Cytotoxicity of the natural herbicidal chemical, berberine, on Nicotiana tabacum Bright yellow-2 cells.

Berberine is a naturally occurring plant secondary metabolite with allelopathic and cytotoxic properties. We investigated the cytotoxic effects of berberine against tobacco Bright Yellow-2 (BY-2) cells. We found that berberine inhibited tobacco BY-2 cell growth in a concentration-dependent manner and the potency of berberine was comparable to the traditional herbicide glyphosate.

Cytotoxicity of chemical constituents from Torricellia tiliifolia DC. on Spodoptera litura (SL-1) cells.

In this study, we evaluated cytotoxicity of chemicals isolated from Torricellia tiliifolia DC. on Spodoptera litura (SL-1) cell line. Among the isolated compounds, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamaldehyde, 3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxycinnamaldehyde, and syringaresinol inhibited SL-1 cell survival in both dose- and time-dependent manners.

Rotenone alpha-oxime.

The structure determination of the title compound, rotenone alpha-oxime [systematic name: 1,2,12,12a-tetrahydro-8,9-dimethoxy-2-(1-methylethenyl)-[1]benzopyrano[3,4-b]furo[2,3-h][1]benzopyran-6(6H)-one oxime], C(23)H(23)NO(6), confirms that the molecule has an approximately V-shaped structure. One of the rings has a typical cyclohexene-like monoplanar conformation and the central ring adopts a 1,2-diplanar conformation.