Anti-inflammatory activity of flavonoids from Cayaponia tayuya roots.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Taiuiá or tayuya (Cayaponia tayuya, Cucurbitaceae) is a climbing, lignified plant with a large swollen root that has traditionally been used as an anti-inflammatory and anti-rheumatic agent in the folk medicine of Brazil, Peru, and Colombia.

The Aim Of The Study: We have assayed the pharmacological properties of a flavonoid fraction obtained from the butanol extract of Cayaponia tayuya roots using two models of topical mouse ear oedema, paying special attention to its influence on the induction on pro-inflammatory enzymes and peptidic mediators.

Material And Methods: The in vivo experiments involved both the acute oedema induced by a single application of TPA and the subchronic inflammation brought on by repeated applications of TPA.

Glutathione produced by Rhizobium tropici is important to prevent early senescence in common bean nodules.

In this paper, we examine the importance of glutathione in symbiosis, using a glutathione biosynthetic gshB mutant derived from Rhizobium tropici CIAT899, a common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) endosymbiont. Plants infected with the mutant strain presented a delayed nodulation phenotype and a reduction in the dry weight of aerial part of plants, suggesting diminished nitrogen-fixation activity. In addition, bacterial gshB expression was assayed in wild-type infected nodules, during the different steps of nodulation, and found to increase in mature and early senescent nodules.

Anti-inflammatory and apoptotic activities of pomolic acid isolated from Cecropia pachystachya.

The dichloromethane extract and pomolic acid ( 5) obtained from leaves of Cecropia pachystachya both reduced carrageenan-induced paw oedema in mice. Interestingly, while the triterpenoid inhibited the in vivo production of interleukin-1beta by 39 %, it had no effect on tumour necrosis factor-alpha production. We also demonstrated that both the dichloromethane extract and 5 inhibited the viability of human polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells in a time- and dose-dependent fashion.

Antifungal activity of Terminalia australis.

Dichloromethane, methanol and aqueous extracts of the aerial parts of Terminalia australis were evaluated for their antifungal activity. The methanol and aqueous extracts were found to be effective against the tested Aspergillus and Candida strains.