The overproduction of specialized metabolites requires plants to manage the inherent burdens, including the risk of self-intoxication. We present a control mechanism that stops the expression of phytoalexin biosynthetic enzymes by blocking the antecedent signal transduction cascade. Cultured cells of Eschscholzia californica (Papaveraceae) and Catharanthus roseus (Apocynaceae) overproduce benzo...

OBJECTIVE Sanguinarine is an alkaloid obtained from the root of Sanguinaria canadensis and other plants from the Papaveraceae family and is well known to possess a broad range of biological functions, such as antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antineoplastic activities. We aimed to specify the in vitro effect of sanguinarine on the House Ear Institute-Organ of Corti 1 (HEI-OC1) c...

BACKGROUND Papaveraceae Argemone mexicana L., Burseraceae Bursera simaruba (L.) Sarg., Acanthaceae Justicia spicigera Schltdl. and Selaginellaceae Selaginella lepidophylla (Hook. & Grev.) Spring., have been used in Mexican traditional medicine to treat hypertension. The objective of this study was to further characterize the cardiovascular effects of the methanol extracts of such plants. METH...

Chondrosarcoma is a primary malignant bone cancer, with a potent capacity to invade locally and cause distant metastasis, especially to the lungs. Patients diagnosed with chondrosarcoma have poor prognosis. Berberine, an active component of the Ranunculaceae and Papaveraceae families of plant, has been proven to induce tumor apoptosis and to prevent the metastasis of cancer cells. However, the ...

The secondary metabolite constituents of Glaucium aleppicum Boiss. et Hausskn. ex Boiass. (Papaveraceae) were investigated using an in-house developed Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Photodiode Array-High Resolution Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-PDAHRMS-MS/MS) method. In this study the powerful resolution and short analysis time afforded by UPLC coupled to the outstanding mass accuracy...

OBJECTIVE Allocryptopine (ALL) is an effective alkaloid of Corydalis decumbens (Thunb.) Pers. Papaveraceae and has proved to be anti-arrhythmic. The purpose of our study is to investigate the effects of ALL on transmural repolarizing ionic ingredients of outward potassium current (I to) and slow delayed rectifier potassium current (I Ks). METHODS The monophasic action potential (MAP) techniqu...

INTRODUCTION The incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is very high in human societies and their prevention and treatment are the most important priority in many countries. Hypertension makes an important contribution to the development of CVDs. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to collect the ethno-medicinal knowledge of the traditional healers of Shiraz on medicinal plants used in the treat...

Serotonin, or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), is a monoamine neurotransmitter found in blood platelets, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and the central nervous system (CNS) of animals and humans. The signaling pathways of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)-induced contractions in cat esophageal smooth muscle cell (ESMC)s have been identified, but the downstream components of the 5-HT signaling pathway rem...

Genomic comparisons provide evidence for ancient genome-wide duplications in a diverse array of animals and plants. We developed a birth-death model to identify evidence for genome duplication in EST data, and applied a mixture model to estimate the age distribution of paralogous pairs identified in EST sets for species representing the basal-most extant flowering plant lineages. We found evide...

Mature pollen grains of 295 angiosperm species were screened by epifluorescence microscopy for a marker that denotes the mode of cytoplasmic inheritance. We used the DNA fluorochrome DAPI (4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) for pollen cell staining. The presence or absence of fluorescence of cytoplasmic DNA in the generative cell or sperm cells was examined in each species. The species examined rep...