N. nucifera is one among the important medicinal plants assessed for its antiobesity action in various preclinical models. The present study was aimed at investigating the antiobesity effect of methanol and successive water extracts of petals of N. nucifera by studying its effect on adipogenesis, adipolysis, lipase, serotonin (5-HT2C), cannabinoid (CNR2), melanocyte concentrating hormone (MCHR1...

Marigold (Tagetes spp.) flower petals are the most vital sources of carotenoids, especially lutein esters, for production natural to use food, feed, and pharmaceutical industries. Several marigold cultivars cultivated globally; however, their ester composition contents have not been widely investigated. Considering this, this study aimed identify quantify prominent carotenoid esters from ten by...

Carotenoids are biologically active pigments of crucial importance for the development of avian embryos and nestlings. Thus parental ability to provide nestlings with a carotenoid-rich diet may enhance offspring fitness. However, very little is known about the possible effects of carotenoid availability in the diet on growing nestlings in natural populations. We experimentally manipulated dieta...

BACKGROUND For many bird species, vision is the primary sensory modality used to locate and assess food items. The health and spectral sensitivities of the avian visual system are influenced by diet-derived carotenoid pigments that accumulate in the retina. Among wild House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus), we have found that retinal carotenoid accumulation varies significantly among individuals ...

Rarely are the evolutionary origins of mate preferences known, but, recently, the preference of female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) for males with carotenoid-based sexual coloration has been linked to a sensory bias that may have originally evolved for detecting carotenoid-rich fruits. If carotenoids enhance the immune systems of these fishes, as has been suggested for other species, this coul...

Pathogenic or parasitic infections pose numerous physiological challenges to organisms. Carotenoid pigments have often been used as biomarkers of disease state and impact because they integrate multiple aspects of an individual's condition and nutritional and health state. Some diseases are known to influence carotenoid uptake from food (e.g. coccidiosis) and carotenoid use (e.g. as antioxidant...

Animals must allocate finite resources amongst competing demands. A suite of such trade-offs is thought to occur in the deployment of carotenoids, being widely responsible for sexual coloration and also important in antioxidant and immune defences. Experimental manipulation of dietary carotenoid availability is a useful approach for elucidating the mechanistic bases of carotenoid allocation tra...