As a result of an experiment to determine the chronic toxicity of crude ergot when fed to our inbred strain of Osborne-Mendel albino rats for 2 years, 23 of 38 rats on a 5 per cent dosage developed multiple tumors up to 8 mm. in diameter on their ears. Tumors appeared also on the ears of 9 of 38 rats on a 2 per cent dosage, but not on any of 38 on a i per cent dosage. 1 Histologically these tum...

Clavicipitaceae is a fungal group that comprises species that closely interact with plants as pathogens, parasites or symbionts. A key factor in these interactions is the ability of these fungi to synthesize toxic alkaloid compounds that contribute to the protection of the plant host against herbivores. Some of these compounds such as ergot alkaloids are toxic to humans and have caused importan...

Epichloë fungal endophytes of cool season grasses are well-known to produce a range of alkaloids of benefit to the host. Some of these compounds are advantageous to agriculture due to qualities that promote pasture persistence (e.g., the loline class of alkaloids confer insect protection) while others are detrimental to the well-being of grazing livestock. The ergot alkaloids (e.g., ergovaline)...

High-yielding strains of Claviceps purpurea (Fr.) Tul, grown on a defined medium, have been used for a study of the biosynthesis of the peptide ergot alkaloid, ergotamine. l-[U-(14)C]tryptophan, dl-[2-(14)C]mevalonic acid lactone, sodium [2-(14)C]acetate, sodium [(14)C]formate and the methyl group of l-[methyl-(14)C]methionine were efficiently incorporated into the peptide alkaloids and specifi...

Praziquantel (PZQ) is a key therapy for treatment of parasitic flatworm infections of humans and livestock, but the mechanism of action of this drug is unresolved. Resolving PZQ-engaged targets and effectors is important for identifying new druggable pathways that may yield novel antiparasitic agents. Here we use functional, genetic and pharmacological approaches to reveal that serotonergic sig...

The Grid has rapidly moved from a toolkit-centered approach, composed of a set of middleware tools, toward a more application-oriented Service Oriented Architecture in which resources are exposed as services. The soaring number of available services advocates distributed and semantic-based discovery architectures. Distribution promotes scalability and fault-tolerance whereas semantics is requir...

BACKGROUND Active management of the third stage of labour has been shown to reduce the risk of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) greater than 1000 mL. One aspect of the active management protocol is the administration of prophylactic uterotonics, however, the type of uterotonic, dose, and route of administration vary across the globe and may have an impact on maternal outcomes. OBJECTIVES To deter...

The first successfully developed molecularly imprinted polymer toward six ergot alkaloids and their respective epimers is described. A new imprinting molecule, metergoline, was used as template analogue in the production of suspension polymerized beads. These spherical particles functioned as selective sorbent in a solid-phase extraction column. The application of this column in the cleanup of ...

A new method is described in which the Salkowski reaction is used for the rapid selection of alkaloid-producing mutants of the ergot fungus. This method was used to investigate the influence of a second mutation with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (NTG) on various mutants selected by a preliminary NTG mutation of Claviceps sp. strain SD 58. Three groups of mutants were used: high alkaloid...

The present paper reviews clinical studies on the use of dihydroergocriptine (DHEC), an ergot derivative with dopamine agonist activity, for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. This compound is a hydrogenated ergot derivative structurally quite similar to bromocriptine, from which it differs because of the hydrogenation in C9 C10 and the lack of bromine in C2. DHEC has a potent D2-like recept...