[Prevalence of Pulmonary Hypertension in Dialysis Patients with End-stage Renal Disease].

Background:  In patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a frequent complication with different etiologies and a 17 - 56 % prevalence rate. We evaluated the impact of fluid retention measured by bioimpedance on the prevalence of PH in this patient cohort.

Methods:  All patients with ESRD at the dialysis center of the Medical Clinic II of the University Hospital Gießen were invited to participate in the study and undergo non-invasive PH screening.

¹H-qNMR for direct quantification of stachydrine in Leonurus japonicus and L. cardiaca.

(1)H-qNMR-spectroscopy was successfully applied to quantify the pharmacologically active alkaloid stachydrine ((2S)-1,1-dimethylpyrrolidinium-2-carboxylic-acid) in aerial parts of Leonurus japonicus (Leonuri herba, yimucao; Chin.Ph.2010, DAB2012) which are used in TCM and Kampo for the treatment of various gynaecological and cardiovascular disorders.

Anthraquinone Content in Noni (Morinda citrifolia L.).

Noni has been used in traditional medicine and as food for thousands of years. While the fruits serve as food and internal medicine, leaves were traditionally used only topically. In recent years, concern regarding the possible content of anthraquinones in noni has led to scrutiny by the European Food Safety Authority.

Leonurus japonicus, Leonurus cardiaca, Leonotis leonurus: a novel HPLC study on the occurrence and content of the pharmacologically active guanidino derivative leonurine.

Leonurine is a prominent pharmacologically active guanidine alkaloid (4-{[amino(imino)methyl]amino} butyl-4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzoate), mainly exerting cardiovascular, hypotensive, uterotonic, and neuroprotective effects. It is commonly regarded as the predominant active principle of Leonurus and Leonotis drugs (subfamily Lamioideae), though its presence has only been unambiguously proven for the aerial parts of Leonurus japonicus Houtt. (yimucao/Chin.

[A convenient synthesis of furans using bromacetyl-pyran-2-one].

Conversions of 3-bromacetyl-4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2H-pyran-2-ones (3beta-brom-dehydroacetic acids) with amines are highly influenced by the type of amine. In contrast to aniline, where a dehydroacetic acid derivative was obtained, utilization of phenylethylamine in acetone gave a rearrangement-reaction to a basically substituted furan-2-one. In natural products furan-2-ones as butenolides are of particular importance.

4-Epidoxycycline: an alternative to doxycycline to control gene expression in conditional mouse models.

Since the pioneering work by Gossen and Bujard in 1992 demonstrating the usefulness of the Escherichia coli derived tet resistance operon for regulating gene expression a large collection of doxycycline-controlled transgenic mice has been established. Gene switching in eukaryotic tissue culture cells or mice requires administration of tetracycline, anhydrotetracycline or doxycycline to efficiently inactivate the transactivator protein tTA (TET-OFF system) or alternatively to activate the reverse transactivator protein rtTA (TET-ON system). However, the antibiotic activity of doxycycline can create an imbalance of the intestinal flora, resulting in diarrhoea and in a smaller number of animals in colitis.

Profiling indomethacin impurities using high-performance liquid chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance.

The anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin was investigated regarding new related impurities. Therefore, related substances 2-9 were prepared by independent synthesis and physicochemically characterized. To determine indomethacin and its related substances, a new HPLC-UV method was developed and validated.

Separation, analyses and syntheses of trimethoprim impurities.

The analysis of several impurities of the chemotherapeutic agent trimethoprim with various methods, including thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography, capillary electrophoresis as well as nuclear magnetic resonance is described. These methods were used to identify new impurities in trimethoprim batches. The main impurities were separated by column chromatography.

[Residues of lindane and DDT in drugs from wild medicinal plants in a cultivated forest. 2].

The results of testing the persistency of Lindane and DDT in wild medicinal plants collected in a forest after application of bercema-Aero-Super are demonstrated. They illustrate, that after the application the herbs from the first year of vegetation will not meet the state quality requirements. An estimation is given about the toxicological relevance of the pesticide residues in herbs which are used for tea infusions.