The environmental contaminants mercury and methylmercury cause teratogenic, nervous, and renal damage in mammals (Venugopal and Luckey 1978). Methylmercury interferes with the normal development of tadpoles (Chang et al. 1974) and with the regeneration of fins in fish (Weis and Weis 1978) and limbs in crabs (Callahan and Weis 1983). Because mercury is highly toxic, it has been measured in a wid...

Umbelliprenin is a prenylated compound, which belongs to the class of sesquiterpene coumarins. It is extracted from dried roots of Ferula szwitsiana collected from the mountains of Golestan forest (Golestan Province, north of Iran). Induction of apoptosis in Jurkat T-CLL cells has been previously shown. In this study, effect of umbelliprenin on proapoptotic caspases (caspase-8 and -9) and antia...

In this experiment, the chemical composition of the essential oils obtained from Ferula assa-foetida oleo-gum resin collected from two different sites of Yazd province (Tabas and Yazd) in the center of Iran, were identified. The gas chromatography mass-spectroscopy (GC/MS) data showed that the qualitative composition of the components appeared to be constant in two different regions. Moreover, ...

The exudate of Ferula narthex Boiss. (Apiaceae) is widely used in the Indian subcontinent as a spice and because of its health effects. Six sesquiterpene coumarins have been isolated from this exudate: feselol, ligupersin A, asacoumarin A, 8'-O-acetyl-asacoumarin A, 10'R-karatavacinol and 10'R-acetyl-karatavacinol. Based on its use in infectious and diabetic conditions, the isolated constituent...