The liquid/air partition coefficients of four common terpenes, alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, 3-carene, and limonene, have been determined in vitro using head space technique. The liquids used were water, human blood, and olive oil. alpha-Pinene, beta-pinene, and 3-carene were practically insoluble in water and limonene was slightly soluble; all were readily dissolved in olive oil. The oil/air part...

The use of β-caryophyllene secondary organic aerosol particles as seeds for smog chamber simulations has been investigated. A series of experiments were carried out in the Manchester photochemical chamber as part of the Aerosol Coupling in the Earth System (ACES) project to study the effect of seed particles on the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from limonene photooxidation. Rathe...

BACKGROUND Plants used for traditional medicine produce diverse and complex secondary metabolites exhibiting various medicinal properties. The medicinal plant Haplophyllum tuberculatum is used by native people against malaria and parasitic infections. METHODS In this study and in order to contribute for the search of new natural drugs for leishmaniasis, the essential oils of H. tuberculatum l...

Starting from racemic naringenin ((±)-1), a mixture of dracocephin A stereoisomers 6-(2"-pyrrolidinone-5"-yl)naringenin (±)-2a-d and its regioisomer, dracocephin B 8-(2"-pyrrolidinone-5"-yl)naringenin (±)-3a-d originally isolated from Dracocephalum rupestre, have been synthesized in a one-pot reaction. The separation of 2a-d and 3a-d was achieved by preparative HPLC. The four stereoisomers of e...

Osteoarthritis is a progressive joint disease and a major cause of disability for which no curative therapies are yet available. To identify compounds with potential anti-osteoarthritic properties, in this study, we screened one sesquiterpene, E-caryophyllene, and two monoterpenes, myrcene and limonene, hydrocarbon compounds for anti-inflammatory, anti-catabolic and pro-anabolic activities in h...

Plants often grow in clusters of various sizes and have a variable number of flowers per inflorescence. This small-scale spatial clustering affects insect foraging strategies and plant reproductive success. In our study, we aimed to determine how visitation rate and foraging behaviour of pollinators depend on the number of flowers per plant and on the size of clusters of multiple plants using D...