(1) BACKGROUND: Alstonia scholaris (Apocynaceae) is an important medicinal plant that has been historically used in "Dai" ethnopharmacy to treat infectious diseases in China. Although various pharmacological activities have been reported, the antimicrobial constitutes of A. scholaris have not yet been identified. The objective of this study is to evaluate the antibacterial constitutes from the ...

Prunella vulgaris L. (Labiatae) contains a variety of structurally diverse natural products, primarily rosmarinic acid (RA), ursolic acid (UA) and oleanolic acid (OA), which possess a wide array of biological properties. In the present study, P. vulgaris was harvested at three developmental stages (vegetative, full-flowering and mature-fruiting stages), dissected into stem and leaf tissues and ...

Acid beverage floc (ABF), a flocculated turbid material that can form in sugar-sweetened, acidified, carbonated beverages after several days standing, is a customer problem to bever­ age bottlers and their suppliers of sugar. ABF from beet sugar has been reported to be caused by a saponin from the beet plant, and recent work has shown the presence of several sa­ ponins in sugarbeet. ABF from ca...

Apple (Malus × domestica) accumulates bioactive ursane-, oleanane-, and lupane-type triterpenes in its fruit cuticle, but their biosynthetic pathway is still poorly understood. We used a homology-based approach to identify and functionally characterize two new oxidosqualene cyclases (MdOSC4 and MdOSC5) and one cytochrome P450 (CYP716A175). The gene expression patterns of these enzymes and of pr...

Two new prenylflavans [kazinols Q (1) and R (2)] and five known compounds [kazinols D (3), K (4), and H, 7,4'-dihydroxyflavan (5), and oleanolic acid] were isolated from the root bark of Broussonetia kazinoki. The cytotoxic activity of 1-5 was evaluated against several different cell lines.

Members of Ganoderma genus, belong to Basidiomycota, such as Ganoderma applanatum and Ganoderma lucidum have been noticed in traditional and modern medicine and pharmacology for their medicinal properties and bioactive compounds. The present study is undertaken to determine whether there is difference between chemical properties of G. applanatum and G. lucidum. The fresh mature fruiting bodies ...

A new acylated triterpene together with prunasin, (-)-epicatechin, daucosterol, and three triterpenes, ursolic, oleanolic, and pomolic acids was isolated from the root of Chaenomeles japonica (THUNB.) LINDL. (Rosaceae) and determined to be 3-O-(E)-3, 5-dihydroxycinnamoylursolic acid on the basis of NMR and FAB-MS experiments.

One new royleanumoate, a benzene ester (1), has been isolated from T. royleanum Wall. ex Benth along with two known compounds, namely, 3,4-dihydroxymethyl benzoate (2) and oleanolic acid (3). The structure elucidation of the isolated compounds was established on two-dimensional (2D) NMR techniques including heteronuclear multiple bond correlation (HMBC), heteronuclear multiple quantum Coherence...