Nostoc commune Vaucher, a macroscopic cyanobacterium, has long been appreciated as a healthy food and traditional medicine worldwide. Accumulated evidence has demonstrated that it possesses a wide range of remarkably protective physiological and pharmacological activities, largely based on animal and in vitro studies. In this review, we summarise and update evidence regarding the chemical compo...

Pyruvate:ferredoxin (flavodoxin) oxidoreductase (PFO, EC 1.2.7.1) catalyses the oxidative cleavage of pyruvate and coenzyme A to acetylcoenzyme A and CO2 with the simultaneous reduction of ferredoxin or flavodoxin. PFO occurs in anaerobes and in some aerobic archaea and bacteria. For cyanobacteria, activity measurements indicated the occurrence of PFO in heterocystous forms. The completely sequ...

Dyslipidemia is a primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In this study, we investigated the effect of long-term supplementation of two blue-green algae (BGA) species, i.e., Nostoc commune var. sphaeroides Kützing (NO) and Spirulina platensis (SP), on lipid metabolism in vivo. Male C57BL/6J mice were fed an AIN-93G/M diet supplemented with 2.5 or 5% (wt/wt) NO or SP for 6 months. Mice f...

Cyanobacteria are considered a promising source for new ‎pharmaceutical lead compounds and a large number of chemically diverse and ‎bioactive metabolites have been obtained from cyanobacteria. Despite of ‎several worldwide studies on prevalence of NRPSs and PKSs among the ‎cyanobacteria, none of them included Iranian cyanobacteria of Kermanshah ‎province. Therefore, the aim of this study was t...

(New aerophytic morphospecies of Nostoc (Cyanobacteria) from São Paulo State, Brazil). Brazilian aerophytic biotopes are almost completely unknown regarding to cyanobacterial flora. During the study of this special flora, three morphospecies of the genus Nostoc from different habitats in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, were found. Based on their morphology, especially by formation and shape of ...