Systemic inflammation, circulating immune cell activation, and endothelial cell damage play a critical role in vascular pathogenesis. Flavonoids have shown anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, we investigated the effects of different flavonoids on the production of pro-inflammatory interleukin (IL) 1β, 6, and 8, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), in peripheral blood cells. Methods: We studied the whole blood from 36 healthy donors. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated (0.5 μg/mL) whole-blood aliquots were incubated in the presence or absence of different concentrations of quercetin, rutin, naringenin, naringin, diosmetin, and diosmin for 6 h. Cultures were centrifuged and the supernatant was collected in order to measure IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 production using specific immunoassay techniques. This production was significantly inhibited by quercetin, naringenin, naringin, and diosmetin, but in no case by rutin or diosmin. Flavonoids exert different effects, maybe due to the differences between aglycons and glucosides present in their chemical structures. However, these studies suggest that quercetin, naringenin, naringin, and diosmetin could have a potential therapeutic effect in the inflammatory process of cardiovascular disease.
As part of our screening of antiviral agents from medicinal plants, 11 compounds from plant origin (Bupleurum rigidum and Scrophularia scorodonia), three saikosaponins, seven iridoids and one phenylpropanoid glycoside were tested in vitro against herpes simplex type I (HSV-1), vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and poliovirus type 1. Five of these compounds showed antiviral activity against VSV. The percentages of cellular viability at the non-toxic limit concentrations of the active compounds were: verbascoside 53.6 % at 500 microg/ml, 8-acetylharpagide 32.1 % at 500 microg/ml, harpagoside 43.3 % at 450 microg/ml, scorodioside 47.8 % at 500 microg/ml and buddlejasaponin IV 56.9 % at 25 microg/ml. Although none of the saikosaponins were active against HSV-1, the iridoid scorodioside showed moderate in vitro anti-HSV-1 activity (30.6 % at 500 microg/ml). However, none of the compounds tested in this survey had any effect against poliovirus.
The fractionation of the cytotoxic MeOH extract of the seeds of Rollinia membranácea (Annonaceae) led to the isolation of two new adjacent bis-tetrahydrofuran acetogenins, rioclarin [1] and membranacin [2], and two other known acetogenins, squamocin [3] and rolliniastatin 1 [4], In addition to these bioactive acetogenins, a new furofuranic lignan (membrin [51) and a known one (magnolin [6]), have been obtained. Rioclarin [1] is an original tetrahydroxylated bis-tetrahydrofuran acetogenin. Its structure was established on the basis of ms and ID and 2D nmr experiments.
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