Sebastian C. Obasi* School of Biological Sciences, Abia State University P. M.B 2000 Uturu Abia State, Nigeria * Present address: IPC Department, Raw Materials Research and Developm ent Council, PMB 232 Garki, Abuja, FCT, Nigeria Z. Naturforsch. 56c, 278-282 (2001); received August lO/October 27, 2000 Scopoletin, Aflatoxin B^ Mitochondrial, Cytochrome c Reductases The in vitro effects of the to...

Recently, several types of foods and drinks, including coffee, cream, and cake, have been found to result in high methylglyoxal (MG) levels in the plasma, thus causing both nutritional and health concerns. MG can be metabolized by phase-II enzymes in liver through the positive regulation of nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). In this study, we investigated the ability of scopole...

The enzymatic determination of hydrogen peroxide can be accomplished with high sensitivity and specificity using N-acetyl-3, 7-dihydroxyphenoxazine (Amplex Red), a highly sensitive and chemically stable fluorogenic probe for the enzymatic determination of H2O2. Enzyme-catalyzed oxidation of Amplex Red, which is a colorless and nonfluorescent derivative of dihydroresorufin, produces highly fluor...

The extracts and fractions of leaves and branches of Protium hebetatum D. C. Daly (Burseraceae) were investigated for their antibacterial activity and chemical composition. The methanol extract of branches (EMG) was considered active against the Escherichia coli and the Proteus vulgaris, showing an inhibition zone of 13 mm, and was selected for bioassayguided phytochemical fractionation. From t...

In this article we describe a new methodology for the total synthesis of 3,4-unsubstituted coumarins from commercially available starting materials. Six examples were prepared, including five naturally occurring coumarins--7-hydroxy-6,8-dimethoxy-coumarin (isofraxidin), 7-hydroxy-6-methoxycoumarin (scopoletin), 6,7,8-trimethoxy-coumarin, 6,7-dimethoxycoumarin (scoparone), and 7,8-dihydroxycouma...

Stored citrus fruit suffer huge losses because of the development of green mould caused by Penicillium digitatum. Usually synthetic fungicides are employed to control this disease, but their use is facing some obstacles, such public concern about possible adverse effects on human and environmental health and the development of resistant pathogen populations. In the present study quercetin, scop...

A rapid, sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometric method was developed and validated for the quantification of scopoletin in rat plasma. After the addition of the internal standard xanthotoxin, plasma samples were pretreated by a simple one-step protein precipitation with acetonitrile-methanol (2:1, v/v). Chromatographic separation was achi...

A number of compounds were isolated from the medicinal plant Aster tataricus including shionone, epifriedelinol, quercetin, kaempferol, scopoletin, emodin, aurantiamide acetate and 1,7-dihydroxy-6-methyl-anthraquinone. The compounds were compared with regard to their ability in inhibiting hemolysis of rat erythrocytes induced by 2'-2' azobis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride, lipid peroxidatio...

Cytokinins are phytohormones that are involved in various regulatory processes throughout plant development, but they are also produced by pathogens and known to modulate plant immunity. A novel transgenic approach enabling autoregulated cytokinin synthesis in response to pathogen infection showed that cytokinins mediate enhanced resistance against the virulent hemibiotrophic pathogen Pseudomon...