BACKGROUND Trigonelline occurs in many dietary food plants and has been found to have anti-carcinogenic activity. Trigonelline is also found in coffee which is one of the most widely consumed beverages. Many epidemiological studies have reported that coffee consumption has an inverse relationship with the risk of cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. It would be interesting to investigate whet...

Changes in trigonelline content and in biosynthetic activity were determined in the cotyledons and embryonic axes of etiolated mungbean (Phaseolus aureus) seedlings during germination. Accumulation of trigonelline (c. 240 nmol per pair of cotyledons) was observed in the cotyledons of dry seeds; trigonelline content decreased 2 d after imbibition. Trigonelline content in the embryonic axes incre...

Diabetes increases bone fracture risk. Trigonelline, an alkaloid with potential antidiabetic activity, is present in considerable amounts in coffee. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of trigonelline on experimental diabetes-induced disorders in the rat skeletal system. Effects of trigonelline (50 mg/kg p.o. daily for four weeks) were investigated in three-month-old female Wist...

The mechanisms leading to diabetic peripheral neuropathy are complex and there is no effective drug to treat it. As an active component of several traditional Chinese medicines, trigonelline has beneficial effects on diabetes with hyperlipidemia. The protective effects and the mechanism of trigonelline on diabetic peripheral neuropathy were evaluated in streptozotocin- and high-carbohydrate/hig...

During the germination of seeds and the early growth of plants, trigonelline (N-methylnicotinic acid) disappears and pyridine nucleotides appear in the plant tissue (1, 2). Hence, it has been surmised, albeit without direct evidence, that the trigonelline of the seeds is a precursor of pyridine nucleotides in seedling plants. In an earlier study from this laboratory (3), it was shown that prepa...

Coffee beans contain two types of alkaloids, caffeine and trigonelline, as major components. This review describes the distribution and metabolism of these compounds. Caffeine is synthesised from xanthosine derived from purine nucleotides. The major biosynthetic route is xanthosine → 7-methylxanthosine → 7-methylxanthine → theobromine → caffeine. Degradation activity of caffeine in coffee plant...

The effects of niacin, namely, nicotinic acid and nicotinamide, and trigonelline on the proliferation and invasion of cancer cells were studied using a rat ascites hepatoma cell line of AH109A in culture. Niacin and trigonelline inhibited the invasion of hepatoma cells at concentrations of 2.5-40 microM without affecting proliferation. Hepatoma cells previously cultured with a reactive oxygen s...

Trigonelline (N-methyl nicotinamide) first gained the attention of plant biologists because it proved to be very effective in inducing G2 arrest in the root apices of many plant species. Although trigonelline, a metabolite of nicotinamide, was put forth as a possible plant hormone over 20 years ago (Evans and Tramontano, 1981), this idea was to gain little acceptance in the ensuing years. Meanw...

Trigonelline, N-methyl nicotinic acid, was first noted in the seeds of Trigonella joenum-graecum (the fenugreek) (1) and has since been found in the seeds and tubers of many species (2,3) as well as in leaves of one species of pea (4). Although one may assume that trigonelline arises metabolically from nicotinic acid, definitive evidence has been lacking. In the course of several attempts to de...

OBJECTIVE Coffee consumption has been associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes. We evaluated the acute effects of decaffeinated coffee and the major coffee components chlorogenic acid and trigonelline on glucose tolerance. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a randomized crossover trial of the effects of 12 g decaffeinated coffee, 1 g chlorogenic acid, 500 mg trigonelline, and place...