abstract Getting useful chemical information from samples containing many compounds is still a challenge to analysts in liquid chromatography. The highest complexity corresponds to samples for which there is no prior knowledge about their chemical composition. Computer-based methodologies are currently considered as the most efficient tools to optimise the chromatographic resolution, and further finding the optimal separation conditions. However, most chromatographic objective functions (COFs) described in the literature to measure the resolution are based on mathematical models fitted with the information obtained from standards, and cannot be applied to samples with unknown compounds. In …

Investigating the Antioxidant and Cytocompatibility of Mimusops elengi Linn Extract over Human Gingival Fibroblast Cells

2021

Background—chlorhexidine (CHX) is most commonly used as a chemical plaque control agent. Nevertheless, its adverse effects, including teeth discoloration, taste alteration and calculus build-up, limit its use and divert us to medicinal herbs. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the phytochemical composition, antioxidant potential, and cytotoxic effects of Mimusops elengi Linn extract (ME) over normal human cultured adult gingival fibroblasts (HGFs). Methods—in vitro phytochemical screening, total flavonoid content, antioxidant potential by DPPH and Nitric Oxide (NO) radical scavenging activity, and cytotoxic effects of ME extracts over HGF were explored. The viability of HGF cells was …

Study of the performance of a resolution criterion to characterise complex chromatograms with unknowns or without standards

2017

The search for best conditions in liquid chromatography is routinely carried out with information provided by chemical standards. However, sometimes there are samples with insufficient knowledge about their chemical composition. In other cases, identities of the components are known, but there are no standards available, and in other cases the identities of peaks in chromatograms taken under different conditions are ambiguous. Most resolution criteria used to measure separation performance cannot be applied to these samples. In this work, a global resolution function valid for all situations was developed based on automatic measurements of peak prominences (area fraction exceeding the line …

From Molecular Tumor Diagnostics to Individualized Treatment with Phytochemicals Derived from Chinese Herbs

2011

An approach to evaluate the information in chromatographic fingerprints: Application to the optimisation of the extraction and conservation condition…

2015

A new approach is reported for high-performance liquid chromatography to measure the level of information in fingerprints. For this purpose, the concept of peak prominence, which is the protruding part of each visible peak with regard to the valleys that delimit it, was used. The peaks in the fingerprints are ranked according to the areas of the peak prominences, and a threshold is established to discriminate between the significant peaks and those that are irreproducible. The approach was applied to evaluate the impact of several extraction conditions (solvent nature and composition, time and temperature of the treatment, amount of sample, and time and temperature of conservation of the ex…

Extraction of bioactive compounds and essential oils from mediterranean herbs by conventional and green innovative techniques: A review

2018

International audience; Market interest in aromatic plants from the Mediterranean is continuously growing mainly due to their medicinal and bioactive compounds (BACs) with other valuable constituents from essential oils (EOs). From ancient times, these plants have been important condiments for traditional Mediterranean cuisine and remedies in folk medicine. Nowadays, they are considered as important factors for food quality and safety, due to prevention of various deteriorative factors like oxidations and microbial spoilage. EOs have different therapeutic benefits (e.g. antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antifungal), while BACs mostly affect nutritive, chemical, microbiologi…

Exploitation of native Labiatae in Sicily

2006

The family Labiatae is extremely rich in genera and species, and many of them are native to Mediterranean environments. In Sicily, a great interest is devoted since ancient times to their cultivation and use, and they are traditionally used for a great deal of purposes, from cookery to phytotherapy. When their cultivation is addressed to their traditional purposes (as spices, savory herbs or herbal medicines), the major aspects of their cropping technique are well established. However, there are two many reason why their traditional cropping technique should be deeply reviewed. First, many of their productive steps (from sowing to harvest) require a great deal of manpower, and the enhanceme…