2-Aryl-1-arylmethyl-1H-benzimidazole derivatives having different side chains on the structure were examined in vitro for their antioxidant abilities by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazine radical scavenging activity, reducing ability, OH radical scavenging activity, inhibition of polyphenol oxidase and xanthine oxidase. Overall, with few exceptions, all the 2-aryl-1-arylmethyl-1H-benzimidazoles showed moderate biological activity with all parameters examined. The 2-aryl-1-arylmethyl-1H-benzimidazoles were found to be reactive toward 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazine radical and had considerable reducing ability, with significant xanthine oxidase inhibition. With few exceptions, all the compounds under study were found to possess moderate-to-poor OH radical scavenging activity and inhibited polyphenol oxidase significantly. These findings suggest that these 2-aryl-1-arylmethyl-1H-benzimidazoles can be considered as potential antioxidant and xanthine oxidase inhibitory agents, those might be further, explored for the design of lead antioxidant and antigout drug candidates using in vivo trials.

Chemical investigations into maize (Zea mays L.) kernels yielded phenolic compounds, which were structurally established using chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. The isolated phenolic compounds from maize kernel were examined in vitro for their antioxidant abilities by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazine) radical, OH radical scavenging activity, and reducing ability, along with α-glucosidase and xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibition. The isolated maize phenolics revealed significant xanthine oxidase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity to that of allopurinol and acarbose in vitro and in vivo, respectively. The kinetics study with xanthine oxidase revealed competitive type of inhibition by isolated maize vanillic acid (M2), ferulic acid (M5), 3'-methoxyhirsutrin (M7), and peonidin-3-glucoside (M10) as compared to control allopurinol. Overall, with few exceptions, all the phenolic compounds from maize kernel revealed significant biological activities with all parameters examined. Also, the phenolic compounds from maize were found to be more reactive toward DPPH radical and had considerable reducing ability and OH radical scavenging activity. These findings suggest that maize kernel phenolic compounds can be considered as potential antioxidant, α-glucosidase, and XO inhibitory agents those might be further explored for the design of lead antioxidant, antidiabetic and antigout drug candidates using in vivo trials.

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) derived from expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are important resources for gene discovery and mapping. In this study, we developed EST-based SSR (eSSRs) markers and assessed their ability in mapping and transferability. A total of 10 800 unigenes were detected from 18 522 pea EST sequences (December 2009). Screening of 10 800 unigenes by MISA (MIcroSAtellite) revealed 2612 (14.1%) eSSRs in 2395 (12.9%) SSR-containing ESTs from which 577 (24.1%) primer pairs were designed. The most abundant repeat motif identified in eSSR was mononucleotide (85.2%), followed by trinucleotide (10.6%) and dinucleotide (2.8%). Among 108 randomly selected primer pairs, 40 were assessed for mapping and 68 to test cross-species transferability in six leguminous species. Out of 40 primer pairs, 85% produced amplicons, 60% showed polymorphism and 47.5% were mapped. Furthermore, 68 primer pairs revealed high rate of transferability (48-85%) in leguminous species. High levels of polymorphism, reproducibility, presence of alleles (3.8/locus) and transferability revealed the potential use of these eSSR markers in molecular mapping, quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis and comparative mapping in pea and other legumes.