Plastic waste disposal is a huge ecotechnological problem and one of the approaches to solving this problem is the development of biodegradable plastics. This review summarizes data on their use, biodegradability, commercial reliability and production from renewable resources. Some commercially successful biodegradable plastics are based on chemical synthesis (i.e. polyglycolic acid, polylactic acid, polycaprolactone, and polyvinyl alcohol). Others are products of microbial fermentations (i.e. polyesters and neutral polysaccharides) or are prepared from chemically modified natural products (e.g., starch, cellulose, chitin or soy protein).
Natural sources, i.e. fungal strains and species producing ergot alkaloids (EA), are surveyed together with the chemical structures of EA and a list of new natural EA discovered in the last three decades. Other topics include new efficient chromatographic methods (HPLC) for the separation and isolation of new natural EA and also immunological methods of EA detection.
Vascular effects of ergovaline mediated by 5-hydroxytryptamine(HT)2A, 5-HT1B/1D, and alpha1 receptors were studied in isolated arterial preparations of rat and guinea pig. In rat tail artery ergovaline behaved as a potent contractile partial agonist showing an agonist potency (pEC50) of 8.86 +/- 0.03, a maximum response (Emax) of 59 +/- 2% with respect to 5-HT, and a partial agonist affinity (pK(P)) of 8.51 +/- 0.06. Ergovaline was equipotent with ergotamine (pEC50, 8.69 +/- 0.07; Emax, 52 +/- 4%; pK(P), 8.36 +/- 0.11). Contractile responses to ergovaline and ergotamine were surmountably antagonized by the 5-HT2A receptor antagonist ketanserin (3 nM). Antagonist affinity (apparent pA2) for ketanserin against ergovaline and ergotamine was 9.19 +/- 0.08 and 9.36 +/- 0.17, respectively. Ergovaline showed extremely slow on-set and off-set kinetics in rat tail artery. The construction of cumulative concentration-response curves required about 4 h, and the contractile response to ergovaline (30 nM), which completely abolished the subsequent contractile response to 5-HT (10 nM to 1 mM), could not be reversed by wash-out. In guinea pig iliac artery moderately precontracted with prostaglandin F2alpha (0.05 to 0.5 microM) ergovaline behaved as an agonist (pEC50, 7.71 +/- 0.10) with a potency similar to that of 5-HT (pEC50, 7.60 +/- 0.05). The contractile response to ergovaline was inhibited by the 5-HT1B/1D receptor antagonist GR127935 (10 nM). The apparent pA2 value for GR127935 against ergovaline was 8.90 +/- 0.12. Ergovaline (10 nM) produced no contractile response in guinea pig iliac artery when added before the PGF2alpha-induced precontraction but caused insurmountable blockade of the contractile response to the 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonist 5-carboxamidotryptamine (5-CT). The apparent pA2 value for ergovaline against 5-CT was 8.56 +/- 0.18. In rat thoracic aorta ergovaline (2 microM) activated alpha1 adrenoceptors only with low efficacy (Emax, 12 +/- 3%) but surmountably antagonized norepinephrine-induced contractions with a pK(P) of 7.07 +/- 0.12. It is concluded that the powerful constrictor effect of ergovaline mediated by activation of vascular 5-HT2A and 5-HT1B/1D receptors may explain the vascular symptoms of fescue toxicosis observed in livestock grazing tall fescue pastures infected with the endophytic fungus Neotyphodium coenophialum.
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