BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES The present study was conducted to examine the inhibitory effect of loquat leaves on MDA-MB-231 cell proliferation and invasion. MATERIALS/METHODS Female athymic nude mice were given a subcutaneous (s.c.) inoculation of MDA-MB-231 cells and randomly grouped to receive a s.c. injection of either 500 mg/kg ethanol, water extract or vehicle five times a week. Tumor growth, ...

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.) is a subtropical fruit tree with high medicinal value native to China. Different organs of loquat have been used historically as folk medicines and this has been recorded in Chinese history for thousands of years. Research shows that loquat extracts contain many antioxidants, and different extracts exhibit bioactivity capable of counteracting inflammation, di...

We examined the inhibitory effects of loquat methanol extract on the adhesion, migration, invasion and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activities of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell line. Cells were cultured with DMSO or with 10, 25, or 50 microg/ml of loquat methanol extract. Both leaf and seed extracts significantly inhibited growth of MDA-MB-231 cells in a dose-dependent manner, although l...

Manual cultivar identification diagram is a new strategy for plant cultivar identification based on DNA markers, providing information to efficiently separate cultivars. We tested 25 pairs of apple EST-SSR primers for amplification of PCR products from loquat cultivars. These EST-SSR primers provided clear amplification products from the loquat cultivars, with a relatively high transferability ...

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.), which originates from the cooler hill regions of southwestern China, is a typical subtropical evergreen tree. Loquat is one of the most important economic crops in China, but the available genomic information is very limited. Here, we present the first deep transcriptomic analysis of loquat. De novo assembly generated 116,723 contigs and 64,814 unigenes usin...

A mechanistic, dynamic model was developed to predict infection of loquat fruit by conidia of Fusicladium eriobotryae, the causal agent of loquat scab. The model simulates scab infection periods and their severity through the sub-processes of spore dispersal, infection, and latency (i.e., the state variables); change from one state to the following one depends on environmental conditions and on...

As the fruits of loquat (Eriobotrya japonica, 2n = 2x = 34) carry large seeds, the breeding of seedless loquat has long been a goal. The recent creation of triploid cultivars (2n = 3x = 51) and the application of gibberellins allow commercial production of seedless loquat, but the possibility of seed formation in triploid loquats has not been carefully investigated. Through crossing experiments...

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.) is a subtropical evergreen tree whose fruit is consumed both fresh and processed. Loquat fruit is a good source of minerals and carotenoids, while the kernel is rich in protein and carbohydrates. It has been considered a non-climacteric fruit, but there is evidence that some cultivars have a ripening pattern similar to that of climacteric fruits. The fruit ha...

The influence of low-temperature conditioning (LTC) treatment on chilling injury, glycine betaine content, and energy metabolism in loquat fruit at 1 °C storage was investigated. The results indicated that LTC treatment significantly reduced chilling injury index, ion leakage, and malondialdehyde content in loquat fruit. Betaine aldehyde hydrogenase (BADH) activity and endogenous glycine betain...

The effectiveness of a series of sulfhydryl compounds in inhibiting polyphenoloxidase (PPO) activity in a model system (chlorogenic acid solution) and in loquat juices was evaluated. Application of different concentrations of sulfhydryl compounds to chlorogenic acid solution and fresh loquat juice showed that l-cysteine appeared to be an effective browning inhibitor. The required concentration ...