BackgroundPhenolic compounds combine antioxidant and hypocholesterolemic activities and, consequently, are expected to prevent or minimize cardiometabolic risk.MethodsTo evaluate the effect of an aqueous extract (AQ) and non-esterified phenolic fraction (NEPF) from rosemary on oxidative stress in diet-induced hypercholesterolemia, 48 male 4-week old Wistar rats were divided into 6 groups: 1 chow diet group (C) and 5 hypercholesterolemic diet groups, with 1 receiving water (HC), 2 receiving AQ at concentrations of 7 and 140 mg/kg body weight (AQ70 and AQ140, respectively), and 2 receiving NEPF at concentrations of 7 and 14 mg/kg body weight (NEPF7 and NEPF14, respectively) by gavage for 4 weeks.ResultsIn vitro, both AQ and NEPF had remarkable antioxidant activity in the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH●) assay, which was similar to BHT. In vivo, the group that received AQ at 70 mg/kg body weight had lower serum total cholesterol (−39.8%), non-HDL-c (−44.4%) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) levels (−37.7%) compared with the HC group. NEPF (7 and 14 mg/kg) reduced the tissue TBARS levels and increased the activity of tissular antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase). Neither AQ nor NEPF was able to ameliorate the alterations in the hypercholesterolemic diet-induced fatty acid composition in the liver.ConclusionsThese data suggest that phenolic compounds from rosemary ameliorate the antioxidant defense in different tissues and attenuate oxidative stress in diet-induced hypercholesterolemic rats, whereas the serum lipid profile was improved only in rats that received the aqueous extract.

Coffee intake has been inversely related to the incidence of liver diseases, although there are controversies on whether these beneficial effects on human health are because of caffeine or other specific components in this popular beverage. Thus, this study evaluated the protective effects of coffee or caffeine intake on liver injury induced by repeated thioacetamide (TAA) administration in male Wistar rats. Rats were randomized into five groups: one untreated group (G1) and four groups (G2-G5) treated with the hepatotoxicant TAA (200 mg/kg b.w., i.p.) twice a week for 8 weeks. Concomitantly, rats received tap water (G1 and G2), conventional coffee (G3), decaffeinated coffee (G4) or 0.1% caffeine (G5). After 8 weeks of treatment, rats were killed and blood and liver samples were collected. Conventional and decaffeinated coffee and caffeine intake significantly reduced serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (p < 0.001) and oxidized glutathione (p < 0.05), fibrosis/inflammation scores (p < 0.001), collagen volume fraction (p < 0.01) and transforming growth factor b-1 (TGF-b1) protein expression (p 0.001) in the liver from TAA-treated groups. In addition, conventional coffee and caffeine intake significantly reduced proliferating cellular nuclear antigen (PCNA) S-phase indexes (p < 0.001), but only conventional coffee reduced cleaved caspase-3 indexes (p < 0.001), active metalloproteinase 2 (p 0.004) and the number of glutathione S-transferase placental form (GST-P)-positive preneoplastic lesions (p < 0.05) in the liver from TAA-treated groups. In conclusion, conventional coffee and 0.1% caffeine intake presented better beneficial effects than decaffeinated coffee against liver injury induced by TAA in male Wistar rats.

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Summary Induction of apoptotic cell death in response to chemotherapy and other external stimuli has proved extremely difficult in melanoma, leading to tumor progression, metastasis formation and resistance to therapy. A promising approach for cancer chemotherapy is the inhibition of proteasomal activity, as the half‐life of the majority of cellular proteins is under proteasomal control and inhibitors have been shown to induce cell death programs in a wide variety of tumor cell types. 4‐Nerolidylcatechol (4‐NC) is a potent antioxidant whose cytotoxic potential has already been demonstrated in melanoma tumor cell lines. Furthermore, 4‐NC was able to induce the accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins, including classic targets of this process such as Mcl‐1. As shown for other proteasomal inhibitors in melanoma, the cytotoxic action of 4‐NC is time‐dependent upon the pro‐apoptotic protein Noxa, which is able to bind and neutralize Mcl‐1. We demonstrate the role of 4‐NC as a potent inducer of ROS and p53. The use of an artificial skin model containing melanoma also provided evidence that 4‐NC prevented melanoma proliferation in a 3D model that more closely resembles normal human skin.

The antioxidant activity of natural and synthetic compounds was evaluated using five in vitro methods: ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydradzyl (DPPH), oxygen radical absorption capacity (ORAC), oxidation of an aqueous dispersion of linoleic acid accelerated by azoinitiators (LAOX), and oxidation of a meat homogenate submitted to a thermal treatment (TBARS). All results were expressed as Trolox equivalents. The application of multivariate statistical techniques suggested that the phenolic compounds (caffeic acid, carnosic acid, genistein and resveratrol), beyond their high antioxidant activity measured by the DPPH, FRAP and TBARS methods, showed the highest ability to react with the radicals in the ORAC methodology, compared to the other compounds evaluated in this study (ascorbic acid, erythorbate, tocopherol, BHT, Trolox, tryptophan, citric acid, EDTA, glutathione, lecithin, methionine and tyrosine). This property was significantly correlated with the number of phenolic rings and catecholic structure present in the molecule. Based on a multivariate analysis, it is possible to select compounds from different clusters and explore their antioxidant activity interactions in food products.

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A new high performance liquid chromatographic method has been established for simultaneous determination of chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid and caffeine in hydroalcoholic and aqueous extracts ofIlex paraguariensis. Analytical curves showed good linear regression in the concentration ranges 0.49-7.8 μg/mL for chlorogenic acid, 0.25-3.9 μg/mL for caffeic acid and 0.244-7.8 μg/mL for caffeine. Reduction of the DPPH· radical was used to determine the antioxidant capacity of the extracts. Our method for the simultaneous determination of chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid and caffeine was highly sensitive, having lower detection and quantitation limits than other papers that used similar methodology. INTRODUCTIONA free radical is any chemical species capable of independent existence that contains one or more unpaired electrons (Halliwel, Gutteridge, 1999). The role of freeradical reactions in biology has become an area of intense interest. It is generally accepted that free radicals play an important role in the development of tissue damage and pathological events in living organisms (De Groot, Noll, 1987;Schinella et al., 2000). The consumption of plant foods is associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases (cancer and cardiovascular), in part because of substances with antioxidant capacity, and those that modulate enzyme activity and gene expression (Day et al., 2004).Antioxidative properties have been found in leaf infusions of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) (Chandra, Mejia, 2004). Mate is a popular tea in South America, where it is frequently drunk instead of coffee as a stimulating drink. It is greenish in color and contains caffeine, tannins and several vitamins such as B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B5 (pantothenic acid), C, E, β-carotene, sucrose, fructose, folic acid, trigonelline, choline and many polyphenolic compounds (flavonoids and chlorogenic acid) (Gugliucci, Stahl, 1995). Much experimental work (in vivo and in vitro) has been performed to evaluate the antioxidant capacity of yerba mate. The leaf extract of I. paraguariensis was shown to be absorbed and to be active in vivo when healthy patients drank it, and one hour later blood was collected and the LDL content analysed in relation to lipid peroxidation (Gugliucci, 1996). The Ilex paraguariensis aqueous / ascorbate system and that induced by the CCl 4 /NADPH system, in both cases detected by the thiobarbituric acid assay (Schinella et al., 2000) For the simultaneous determination of CGA (chlorogenic acid) and CFA (caffeic acid) (Figure 1) by HPLC, various sets of chromatographic conditions have been used in recent work: in Li et al. (2004), the mobile phase was a mixture of methanol and 0.2 mol/L acetate buffer (pH 3.6) (15:85, v/v) flowing at 1.0 mL/min, the detection wavelength (λ) being set at 300 nm; in Li et al. (2005), methanol:water:acetic acid (19:81:1.5, v/v) was used, flowing at 1.0 mL/min, with λ at 240 nm, and in Pellati et al. (2005), aqueous phosphoric acid solution (0.1%) and acetonitrile (90:10 v/v), flowing at 1.5 mL/min, with the...

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