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Various Biological Activities (various + biological_activity)
Selected AbstractsA review of recent studies in China on the possible beneficial health effects of teaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2006Yong-xing Zhu Summary Tea is one of the most heavily consumed beverages in the world. The relationship between tea drinking and human health is becoming a subject of intense study by scientists throughout the world. In this paper, we first provide a comprehensive analysis of the medical literature on tea published in China during the past 20 years, and then highlight some recent studies in China on the relationship between tea and several human diseases. During the period 1982,2002, 691 research papers related to tea and health have been published in 290 Chinese journals. These studies showed that tea and tea constituents have various biological activities and suggested that tea drinking might be beneficial to human health. Tea has potential in the prevention or adjuvant treatment of several diseases including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and obesity. The trend and future direction in medical research on tea in China are also briefly discussed. [source] Antioxidant diterpenoids from the roots of Salvia barrelieriPHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS, Issue 4 2009Ufuk Kolak Abstract Introduction The phytochemical and biological studies carried out on Salvia species showed that their extracts and constituents have various biological activities. Objective The aim of this study was the isolation of diterpenoids from the roots of Salvia barrelieri Ettling and the determination of the antioxidant activity. Methodology Chromatographic methods were used for fractionation and isolation, respectively. Structure elucidation was established by spectroscopic methods. Five antioxidant assays were performed. Results Three new abietane diterpenoids barreliol, royleanone 12-methyl ether and 7-epi-salviviridinol, and six known diterpenoids, with a known dammarane triterpenoid, pyxinol were isolated. The absolute stereochemistry of pyxinol was confirmed by X-ray analysis. Conclusion Taxodione exhibited the highest antioxidant activity among the tested compounds. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] New features on the fragmentation patterns of homoisoflavonoids in Ophiopogon japonicus by high-performance liquid chromatography/diode-array detection/electrospray ionization with multi-stage tandem mass spectrometryRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 15 2010Jin Qi Homoisoflavonoids, a special class of flavonoids, are mainly distributed in the Liliaceae family and have various biological activities. Previously, very little research has been reported on the gas-phase fragmentation patterns of homoisoflavonoids by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. In this paper, we report the use of high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode-array detector (HPLC-DAD) and electrospray ionization multi-stage tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MSn) to study the fragmentation behavior of 11 homoisoflavonoid standards and to analyze homoisoflavonoids in Ophiopogon japonicus. In total, 28 homoisoflavonoids (including seven novel constituents) were characterized. The deprotonated [MH], molecules of the homoisoflavonoids containing a saturated C2C3 bond afforded the A or B product ion (base peak) according to whether the B-ring was substituted with a hydroxyl group. For the homoisoflavonoids containing a C-2C-3 double bond, the product ions (A or C ion) were created from the precursor [MH], ion as the base peak when the B-ring was substituted with a hydroxyl group. The homoisoflavonoids carrying a formyl group in the A-ring readily eliminated one molecule of CO to form the product ion [M,+,HCO], (base peak) irrespective whether the C-2C-3 bond was saturated or not. This product ion afforded the [MHCOB-ringCH2,+,H], ion by cleavage of the C3C9 bond. This latter product ion always appeared in tandem mass (MS/MS) spectra of type I homoisoflavonoids. The common features of flavonoids observed during the gas-phase fragmentation mechanisms were the loss of the following groups: 15,Da (CH3), 18,Da (H2O), 28,Da (CO), 44,Da (CO2) and 46,Da (CH2O2). A retro-Diels-Alder (RDA)-like cleavage was also observed for the homoisoflavonoids. The different gas-phase fragmentation routes were characterized for the deprotonated molecules obtained from the various homoisoflavonoids and collision-induced dissociation (CID) fragmentation differences were noted for the different locations of the various substituents. In conclusion, we can say that this study allowed us to structurally elucidate and identify homoisoflavonoids distributed in related plants and their complex prescriptions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The effect of the side chain length of Asp and Glu on coordination structure of Cu2+ in a de novo designed proteinBIOPOLYMERS, Issue 11 2009Daigo Shiga Abstract Metal ions in proteins are important not only for the formation of the proper structures but also for various biological activities. For biological functions such as hydrolysis and oxidation, metal ions often adopt unusual coordination structures. We constructed a stable scaffold for metal binding to create distorted metal coordination structures. A stable four stranded ,-helical coiled-coil structure was used as the scaffold, and the metal binding site was in the cavity created at the center of the structure. Two His residues and one Asp or Glu residue were used to coordinate the metal ions, AM2D and AM2E, respectively. Cu2+ bound to AM2D with an equatorial planar coordination structure with two His, one Asp, and H2O as detected by electron spin resonance and UV spectral analyzes. On the other hand, Cu2+ had a slightly distorted square planar structure when it bound two His and Glu in AM2E, due to the longer side-chain of the Glu residue as compared to the Asp residue. Computational analysis also supported the distorted coordination structure of Cu2+ in AM2E. This construct should be useful to create various coordinations of metal ions for catalytic functions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 91: 907,916, 2009. This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The "Published Online" date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com [source] |