Diabetes mellitus in early pregnancy causes birth defects, including neural tube defects (NTDs). Hyperglycemia increases production of nitric oxide (NO) through NO synthase 2 (Nos2) and reactive oxygen species (ROS), generating nitrosative and oxidative stress conditions in the embryo. The present study aimed to target nitrosative stress using a naturally occurring Nos2 inhibitor, quercetin, to...

The slightly water-soluble flavonoid quercetin (QUE) and its inclusion with either beta-cyclodextrin (betaCD), hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-betaCD) or sulfobutyl ether-beta-cyclodextrin (SBE-betaCD) were investigated. The stoichiometric ratios and stability constants describing the extent of formation of the complexes have been determined by phase-solubility measurements; in all cases ty...

Flavonoids have been proposed to exert beneficial effects in the prevention of a large number of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative disorders. Paradoxically, despite the most representative flavonoid--quercetin--exerting biologically demonstrable systemic effects, it is not found in plasma after oral administration and its circulating metabolites show weak...

Phenolic profile, antioxidant potential and pigment contents of wild watercress (Nasturtium officinale L.) were studied to assess the potential for future studies and its applications in neutraceuticals and bioactive functional ingredients. Different extracts of watercress (roots, stem and leaves) were analysed for pigment composition, total phenolic contents, and radical scavenging activity. T...

Allergy-preventive activity was demonstrated for the MeOH extract (HM) of the petals of Hibiscus mutabilis L. 'versicolor' MAKINO in a continuing search for allergy-preventive substances from natural sources, using the in vivo assay method. This assay system uses monitoring of a decrease in the blood flow at the tail vein of mice subjected to hen egg-white lysozyme (HEL) sensitization. By bioas...

4-nerolidylcatechol (4-NC) is an unstable natural product that exhibits important antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and other properties. It is readily obtainable on a multi-gram scale through straightforward solvent extraction of the roots of cultivated Piper peltatum or P. umbellatum, followed by column chromatography on the resulting extract. Semi-synthetic derivatives of 4-NC with one or two s...

This study investigated the effect of low-level photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD; 43-230 μmol m(-2) s(-1)) on the major phenolic compounds of red leaf lettuce in three growth stages, before, during, and after head formation, using HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS(2) and evaluating via multiple regression analysis. Generally, the light-related increase of flavonoid glycosides was structure and growth sta...

Plants are rich in secondary metabolites, which often useful as a relevant source of nutraceuticals. Quercetin (QUE) is flavonol aglycone able to bind Transthyretin (TTR), plasma protein that under pathological conditions can lose its native structure leading fibrils formation and amyloid diseases onset. Here, the dual nature five quercetin 3-O-glycosylated derivatives, isolated from different ...

This work aims at studying the optimization of microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) by multi-response surface methodology (RSM) to test their efficiency towards the extraction of phenolic compounds from Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) leaves. The extraction yield, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TF), DPPH scavenging method and trolox ...