ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Bryonia dioica Jacq. is a climbing perennial herb with tuberous roots which is widely used in traditional medicine in Algeria for the treatment of cancers; it belongs to the genus Bryonia (Cucurbitaceae). AIM OF THE STUDY To investigate the cytotoxic and apoptogenic activities, the phytochemical composition and acute toxicity of the aqueous extract of Bryonia di...

The Cucurbitaceae genus Bryonia contains ten species that are distributed throughout the Mediterranean to North Africa and from central Europe to Kazakhstan. References to the medicinal uses of species of Bryonia span two millennia, including two passages in Dioscorides’s De Materia Medica, written in about 65 CE. An illustrated copy of this text, known as the Codex Vindobonensis and dated 512 ...

Five common homoeopathic drugs viz., Belladonna, Bryonia, Colchicum, Colocynth and Lathyrus sat were selected and tested against growth and aflatoxin production of Aspergillus flavus. The result indicates that all five drugs suppressed the growth of A. flavus. The lower concentration of all the tested drugs induced maximum growth of fungi and maximum production of aflatoxin. However, the growth...

Correns's 1903 (Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft 21: 133-147) crosses between a monoecious and a dioecious species of Bryonia revealed the simple Mendelian inheritance of dioecy and provided the first instance of an XY sex determination system in any organism. Bryonia ranges from the Canary Islands to Central Asia and comprises seven dioecious and three monoecious species; its cl...

Bryonia epigaea (cucurbitaceae) has been evaluated on various inflammatory models in rats in our laboratory. Ana anti-inflammatory drug(s) irrespective of its potency may not be devoid of undesirable effects on biochemical and hematological parameters. Alcoholic extract of Bryonia epigaaea (BE-Extract) at the dose of 50 mg/kg body weight, was administered to rats. Hepatotxic and nephrotoxic eff...

Pricking one cotyledon of young Bidens pilosus plants induces rapid inhibition of hypocotyl growth, essentially in its middle portion. Analysis of soluble peroxidases indicates rapid changes (increase of activity) in basic isoenzymes followed by more progressive enhancement of the acidic ones. Pretreatment of the plants with lithium prevents the inhibition of elongation due to pricking as well ...