We tested members of two noncytotoxic classes of drugs, synthetic oleanane triterpenoids and rexinoids, both as individual agents and in combination, for the prevention and treatment of carcinogenesis in a highly relevant animal model of lung cancer. Lung adenocarcinomas were induced in A/J mice by injection of the carcinogen vinyl carbamate. Mice were fed drugs in diet, beginning 1 week after ...

Chemoprevention represents a strategy designed to protect cells or tissues against various carcinogens and carcinogenic metabolites derived from exogenous or endogenous sources. Recent studies indicate that plant-derived triterpenoids, like oleanolic acid, may exert cytoprotective functions via regulation of the activity of different transcription factors. The chemopreventive effects may be med...

Traditional herbal drugs have a great demand in under developed countries due to their efficacy, low cost and lesser adverse effects, and they are considered to be “natural. Aloe vera at the dose of 500 mg body weight per oral was studied for the gross toxicities and hepatoprotective effect and observed the level of liver biochemical parameters in rabbits. Aloe vera showed highly significant (p...

Poria cocos (P. cocos) has long been used as traditional Chinese medicine and triterpenoids are the most important pharmacologically active constituents of this fungus. Farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (FPS) is a key enzyme of triterpenoids biosynthesis. The gene encoding FPS was cloned from P. cocos by degenerate PCR, inverse PCR and cassette PCR. The open reading frame of the gene is 1086 bp i...

BACKGROUND Liver injury or dysfunction is considered as a serious health problem. The available synthetic drugs to treat liver disorders are expensive and cause further damage. Hence, hepatoprotective effects of some herbal drugs have been investigated, and one of the methods to choose herbs in order to study their biological effects is to search in ancient medical texts. Avicenna who is known ...

Wolfiporia cocos Ryvarden et Gilbertson is a saprophytic fungus in the Basidiomycetes. Its dried sclerotium is widely used as a traditional crude drug in East Asia. Especially in China, the dried sclerotium is regarded as the silver of the Chinese traditional drugs, not only for its white color, but also its medicinal value. Furthermore, triterpenoids from W. cocos are the main active compounds...

       From hexanic extract of aerial parts of Peucedanum ruthenicum M. Bieb (Apiaceae) collected from Mazandaran province of Iran, four triterpenoids namely taraxasterol, y-taraxasterol, poriferasterol and b-sitosterol have been isolated by column chromatography, thin layer chromatography, and crystallization. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods (UV, IR, MS, 1H and 13C-N...

The mechanical defensive performance of fruit cuticular membranes (CMs) is largely dependent on the molecular arrangement of their constituents. Here, we elucidated nano-sized interactions between cutin and triterpenoids in the cuticular matrix of Fuyu persimmon fruits (Diospyroskaki Thunb. cv. Fuyu), focusing on the mechanical properties using a combination of polymer analyses. The fruit CMs o...

euphorbia macrostegia or persian wood spurge is one of the seventeen endemic plants of this genus in iran. three triterpenoids: 24-methylenecycloartan-3β-ol (1), butyrospermol (2) and cycloartenol (3) and three diglycerides: 1,2-di-o-α-linolenoyl-sn-glycerol (4), 1-o-linoleoyl-3-o-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol (5) and 1-o-α-linolenoyl-2-o-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol (6) were isolated from a hexane layer of m...

BACKGROUND The Astragalus gummifer (F. Fabaceae), herb and roots were studied for anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective activities. MATERIALS AND METHOD The alcoholic extracts of Astragalus gummifer (F. Fabaceae), herb (AGHE), and roots (AGRE), were used for anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective activities in Wister rats. The effects of AGHE and AGRE were compared with the standard drugs Ph...