Harpagophytum procumbens (H. procumbens), also known as Devil's Claw, has been used to treat a wide range of pathological conditions, including pain, arthritis and inflammation. Inflammatory mediators, released at the site of injury, can sensitize nociceptive terminals and are responsible for allodynia and hyperalgesia. Carbon monoxide (CO), produced in a reaction catalyzed by the enzyme heme o...

Ten compounds, including three lignan glycosides and seven lignans, were purified from Justicia procumbens L. in 8 h using an efficient strategy based on high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC). The two-phase solvent system composed of petroleum-ethyl acetate-methanol-H₂O (1:0.7:1:0.7, v/v) was firstly employed to separate the crude extract (320 mg), from which 19.3 mg of justicidin B...

Leaves of a number of Ericaceous plants have a thin epicuticular layer that consists mostly of triterpenes. In Kalmia angustifolia, K. latifolia and K polifolia as well as in Gaultheria procumbens and G. shallon this material also contains trace amounts of flavonoid aglycones. In Kalmia they are the 3-OMe-derivatives of four C-methyl flavones reported previously as the typical leaf-wax flavonoi...

145 Corresponding to: Hee Jae Lee, Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Korea. E-mail: [email protected] (Tel) 82-33-250-8850, (Fax) 82-33-255-8809, (E-mail) [email protected] ABBREVIATIONS: PDGF, platelet-derived growth factor; TGF, tansforming growth factor; CDK, cyclin-dependent kinase; MC, mesangial cell. Inhibitory Eff...

Ghrelin is a stomach-derived peptide that has been identified as the only circulating hunger hormone that exerts a potent orexigenic effect via activation of its receptor, the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS-R1a). Hence, the ghrelinergic system represents a promising target to treat obesity and obesity-related diseases. In this study we analysed the GHS-R1a receptor activating potenti...

The scientific and medical community remains skeptical regarding the efficacy of nutrition for osteoarthritis despite their broad acceptation by patients. In this context, this paper systematically reviews human clinical trials evaluating the effects of nutritional compounds on osteoarthritis. We searched the Medline, Embase, and Biosis databases from their inception to September 2005 using the...

Harpagophytum procumbens, also known as Devil's Claw, has historically been used to treat a wide range of conditions, including pain and arthritis. The study was designed to investigate whether H. procumbens extracts exhibit analgesic effects in plantar incision and spared nerve injury (SNI) rats. The whole procedure was performed on male SD rats. To evaluate pain-related behavior, we performed...