Plants and their active constituents from South, Central, and North America with hypoglycemic activity

Abstract

There has been marked interest in recent years in the use of plants for the treatment of diabetes. Plants have been found in many countries which have been indicated as having hypoglycemic activity. The present work is an up-to-date review with 178 references of crude plant extracts and chemically defi ned molecules with hypoglycemic activity from South, Central and North America. The review refers to 224 plants with their families, parts used and type of extract, organism tested and activity. It also includes 40 compounds isolated from those plants. Some aspects of recent research with natural products from plants directed to the treatment of diabetes are discussed.

The antibiotic activity of some Brazilian medicinal plants

“…Indeed, the search for new pharmacologically active agents, through the screening of natural sources such as microbial fermentations and plant extracts, has led to the discovery of many clinically useful drugs that now play major roles in the treatment of human diseases (Yue-Zong, 1998;Leitão et al, 2006;Funke;Melzig 2006). However, whilst Brazilian folk medicine is substantial, our knowledge of the pharmacological activities and chemical compositions of plant extracts used therein is lacking and demands enhanced levels of scientifi c attention from local natural product chemists Barbosa-Filho et al, 2005;BarbosaFilho et al, 2006a;Barbosa-Filho et al, 2006b) The present paper deals with the screening of plants from Brazilian folk medicine for antimicrobial activity. Only plants with documented uses related to their antimicrobial activities were selected (Table 1).…”

Avaliação de parâmetros de extração da Cinchona Vahl por métodos farmacopéicos e não farmacopéicos

“…al., 2006;Mariath et al, 2009). A droga contém de 7-12% de alcalóides totais dos quais a quinina (1) representa 70-90% e quinidina (2) até 1% (McCalley, 2002, Barbosa-Filho et al, 2005. Diferentes parâmetros de extração são aplicados na otimização de métodos utilizados no controle de qualidade de fitoterápicos (Helou, 1987(Helou, -1989Luz et al, 1997Luz et al, -1998Aragão et al, 2000;Costa, 2002;Brandão et al, 2006Brandão et al, , 2008Veiga-Junior & Mello, 2008;Bueno & Bastos, 2009).…”

Extratos metanólico e acetato de etila de Solanum megalonyx Sendtn. (Solanaceae) apresentam atividade espasmolítica em íleo isolado de cobaia: um estudo comparativo

“…O gênero Solanum produz uma grande variedade de saponinas esteroidais e glicoalcalóides de importância na resistência natural destas plantas contra muitas pestes (Friedman et al, 1991 ). Este gênero é um dos mais amplos do reino vegetal com cerca de 1250 espécies (Nee, 2001) e tem sido extensivamente estudado, devido principalmente as atividades biológicas apresentadas por muitas de suas espécies (Ribeiro et al, 2002;Barbosa-Filho et al, 2005;Barbosa-Filho et al, 2006).…”