Publications by authors named "Petr Marsik"

Intensive agricultural practices impact the health and nutrition of pollinators like honey bees (). Rapeseed ( L.) is widely cultivated, providing diverse nutrients and phytochemicals, including -methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide (SMCSO).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parrots produce stunning plumage colors through unique pigments called psittacofulvins. However, the mechanism underlying their ability to generate a spectrum of vibrant yellows, reds, and greens remains enigmatic. We uncover a unifying chemical basis for a wide range of parrot plumage colors, which result from the selective deposition of red aldehyde- and yellow carboxyl-containing psittacofulvin molecules in developing feathers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Scope: This multi-omic study investigates the bidirectional interactions between gut microbiota and silymarin metabolism, highlighting the differential effects across various age groups. Silymarin, the extract from Silybum marianum (milk thistle), is commonly used for its hepatoprotective effects.

Methods And Results: An in vitro fermentation colon model was used with microbiota from 20 stool samples obtained from healthy donors divided into two age groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Five putrescine and spermidine derivatives (-) together with five rotenoids (-) were isolated from a methanolic extract of the flowers of that displayed promising inhibition of 76.0 ± 1.9% for AChE and 90.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Most drugs used in the treatment of helminthiasis in humans and animals have lost their efficacy due to the development of drug-resistance in helminths. Moreover, since anthelmintics, like many pharmaceuticals, are now recognized as hazardous contaminants of the environment, returning to medicinal plants and their products represents an environmentally friendly way to treat helminthiasis. The goal of the present study was to test the anthelminthic activity of methanol extracts of eight selected European ferns from the genera Dryopteris, Athyrium and Blechnum against the nematode Haemonchus contortus, a widespread parasite of small ruminants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Heat stress is a frequent environmental constraint. Phytohormones can significantly affect plant thermotolerance. This study compares the effects of exogenous cytokinin meta-topolin-9-(tetrahydropyran-2-yl)purine (mT9THP) on rice (Oryza sativa) under control conditions, after acclimation by moderate temperature (A; 37 °C, 2h), heat stress (HS; 45 °C, 6h) and their combination (AHS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Within the group of higher fungi, edible medicinal mushrooms have a long history of being used as food and in folk medicine. These species contain biologically active substances with many potential beneficial effects on human health. The genus is representative of medicinal mushrooms because is one of the most commonly cultivated culinary mushrooms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The presence of pharmaceutical and personal care products in water is increasing tremendously nowadays. Typical representatives are diclofenac (DCF) and triclosan (TCS). Acute toxicity of these substances was experimentally assessed using the freshwater algae (living, immobilized).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Paulownia tomentosa Steud., a traditional Chinese medicinal plant, was used for many centuries in Chinese herbal medicine as a component of remedies for many illnesses, including inflammatory diseases. It is a rich source of phenolic compounds, mainly geranylated flavonoids, which are currently studied for their promising biological activities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Powdery mildew is a common disease affecting the commercial production of gerbera flowers (, Asteraceae). Some varieties show a certain degree of resistance to it. Our objective was to identify biomarkers of resistance to powdery mildew using an H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and chemometrics approach in a complex, fully factorial experiment to suggest a target for selection and breeding.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

2-arylbenzofurans represent a small group of bioactive compounds found in the plant family Moraceae. As it has not been investigated whether these substances are stable during passage through the gastrointestinal tract, their biological effects may be altered by the metabolism of intestinal microbiota or cells. The aim of the present study was to investigate and compare mulberrofuran Y (), moracin C (), and mulberrofuran G () in an in vitro model of human intestinal bacterial fermentation and in an epithelial model using the Caco-2 cell line.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry showed soyasaponin I and the isoflavones daidzein, genistein, and glycitein to be the main components of the methanolic extract of the Korean soybean fermented product doenjang, which is known to be a rich source of naturally occurring bioactive substances, at average contents of 515.40, 236.30, 131.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The number of described species of the oomycete genus is growing rapidly, highlighting the need for low-cost, rapid tools for species identification. Here, a collection of 24 species (42 samples) from natural as well as anthropogenic habitats were genetically identified using the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) regions. Because genetic identification is time consuming, we have created a complementary method based on by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prenylated or geranylated flavonoids have been studied for their promising antiproliferative and cytotoxic activities. Twelve natural geranylated flavonoids (1-12) were isolated from the fruit of Paulownia tomentosa Steud. Their structures were elucidated using UV and IR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Biosolids were applied as a fertilizer after drying, torrefaction (220, 320 °C), and pyrolysis (420, 520, 620 °C). Lettuce was grown on contrasting soils, and the transfer of pharmaceuticals to aboveground biomass was assessed. Of 42 compounds detected in dried biosolids, 10 were found in lettuce.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

-resveratrol, a well-known plant phenolic compound, has been intensively investigated due to its association with the so-called French paradox. However, despite its high pharmacological potential, -resveratrol has shown relatively low bioavailability. -resveratrol is intensively metabolized in the intestine and liver, yielding metabolites that may be responsible for its high bioactivity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The phytohormone salicylic acid (SA) has a crucial role in plant physiology. Its role is best described in the context of plant response to pathogen attack. During infection, SA is rapidly accumulated throughout the green tissues and is important for both local and systemic defences.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Animal body coloration is a complex trait resulting from the interplay of multiple mechanisms. While many studies address the functions of animal coloration, the mechanisms of colour production still remain unknown in most taxa. Here we compare reflectance spectra, cellular, ultra- and nano-structure of colour-producing elements, and pigment types in two freshwater turtles with contrasting courtship behaviour, and .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is a very interesting plant genus, well-known for its content of flavonoids, triterpenes and polysaccharides. Its secondary metabolites are described as biologically active compounds showing several activities, e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Stilbenoids are dietary phenolics with notable biological effects on humans. Epidemiological, clinical, and nutritional studies from recent years have confirmed the significant biological effects of stilbenoids, such as oxidative stress protection and the prevention of degenerative diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. Stilbenoids are intensively metabolically transformed by colon microbiota, and their corresponding metabolites might show different or stronger biological activity than their parent molecules.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Reptiles use pterin and carotenoid pigments to produce yellow, orange, and red colors. These conspicuous colors serve a diversity of signaling functions, but their molecular basis remains unresolved. Here, we show that the genomes of sympatric color morphs of the European common wall lizard (), which differ in orange and yellow pigmentation and in their ecology and behavior, are virtually undifferentiated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dietary phenolics or polyphenols are mostly metabolized by the human gut microbiota. These metabolites appear to confer the beneficial health effects attributed to phenolics. Microbial composition affects the type of metabolites produced.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this dataset we provide MALDI-TOF MS spectra of Escherichia coli. The data presented in this article are related to the article entitled "Stress response of to essential oil components - insights on low-molecular-weight proteins from MALDI-TOF" (Božik et al., 2018) [1].

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Exposition to pharmaceutical compounds released to the environment is considered as a potential risk for various organisms. We exposed Arabidopsis thaliana plants to naproxen (NAP) and praziquantel (PZQ) in 5 µM concentration for 2 days and recorded transcriptomic response in their roots with the aim to estimate ecotoxicity and to identify gene candidates potentially involved in metabolism of both compounds. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug NAP up-regulated 105 and down-regulated 29 genes (p-value ≤ 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The antibacterial effects of essential oils and their components (EOCs) are usually attributed to effects on membranes and metabolism. Studies of the effects of EOCs on protein expression have primarily analysed proteins larger than 10 kDa using gel electrophoresis. In the present study, we used MALDI-TOF-MS to investigate the effects of EOCs on low-molecular-weight proteins.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF