The Old World genus Trichosanthes has flowers with strikingly fringed petals, and Linnaeus therefore placed a species from Hispaniola that he only knew from an illustration (showing such fringed petals) in that genus. The species remained hidden from the attention of subsequent workers until acquiring new relevance in the context of molecular-biogeographic work on Cucurbitaceae. Based on molecu...

A new pentacyclic cucurbitane glucoside, named aoibaclyin (1) and a new triterpene (2) have been isolated from the EtOH extract of the fruits of Gymnopetalum integrifolium Kurz (Cucurbitaceae), together with three known compounds, bryoamaride (3), 25-O-acetylbryoamaride (4) and beta-sitosterol 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (5). The structures of these compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic ana...

BACKGROUND The recent epidemic of diabetes mellitus (DM) in Africa, coupled with rampant poverty, is an indication of the urgent need to develop new efficacious, cheaper and more available drugs to face this growing public health challenge. A number of plants products among which the protein-rich Cucurbitaceae seeds are commonly used in traditional medicine with increasing acclaimed efficacy ag...

The Cucurbitaceae family contains about 1000 species in 96 genera. Representatives of all genera (except the extinct Khmeriosicyos) and a large percentage of the species have been sequenced for the ribosomal RNA transcribed spacer regions and variable regions of the plastid and mitochondrial genome. These data have allowed to infer evolutionary relationships in the family. The major phylogeneti...