Sesquiterpenes, 15-carbon compounds formed from three isoprenoid units, are the main components of plant essential oils. Sesquiterpenes occur in human food, but they are principally taken as components of many folk medicines and dietary supplements. The aim of our study was to test and compare the potential inhibitory effect of acyclic sesquiterpenes, trans-nerolidol, cis-nerolidol and farnesol...

KEYWORDS Flowers, berries, leaves, barks and roots of different plants have been used through the ages as a source of flavor in food and perfume preparations. The volatiles responsible for the flavor of botanicals can be extracted from the plant material as "essential oils" (EOs), called also volatile oils or ethereal oils. The term essential is intended to indicate that the oil is the fragrant...

Overexpression of ABCB1 (MDR1) P-glycoprotein, a multidrug efflux pump, is one mechanism by which tumor cells may develop multidrug resistance (MDR), preventing the successful chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer. Sesquiterpenes from Celastraceae family are natural compounds shown previously to reverse MDR in several human cancer cell lines and Leishmania strains. However, their molecular mecha...

Electron microscopy of the cells of the thermogenic appendix of Sauromatum guttatum has revealed a fusion event between pocket-like structures of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (rER) and the plasma membrane. As a result of the fusion event, many regions of the plasma membrane have paired unit membranes (four leaflets instead of two). The fusion allows the transfer of osmiophilic material from ...

pycnocycla spinosa aerial parts were collected weekly during four-month growth. hydrodistillation and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy techniques were used for essential oil and sesquiterpenes investigation. thirty-four components were identified, of which the characteristic sesquiterpenes were a -copaene, caryophyllene, a -humulene, b-ionene, d-cadinene, a -calacorene, caryoph...

This study investigates the secondary organic aerosol formation during ozonolysis of one most important sesquiterpenes, α-humulene. Sesquiterpenes are emitted by vegetation and can be biogenic precursors fine particles.

New alternative insecticides are necessary for the chemical control of head lice. In this study the fumigant knockdown time 50% (KT50) and repellency index (RI) of three aliphatic lactones was compared with two essential oils and DDVP, against permethrin-resistance Pediculus humanus capitis from Argentina. In the fumigant assay, none of the lactones were effective compared to the highest activi...

The various types of lactones have different durability and properties. The most stable among γ-lactones and δ-lactones, which are those containing respectively five or six carbon in the cyclic ring. The lowest durability can be attributed to α-lactones, due to the strong tension torsion and angle of bonds between the atoms forming the ring. Similar tension, to a lesser extent also observed in ...

The effects of several lactones were studied in a microsomal fraction of dog myocardium thought to be sarcoplasmic reticulum. The lactones increased the steady-state accumulation and turnover of calcium only in the presence of ATP, and augmented the calcium-stimulated ATPase activity. When the effective concentrations of the lactones were exceeded, there were no further alterations in calcium a...

the chemical composition of essential oils isolated from the leaves of cosmos bipinnatus and its antibacterial activity were analyzed by gc-ms and microbroth dilution assay respectively. the essential oil extracted from this plant was predominantly composed of monoterpenes (69.62%) and sesquiterpenes (22.73%). the antibacterial assay showed that the oil had significant inhibitory effects agains...