Heloina de Sousa Falcão

Plants and their active constituents from South, Central, and North America with hypoglycemic activity

There has been marked interest in recent years in the use of plants for the treatment of diabetes. Plants have been found in many countries which have been indicated as having hypoglycemic activity. The present work is an up-to-date review with 178 references of crude plant extracts and chemically defined molecules with hypoglycemic activity from South, Central and North America. The review refers to 224 plants with their families, parts used and type of extract, organism tested and activity. It also includes 40 compounds isolated from those plants. Some aspects of recent research with natural products from plants directed to the treatment of diabetes are discussed.

Gastric and Duodenal Antiulcer Activity of Alkaloids: A Review

Peptic ulcer disease is a deep gastrointestinal erosion disorder that involves the entire mucosal thickness and can even penetrate the muscular mucosa. Numerous natural products have been evaluated as therapeutics for the treatment of a variety of diseases, including this one. These products usually derive from plant and animal sources that contain active constituents such as alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins and others. The alkaloids are natural nitrogen-containing secondary metabolites mostly derived from amino acids and found in about 20% of plants. There has been considerable pharmacological research into the antiulcer activity of these compounds. In this work we review the literature on alkaloids with antiulcer activity, which covers about sixty-one alkaloids, fifty-five of which have activity against this disease when induced in animals.

Bioactivities from Marine Algae of the Genus Gracilaria

Seaweeds are an important source of bioactive metabolites for the pharmaceutical industry in drug development. Many of these compounds are used to treat diseases like cancer, acquired immune-deficiency syndrome (AIDS), inflammation, pain, arthritis, as well as viral, bacterial, and fungal infections. This paper offers a survey of the literature for Gracilaria algae extracts with biological activity, and identifies avenues for future research. Nineteen species of this genus that were tested for antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antihypertensive, cytotoxic, spermicidal, embriotoxic, and anti-inflammatory activities are cited from the 121 references consulted.

Review of the plants with anti-inflammatory activity studied in Brazil

The inflammatory reaction is a response of the organism against an injury and it involves the action of complex events and mediators through of the blood vessels. The present work is a literature survey of the extracts of plants with anti-inflammatory activity studied in Brazil. The review refers to 75 plants with their families, parts used, type of extract used, bioassay models and their activity.

Effects of Plant Extracts on HIV-1 Protease

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is one of the most important public health problems, affecting many people every day. This syndrome is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the HIV-1 protease plays an essential role by promoting virus maturation and thus infecting new cells. The HIV-1 protease is one of the main targets for anti-HIV drug therapy. The present work is a literature survey of plant extracts whose activity has been studied on HIV-1 protease. Here we list 275 species of medicinal plants, distributed in 99 families, with their place of origin, part used, type of extract, concentration and activity. We aim with this work to provide data that could be used in the research and development of new therapeutic agents for AIDS treatment.

Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit (Lamiaceae), a medicinal plant protects the stomach against several gastric ulcer models

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Hyptis suaveolens is used by the traditional population in several parts of the world to treat inflammation, gastric ulcer and infection and is used as a crude drug to relieve symptoms related with gastric ulcer or gastritis in northeaster and central region of Brazil. MATERIALS AND METHODS the standardized ethanolic extract (Hs-EtOHE) and hexanic fraction (Hs-HexF) of Hyptis suaveolens (62,5, 125, 250 and 500 mg/kg) was evaluated in several models of acute gastric ulcers. The participation of NO was evaluated by pretreatment with L-NAME and non-protein sulfyhydryls by NEM in the gastroprotective effect. RESULTS Hs-EtOHE and Hs-HexF markedly reduced the gastric lesions induced by all ulcerogenic agents (HCl/ethanol, ethanol, NSAIDs and hypothermic restraint-stress). Gastric ulcerations were exacerbated by administration of NEM suggesting that the gastroprotective mechanism of action of Hs-EtOHE and Hs-HexF involves sulfhydryl groups. CONCLUSION Ours results show that an extract of Hyptis suaveolens, administered orally to rodents, present gastro protective activity in different models of acute of gastric ulcer and give some support to the reported claims on the use of this plant as a gastro protective agent.

Gastroprotective effects (in rodents) of a flavonoid rich fraction obtained from Syngonanthus macrolepsis.

Syngonanthus macrolepis, popularly known in Brazil as ‘sempre‐vivas’, is a plant from the family Eriocaulaceae, it is found in the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia. The species contains a variety of constituents, including flavonoids with gastroprotective effect. In this work, a flavonoid‐rich fraction (Sm‐FRF) obtained from scapes of S. macrolepis was investigated for preventing gastric ulceration in mice and rats.

Atividade anti-helmíntica de plantas nativas do continente americano: uma revisão

This paper is a review of native American plants showing anthelmintic activity in order to give support to research and development of new drugs in the field of natural products. In the literature, 22 plant families were cited, such as: Moraceae, Asteraceae and Cucurbitaceae, and around 35 species were studied, including Ficus sp, Cucurbita maxima and Ruta graveolens, used for their putative anthelmintic activity. From these species, 26 were active against some helminthes: Strongyloides stercolaris, Ancylostomidae, Trichostrongylus sp, Capillaria sp, Ascaris lumbricoides, Taenia saginata, Haemonchus contortus and Hymenolepsis diminuta. Data indicated a larger number of studies with animal parasites, probably due to the resistance of these helminthes to the conventional treatments available.