The disease burden of diabetes mellitus is increasing throughout the world. The need for more potent drugs to complement the present anti-diabetic drugs has become an imperative. Astragalus membranaceus, a key component of most Chinese herbal anti-diabetic formulas, has been an important prospect for lead anti-diabetic compounds. It has been progressively studied for its anti-diabetic propertie...

Most studies which aim at detecting effects of parasites on fish show that intermediate stages of parasites affect their host while adult parasites are usually less virulent in the final host. We studied the effect of the acanthocephalan Acanthocephaloides propinquus on one of its final hosts, the fish Gobius bucchichii. This study showed that the adult parasites affect host fitness. Moreover, ...

the anticonvulsant activity of astragalus squarrosus total extract was assessed in pentylenetetrazole (ptz)-induced convulsion in mice, with diazepam as the standard drug, while mechanistic studies were also conducted using flumazenil, a gaba a-benzodiazepine receptor complex site antagonist. the extract produced protection against convulsion at 400 mg/kg, comparable with protection of benzodia...

*Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Telegrafenberg A43, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany {State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan Nanxincun 20, 100093 Beijing, China {Department of Plant Ecology and Natural Conservation, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Maulbeerallee 2, D-1...

A S you feem, my dear friend, very anxious JT1L to get information concerning the ufe and effedts of the aftragalus exfcapus, and have requefted me to fend you my notes of the cafes in which I faw it employed, during my (lay at Vienna, I communicate them to you with great pieafure. 1 am fearful, however, that the cafes will not appear to ydu fufficiently accurate, as I had not time to write dow...

Ernest Sosa has recently articulated an insightful response to skepticism and, in particular, to the dream argument. The response relies on two independent moves. First, Sosa offers the imagination model of dreaming according to which no assertions are ever made in dreams and no beliefs are involved there. As a result, it is possible to distinguish dreaming from being awake, and the dream argum...

Prolonged dormancy is a life-history stage in which mature plants fail to resprout for one or more growing seasons and instead remain alive belowground. Prolonged dormancy is relatively common, but the proximate causes and consequences of this intriguing strategy have remained elusive. In this study we tested whether stored resources are associated with remaining belowground, and investigated t...

Astragalus polysaccharides (APS), one of main bioactive components in Astragalus membranaceus Bunge, has been reported to possess anti-inflammatory activities, but the molecular mechanisms behind this activity are largely unknown. This study aimed to investigate expression of inflammatory cytokines and the MAPK/NF-κB pathway in human THP-1 macrophages induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The re...