The objective of the present study was to determine if the combination of alkaloids from Sophora moorcroftiana seeds and albendazole might be effective in the treatment of experimental echinococcosisin female NIH mice (6 weeks old and weighing 18-20 g, N = 8 in each group) infected withprotoscolices of Echinococcus granulosus. Viable protoscolices (N = 6 x 10(3)) were cultured in vitro in 1640 ...

Zanthoxylum rhoifolium (Rutaceae) is a plant alkaloid that grows in South America and has been used in Brazilian traditional medicine for the treatment of different health problems. The present study was designed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of the steam bark crude methanol extract, fractions, and pure alkaloids of Z. rhoifolium. Its stem bark extracts exhibited a broad spectrum of an...

Several minor tobacco alkaloids have been found to exhibit properties pharmacologically relevant to the addictive profile of tobacco; however, little is known of their effects on a behavioural model of drug addiction. In this study we compared the locomotor and reinforcing effects of intravenous nicotine (30 microg/kg per infusion) vs. a cocktail of nicotine plus five minor alkaloids found in t...

BACKGROUND The matrine-type alkaloids are bioactive components extracted from Sophora flavescens, which is used in treatment of diabetes mellitus in traditional Chinese medicine. Advanced glycation end products mediate diabetic vascular complications. This study was aimed to investigate the protective effects and molecular mechanisms of matrine-type alkaloids on advanced glycation end products-...

Zuojin formula (ZJ) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescription consisted of Coptidis Rhizoma (CR) and Euodiae Fructus (EF), and has been used to treat gastrointestinal (GI) disease for more than 700 years. Fan-Zuojin formula (FZJ) is a related TCM prescription also consisted of CR and EF with the opposite proportion. In recent years, ZJ was getting more attention for its antitumor pot...

The Papaveraceae represent a large family divided into 23 genera with more than 300 species, distributed world-wide in subtropical and temperate regions (Reveal, 1999). The genus Papaver L. is represented by more than 120 species, rich in isoquinoline and morphinane alkaloids (Preininger, 1986). In our previous phytochemical studies on Papaver nudicaule L. growing in Mongolia, we reported the i...

Several insect lineages have developed diverse strategies to sequester toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids from food-plants for their own defense. Here, we show that in two highly divergent insect taxa, the hemimetabolous grasshoppers and the holometabolous butterflies, an almost identical strategy evolved independently for safe accumulation of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. This strategy involves a pyrrol...

Antiseptics are being used to prevent the growth of pathogens which are major causes of diseases. Unfortunately, not everyone can use these antiseptics because of its price in the market. With this, the use of plants as sources of antiseptics gives rise to the continuous study of indigenous plants. Extraction and isolation of constituents such as alkaloid are commonly studied. It is believed th...

Papaver fugax Poiret population Khalkhal was shown to contain four major alkaloids, roemerine (0.19%), mecamberine (0.39%), liriodenine (0.20%) and salutaridine (0.10%). Papaver caucasicum M. B. population Elika was shown to contain four major alkaloids, nuciferine (0.50%), amurensinine (0.15%), lysicamine (0.30%) and nornuciferine (0.40%). Lysicarnine and nornuciferine were detected for t...