Publications by authors named "Juan C Ruiz Macedo"

Although the tobacco plant has been employed as a medicinal and sacred herb by Indigenous cultures across the Americas, its usage drastically changed after the 15th-century colonial arrival; its large-scale commodification and global marketing once brought to Europe lead to hedonic and addictive uses harmful to health. As a consequence, tobacco smoking is now one of the largest public health problems worldwide. However, in the Peruvian Amazon, a region of origin of tobacco species, Indigenous healers still know how to use the plant for therapeutic purposes.

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Ethnopharmacological Relevance: An extensive ethnopharmacological survey was carried out in the Peruvian Amazonian district of Loreto with informants of various cultural origins from the surroundings of Iquitos (capital city of Loreto) and from 15 isolated riverine Quechua communities of the Pastaza River. A close attention was paid to the medical context and plant therapy, leading to the selection of 35 plant species (45 extracts). The extracts were tested for antiviral activity against HCV with counting of Huh-7 cellular death in case of toxicity, and cytotoxicity was evaluated in HepG2 cells.

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Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The plant species reported here are used in contemporary phytotherapies by native and neo-urban societies from the Iquitenian surroundings (district of Loreto, Peruvian Amazon) for ailments related to microbial infections. Inhabitants of various ethnic origins were interviewed and 81 selected extracts were evaluated for their antimicrobial properties against a panel of 36 sensitive and multi-resistant bacteria or yeast. Medicinal plant researches in the Peruvian Amazon are now significant, but none of them has focused on an exhaustive listing of identified species tested on so many microbes with standardized experiments (to obtain MIC value).

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A phytochemical investigation of the ethanolic extract of leaves from Piper pseudoarboreum led to the isolation of 3-chlorosintenpyridone 1, an unprecedented chlorinated piperamide, together with the known compounds 2-12. Their structures were established based on 1D and 2D (COSY, ROESY, HMQC, and HMBC) NMR spectroscopy, in addition to high resolution mass spectrometry. The proposed biosynthetic pathway of compound 1 is discussed.

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Introduction: Although solid phase microextraction (SPME) has been used extensively for fingerprinting volatile compounds emitted by plants, there are very few such reports for direct insertion SPME. In this research, direct contact of SPME probes with the interstitial fluid of plants was investigated as a method for phytochemical analysis.

Objective: Medicinal plants from the Amazon have been the source of numerous drugs used in western medicine.

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Context: Our survey was performed near Iquitos (Peruvian Amazon) and its surroundings and leads us to consider Mestizo ethnomedical practices. The plant species reported here are traditionally used for ailments related to microbial infections. Inhabitants of various ethnic origins were interviewed, and 52 selected plants extracts were evaluated for their antimicrobial properties against a panel of 36 sensitive and multi-resistant bacteria or yeast.

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