Miliutine C methyl ester, a new drimane sesquiterpene and bioactive alkaloids from the stems of .

Previous results from the our research group have isolated numerous compounds, including novel ones, but the anticancer activity of has not been demonstrated. In this study, from the most active ethyl acetate extract of the stems of , seven compounds were isolated and determined structures, including a new drimane sesquiterpenoid compound named miliutine C methyl ester () and three bioactive alkaloids (-). These three alkaloids (-) exhibited strong anticancer activities against various cancer cell lines such as MCF-7, HepG2, HeLa, NCI H460 and normal fibroblasts.

Miliutine A acid, a new cyclofarnesane sesquiterpene from the stems of .

Six compounds were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of the stems of , including miliutine A acid (), a new cyclofarnesane sesquiterpenoid; miliutine B methyl ester (), a cyclofarnesane sesquiterpenoid which was determined the absolute configuration for the first time and four known phenol derivatives (-). NMR spectroscopic and mass spectrometry were used for identifying relative configurations. The assignments of the absolute configurations were determined based on Electronic Circular Dichroism (ECD) and NOESY spectra analysis.

Enhancing soybean photosynthetic CO assimilation using a cyanobacterial membrane protein, ictB.

Soybean C photosynthesis can suffer a severe loss in efficiency due to photorespiration and the lack of a carbon concentrating mechanism (CCM) such as those present in other plant species or cyanobacteria. Transgenic soybean (Glycine max cv. Thorne) plants constitutively expressing cyanobacterial ictB (inorganic carbon transporter B) gene were generated using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.