New Phytol Derivatives with Increased Cosmeceutical Potential.

Natural compounds are widely incorporated into cosmetic products for many purposes. Diterpenes often function as fragrances, enhancing the sensory experience of these formulations. However, current trends in cosmetic science aim to develop multifunctional products, where compounds traditionally used for texture or fragrance also possess biological activities that contribute to the product's efficacy.

Efficacy, Stability, and Safety Evaluation of New Polyphenolic Xanthones Towards Identification of Bioactive Compounds to Fight Skin Photoaging.

Antioxidants have long been used in the cosmetic industry to prevent skin photoaging, which is mediated by oxidative stress, making the search for new antioxidant compounds highly desirable in this field. Naturally occurring xanthones are polyphenolic compounds that can be found in microorganisms, fungi, lichens, and some higher plants. This class of polyphenols has a privileged scaffold that grants them several biological activities.

Characterization of a papain-like cysteine protease essential for the survival of Babesia ovis merozoites.

Babesia ovis, a tick-transmitted intraerythrocytic protozoan parasite, causes severe infections in small ruminants from Southern Europe, Middle East, and Northern Africa. With the aim of finding potential targets for the development of control methods against this parasite, sequence analysis of its genome led to the identification of four putative cysteine proteases of the C1A family. Orthology between B.

Di- and sesquiterpenoids from Cystoseira genus: structure, intra-molecular transformations and biological activity.

Natural products have been the single most productive source of leads for the development of drugs, because of the great variety of their chemical structures. Previous chemical investigation of members of the genus Cystoseira resulted in the discovery of various bioactive secondary metabolites. The secondary metabolites isolated and characterized are very interesting, both from the biological activity and structural complexity points of view, which make this genus an attractive target for further investigations.

A new natural spiro heterocyclic compound and the cytotoxic activity of the secondary metabolites from Juniperus brevifolia leaves.

A new natural spiro compound 3,4-dehydrotheaspirone and the known arctiol [1β,6α-dihydroxy-4(14)-eudesmene] were isolated from Juniperus brevifolia. Arctiol is reported for the first time in the Juniperus genus. Their structures were established by 1D, and 2D NMR and MS spectra.

Cytotoxic activity of diterpenes and extracts of Juniperus brevifolia.

The hexane, dichloromethane, acetone and ethanol extracts of the leaves, bark and wood of Juniperus brevifolia were subjected to screening against human tumour cells lines from the cervix (HeLa) and larynx (Hep-2) in two different stages of the cell cycle. The dichloromethane and the chloroform-soluble portions of the acetone extracts of the leaves were active against both tumour cell lines. Chemical investigation of one of the most active extracts (dichloromethane extract from leaves) by preparative chromatography afforded compounds 1-10.

Diagnosis of enzyme inhibition based on the degree of inhibition.

In this work, a method for the diagnosis of kinetic inhibition, based on the dependence of the degree of inhibition (epsilon(i)) on the inhibitor concentration [I] and on the substrate concentration [S], is presented. Because the degree of inhibition is a ratio between rates, kinetic data are normalized by the introduction of an internal control-the rate of the uninhibited reaction. Therefore, the error associated with the kinetic measurements decreases and less experimental measurements are necessary to achieve the diagnosis.

Inhibition of mouse liver respiration by Chelidonium majus isoquinoline alkaloids.

The alkaloids from Chelidonium majus L. which had a significant inhibitory effect in mitochondrial respiration were those which contain a positive charge due to a quaternary nitrogen atom, i.e.