The eutrophication of freshwaters is a global health concern as lakes with excess nutrients are often subject to toxic cyanobacterial blooms. Although phosphorus is considered the main element regulating cyanobacterial biomass, nitrogen (N) concentration and more specifically the availability of different N forms may influence the overall toxicity of blooms. In this study of three eutrophic lak...

Lonicerae japonicae flos is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years with confirmed curative effects. Except for medicine, it is also used in healthy food, cosmetics, and soft beverages for its specific activities. Therefore, the chemical constituents, mainly including organic acids, flavonoids, iridoids, triterpenoids, and volatile oils, have been well studied by ma...

The oral bioavailabilities of phenolic acids in Flos Lonicerae Japonicae beverage were low. The observation from an in vitro Caco-2 cell model showed that the absorptions of phenolic acids were mainly permeated via paracellular diffusion, and influenced by P-glycoprotein (P-gp), multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (MRP2) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP). Besides, the Papp (AP→B...

Paracetamol caused liver damage as evident by significant increase in the activities of aspartate and alanine transferases. There were general statistically significant losses in the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione transferase and an increase in thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in the liver of paracetamol treated group compared with th...

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms are of increasing global concern and their prediction and management requires an improved understanding of the controlling factors for cyanobacterial growth and dominance. In Lake St Charles, the drinking water supply for Quebec City, Canada, harmful cyanobacterial blooms were first recorded in autumn 2006. Our aims were to define the temporal and spatial variation...

Anatoxin-a(s) is a guanidinemethyl phosphate ester isolated from the freshwater cyanobacterium (bluegreen algae) Anabaena flos-aquae strain NRC 525–17. Previous work has shown anatoxin-a(s) to be a potent irreversible inhibitor of electric eel acetylcholinesterase (AChE, EC 3.1.1.7). Anatoxin-a(s) has been shown to be an active site-directed inhibitor of AChE, which is resistant to reactivation...

In order to confirm the constitution of hepatoprotective oleanene glucuronide (OG), HPLC profile analyses of the total OG fractions of both Puerariae Thomsonii Flos (the flowers of Pueraria thomsonii) and Puerariae Lobatae Flos (the flowers of P. lobata) were performed. No remarkable difference in the HPLC profiles with respect to OGs in the flowers was shown, in contrast to those of the roots....

A fingerprint analysis of Flos Carthami was performed using a standardized capillary electrochromatography (CEC) procedure. This procedure was first used to establish the electrochromatographic profile of genuine Flos Carthami from Tacheng, Xinjiang, China. This Flos Carthami fingerprint was then used to identify and assess the consistency of raw herbs from different sources in China. The study...

DNA barcoding is a novel molecular identification method that aids in identifying traditional Chinese materia medica using traditional identification techniques. However, further study is needed to assess the stability and accuracy of DNA barcoding. Flos Lonicerae Japonicae, a typical medicinal flower, is widely used in China, Korea, and other Southeast Asian countries. However, Flos Lonicerae ...