No abstract

The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation of resins of Boswellia neglecta, B. pirottae, B. rivae, Commiphora myrrha (myrrh) and C. guidottii (opopanax or scented myrrh) were analysed using GC-MS. α-Thujene (19.2%), α-pinene (16.7%) and terpinen-4-ol (12.5%) were found to be the major components in B. neglecta; limonene (14.8%) in B. rivae; trans-verbenol (15.5%) and terpinen-4-ol (14.6%) in B. pirottae; (E)-β-ocimene (33%) in gum opopanax and furanoeudesma-1,3-diene (34%) in myrrh.

No abstract

No abstract

A survey involving 329 randomly selected respondents (172 male; 157 female) from Korea and 203 (109 male; 94 female) from Ethiopia has revealed that significantly fewer of the Ethiopian respondents were prepared to accept insects as human food than Koreans did. Vertical transmission of entomophagic knowledge was important for Koreans, but of negligible importance to Ethiopians. In both cultures male subjects were more inclined to accept insects as food. Koreans and Ethiopians would accept cookies containing insect components in preference to other food items with insects, but only 11.1% of the Ethiopians versus 45.6% of the Koreans would be willing to serve a meal containing insects. The results show that the widely held opinion that citizens of industrialised, developed countries were less inclined towards eating insects than inhabitants of poorer, less industrialised, developing countries is not generalizable and therefore is wrong. Reasons for the observed differences in attitudes towards entomophagy between Ethiopians and Koreans appear to be related to history, habits, traditions and familiarity as well as possibly religious beliefs and the channels through which the information on insects as human food reaches the people.

No abstract

No abstract

Myrrh, a resin derived from the damaged bark of Commiphora genus, has traditionally been used for treatment of various human diseases, such as amenorrhea, ache, tumors, fever, and stomach pains. In spite of this widespread use of the myrrh in Ethiopia, the pharmacological activity and chemical composition have not been studied in detail. A new tricyclic triterpene acid (3S,4S,14S,7E,17E,21Z)-3,30-dihydroxypodioda-7,17,21-trien-4-carboxylic acid (commafric A) has been isolated from a crude methanolic extract of Commiphora africana (A. Rich.) Engl. resin along with the known pentacyclic triterpene α-amyrin. The structure of commafric A was characterized using different spectroscopic techniques such as 1D and 2D NMR, IR, and VCD combined with computations. The anti-proliferative activity of both isolated compounds was evaluated using SRB based colorimetric cellular assay against four human cancer cell lines. Etoposide was used as a positive control. Commafric A showed significant anti-proliferative effects against non-small cell lung cancer (A549) with IC 50 values of 4.52 μg/ml. The pentacyclic triterpene α-amyrin showed a weak antiproliferative activity against A2780 (ovarian cancer), MIA-PaCa-2 (pancreatic cancer), and SNU638 (stomach cancer) cell lines tested with IC 50 values ranging 9.28 to 28.22 μg/ml. Commafric A possessed anti-proliferative activity against non-small cell lung cancer (A549), which suggests that commafric A has potential to be further optimized being a lead compound in the search for new drugs against cancer diseases.