The occurrence of menopause is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, and this has partly been attributed to the decline in circulating levels of estrogen. A lignan complex rich in the plant lignan secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) was isolated from flaxseed. SDG is metabolized by the colonic microflora to the mammalian lignans enterodiol and enterolactone and is hypot...

Sarajlija H., Čukelj N., Novotni D., Mršić G., Brnčić M., Ćurić D. (2012): Preparation of flaxseed for lignan determination by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method. Czech J. Food Sci., 30: 45–52. Since 1980s, several methods for the determination of lignans in food samples have been developed depending on the types of lignans and foods analysed, but mostly on flaxseed as a reference food...

Lignans of Forsythia spp. are essential components of various Chinese medicines and health diets. However, the seasonal alteration in lignan amounts and the gene expression profile of lignan-biosynthetic enzymes has yet to be investigated. In this study, we have assessed seasonal alteration in amounts of major lignans, such as pinoresinol, matairesinol, and arctigenin, and examined the gene exp...

High plant lignan intake is associated with a number of health benefits, possibly induced by the lignan metabolite enterolactone (ENL). The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in converting dietary lignans into ENL, and epidemiological studies have shown that use of antibiotics is associated with lower levels of ENL. Here we investigate the link between antibiotic use and lignan metabolism in p...

A new lignan glycoside, tianshanoside A (1), together with a known phenylpropanoid glycoside, syringin (2) and two known lignan glycosides, picraquassioside C (3), and aketrilignoside B (4), were isolated from the whole plant of Viola tianshanica Maxim. The structure of the new compound was elucidated by extensive NMR (1H, 13C, COSY, HSQC, HMBC and ROESY) and high resolution mass spectrometry a...

Tyrosinase inhibitory activity of the extractives from A. cathartica was examined and their new bioactivity and potent active compounds were identified. Five compounds, glabridin, new lignan, kaempferol, naringenin, and allamandicin, were isolated by a series of chromatography, and identified by NMR and LC-MS. Among them, glabridin had the highest tyrosinase inhibitory activity (IC50:2.93 μM) w...

Lignans are a large class of secondary metabolites in plants, with numerous biological effects in mammals, including antitumor and antioxidant activities. Sesamin, the most abundant furofuran-class lignan in sesame seeds (Sesamum plants), is produced by the cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP81Q1 from the precursor lignan, pinoresinol. In contrast, Forsythia plants produce dibenzylbutyrolactone-class li...

BACKGROUND Plant lignans are converted to enterolignans that have antioxidant and weak estrogen-like activities, and therefore they may lower cardiovascular disease and cancer risks. OBJECTIVE We investigated whether the intakes of 4 plant lignans (lariciresinol, pinoresinol, secoisolariciresinol, and matairesinol) were inversely associated with coronary heart disease (CHD), cardiovascular di...

Two new lignan glycosides of dibenzylbutyrolactol type (haplomarin) and arylnaphthalene type (haploborin) were isolated from the aerial parts of Haplophyllumn suaveolens together with the known arylnaphthalene lignan glycoside arabelline and hydroxycoumarin glycoside xeroboside. So far arabelline is found only in H. buxbaunii. This is the first report of the isolation of xeroboside from Haploph...

Moazzami, A.A. 2006. Sesame Seed Lignans Diversity, Human Metabolism and Bioactivity. Doctor’s dissertation. ISSN 1652-6880, ISBN 91-576-7147-8 Sesame seed has been an important oilseed since ancient times. It contains 25% protein and 50% oil. Sesame seed possesses many health promoting effects, some of which have been attributed to a group of compounds called lignans (sesamin, sesamolin, sesam...