Metals, such as arsenic or cadmium, have recently been demonstrated to interact with metabolic pathways, including phase I and phase II enzymes and the phase III efflux pump P-glycoprotein. In the present study, we investigated the effects of heavy metals and metalloids on the expression of the multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (MRP2), a major hepatic transporter. Treatment of primary r...

Benign prostate hyperplasia and prostate cancer are major public health problems. We report herein that daily treatment of male rats with 50, 100 or 150 mg quercetin per kg body weight resulted in serum concentrations of quercetin equivalent to 25.3 microM, 43.3 microM and 54.3 microM respectively. Concomitantly, serum testosterone levels were increased by 1.79-, 1.83- and 3.48-fold, while seru...

While flavonoids can reportedly protect against cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury, the relative effectiveness of different flavonoids and the mechanisms involved are unclear. We compared protection by different flavonoids using rat embryonic ventricular H9c2 cells subjected to simulated ischemia-reperfusion (IR) and to tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-buOOH). Characterization of the IR model showe...

Three Hypericum perforatum L., Hypericaceae (St. John’s Wort) oil extracts (HPE) were prepared according to the prescriptions from traditional medicine – fresh flowering tops were macerated in three different vegetable oils: sunflower (E1), olive (E2) and palm oil (E3) for 40 days, exposed to the sunlight. The aim of the study was to investigate the gastroprotective activity of the obtained ext...

Matricaria chamomilla L., known as "chamomile", has been used as an herbal tea or supplementary food all over the world. We investigated the effects of chamomile hot water extract and its major components on the prevention of hyperglycemia and the protection or improvement of diabetic complications in diabetes mellitus. Hot water extract, esculetin (3) and quercetin (7) have been found to show ...

Animal and epidemiological studies suggest that polyphenol constituents of red wine possess antioxidant activities that favour protection against cardiovascular disease - the so-called. 'French paradox' - and possibly, central nervous system disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and ischaemia. In the present study, the potential of three major red wine derived-polyphenols to protect agains...

The aim of this research was to perform a phytochemical study of the methanol leaves extract of T. guianensis (MET) guided by vasodilatory and antioxidant activities. The chemical profile of MET and the ethyl acetate fraction (EA fraction) was determined by HPLC-UV-MS and EA fraction guided fractionation by reverse-phase chromatography. The vasorelaxant effects of MET, fractions, sub-fractions ...

Concerns about the potential effects of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have stimulated interest in a number of carbon dioxide sequestration studies. One suggestion is the sequestration of carbon dioxide as clathrate hydrates by injection of carbon dioxide into methane hydrate. Energy-supply research estimates indicate that natural gas hydrates in arctic and sub-seafloor formatio...

Porous materials have provided us unprecedented opportunities to develop emerging technologies such as molecular storage systems and separation mechanisms. Pores have also been used as supports to contain gas hydrates for the application in gas treatments. Necessarily, an exact understanding of the properties of gas hydrates in confining pores is important. Here, we investigated the formation o...

Hydrates are technologically important and ubiquitous yet they remain a poorly understood and understudied class of molecular crystals. In this work, we attempt to rationalize propensity towards hydrate formation through crystallization studies of molecules that lack strong hydrogen-bond donor groups. A Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) survey indicates that the statistical occurrence of hydr...