Natural products (NPs) are secondary metabolites produced and used by organisms for defending or adapting purposes. These molecules were naturally selected during thousands of years to improve the specificity and cover a very wide range of functions, depending on the origin, the habitat and the specific activity carried out in the organism of origin. Due to these intrinsic features, NPs have been used as healing agents since thousands of years and still today continue to be the most important source of new potential therapeutic preparations.The purpose of this review is to provide information about the historical evolution of the NPs investigation methods, focusing attention on the relative benefit/problems emerged after the improvement of the scientific investigations about them, especially over the last two centuries. Taken together, the reported information lead to the central role of NPs in the future of drug development for human needs.

A cytoskeletal apparatus is involved in the movement of vesicles, organelles, and gametes in the pollen tube. The function of microfilaments has been defined quite precisely, but the role of microtubules needs to be further clarified. On the basis of immunological and biochemical investigations, we have identified a polypeptide showing common properties with kinesin, a microtubule-based motor mainly described in nonplant tissues, in the pollen tube of Nicotiana tabacum. Like mammalian kinesin, the kinesin-immunoreactive homolog from Nicotiana tabacum pollen tubes binds to mammalian microtubules in an AMP-PNP dependent manner. The kinesin-like component is likely to be involved in the movement of vesicular material in the growing pollen tube.

Plants of the Lamiaceae family are important ornamental, medicinal, and aromatic plants, many of which produce essential oils that are used in traditional and modern medicine, and in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industry. Various species of the genera Hyssopus, Leonurus, Mentha, Nepeta, Origanum, Perovskia, Phlomis, Salvia, Scutellaria, and Ziziphora are widespread throughout the world, are the most popular plants in Uzbek traditional remedies, and are often used for the treatment of wounds, gastritis, infections, dermatitis, bronchitis, and inflammation. Extensive studies of the chemical components of these plants have led to the identification of many compounds, as well as essentials oils, with medicinal and other commercial values. The purpose of this review is to provide a critical overview of the literature surrounding the traditional uses, ethnopharmacology, biological activities, and essential oils composition of aromatic plants of the family Lamiaceae, from the Uzbek flora.

No abstract

Abstract.In plant cells, microtubule-based motor proteins have not been characterized to the same degree as in animal cells; therefore, it is not yet clear whether the movement of organelles and vesicles is also dependent on the microtubular cytoskeleton. In this work the kinesinimmunoreactive homologue from pollen tubes of Nicotiana tabacum L. has been purified and biochemically characterized. The protein preparation mainly contained a polypeptide with a relative molecular weight of approx. 100kDa. This polypeptide bound to animal microtubules in an ATP-dependent manner and it further copurified with an ATPase activity fourfold-stimulated by the presence of microtubules. In addition, the sedimentation coefficient (approx. 9S) was similar to those previously shown for other kinesins. Immunofluorescence analyses revealed a partial co-distribution of the protein with microtubules in the pollen tube. These data clearly indicate that several properties of the kinesin-immunoreactive homologue are similar to those of kinesin proteins, and suggest that molecular mechanisms analogous to those of animal cells may drive the microtubule-based motility of organelles and vesicles in plants.