Many animals advertise their chemical defense to predators with conspicuous coloration and unpalatability, but little is known about the information in these signal elements. To effectively avoid predation, is it more advantageous to invest in increased conspicuousness or greater noxiousness, or to allocate equally to both signal modalities? Using natural variation among poison frog species mea...

conclusions results from the present study elucidated that treatment with the aqueous extract of l. citriodora leaves was well tolerated via daily ip injection at doses up to 200 mg/kg for a period of 21 days and did not produce any toxicity. the safety of l. citriodora aqueous extract was also confirmed by cell viability assay. objectives the present study evaluated the acute, subacute, and ce...

Naturally occurring insecticides are abundant and varied in their effects, though but a few are articles of commerce. Even for these, pyrethrum, nicotine, rotenone, hellebore, ryania, and sabadilla, there is a paucity of information on mammalian toxicology and environmental effects. In general, these materials are characterized favorably by low acute toxicity and ready dissipation in nature. Un...

Triptolide and celastrol are predominantly active natural products isolated from the medicinal plant Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. These compounds exhibit similar pharmacological activities, including anti-cancer, anti-inflammation, anti-obesity, and anti-diabetic activities. Triptolide and celastrol also provide neuroprotection and prevent cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. However, toxic...

The electrochemistry and cytotoxicity of marcanine A were investigated by electrochemical, computational and cellular studies. To enable a structure–toxicity-relationship of the natural product, eleven novel synthetic derivatives with different electrochemical properties were synthesized and tested. Derivative 5 revealed a GI50 in the low mM range, being more active than the actual natural prod...

Natural products (NPs) are highly evolved molecules making them a valuable resource for new therapeutics. Here we demonstrate the usefulness of broad-spectrum phenotypic profiling of NP-induced perturbations on single cells with imaging-based High-Content Screening to inform on physiology, mechanisms-of-actions, and multi-level toxicity. Our technology platform aims at broad applicability using...

There have been a variety of chemical drugs that are being synthesized for cancer treatment. Besides the development of number of therapeutic drugs, cancer is still one of the leading cause for mortality worldwide. One associated reason for high rate of mortality in cancer, is side effects of the existing drug therapy. However recent inventions using natural metabolites have demonstrated the lo...