A chromatography–spectrophotometry method is developed for determining total ecdysteroids in terms of 20-hydroxyecdysone in
Serratula centauroides
(L.) and
Fornicium unflorum
(L.) raw materials, ...based on the purification of extracts from the plant raw materials with aluminum oxide and subsequent spectrophotometric determination relative to a 20-hydroxyecdysone reference sample. Ecdysteroids were determined in plants by HPLC; rhapontisterone and turkesterone are found in F. uniflorum for the first time.
In modern life, the use of plant stress-protectors has taken on particular significance due to the wide distribution of neurosis-like and neurotic diseases caused by neuroendocrine-immune system ...imbalance. Special attention has been paid to the plants containing ecdysteroids, i.e., hormone-like bioactive substances with high adaptogenic activity. The article deals with the study of bioactivity of two plant extracts as Rhaponticum uniflorum (L.) DC. and Serratula centauroides L. with a high content of ecdysteroids and phenolic compounds. The models of acute and chronic emotional stress in white rats were used to estimate the stress-protective activity of R. uniflorum and S. centauroides extracts. Both extracts showed the stress-protective effect via inhibiting the development of signs induced by single and long-term effects of stress factors. In acute stress, the development of Selye's triad signs was less pronounced against the background of the plant remedies introduction. In chronic stress, the extracts prevented the development of anxiety-depressive syndrome. Besides, R. uniflorum and S. centauroides extracts banned the development of stress-induced injuries in the brain cortex and had a neuroprotective effect on ischemia against chronic stress. The stress-protective effects of both plant extracts were based on a decrease of hyperactivation of the central stress-promoting systems (sympathoadrenal, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) due to their GABA-mimetic effects. Peripheral mechanisms were connected with the inhibition of free radical oxidation processes and with an increase in the endogenous antioxidant system activity. Thus, R. uniflorum and S. centauroides extracts have a high potential to increase non-specific body resistance against acute and chronic emotional stress effects.
The possibility of using the antibiotic bleomycin as a part of a hybrid molecule consisting of a targeting fragment and a generator of reactive oxygen species has been investigated. The ...bleomycin-iron (II) complex was shown to destroy the plasma membrane of thymocytes by producing reactive oxygen species. Antioxidants protected the cells from destruction thus pointing to its free-radical mechanism. The protective effects of catalase and superoxide dismutase indicate that superoxide radical and hydrogen peroxide being formed during autooxidation of the complex are involved in cell damage. The covalent binding of bleomycin to targeting molecules (concanavalin A, insulin, and calcitonin) enhanced the ability of the bleomycin-iron (II) complex to destroy the plasma membrane of thymocytes.
Citrate iron complex injections to mice or rats resulted in the nitric oxide formation detected by nitric oxide binding to iron-diethyldithiocarbomate complexes. The mononitrosyl iron complexes ...formed were paramagnetic and EPR active. The maximal nitric oxide concentrations in rat livers were 15-20 nm per gram of tissue. Phenosan-K (an antioxidant) inhibited partly the iron capacity to nitric oxide formation in animal organisms. The nitric oxide formation was proposed to be due to some endogenic amino groups oxidation by active oxygen agents or products of lipid or non-saturated fatty acid production under the prooxidant action of the iron.
The morphological state of the internal organs as well the changes of microsomal oxidation in liver of white rats exposed to the action of sodium sulfate in doses 200 and 600 mg per 100 g of body ...weight have been studied. The sodium sulfate in dose 600 mg per 100 g of body weight has been found to decrease the cytochrome P450 content, increase its inactivation rate and have an injurious effect on the membranes of hepatocytes. Sodium sulfate administration through the gastroenteric tract causes the destructive and pathological histochemical changes in liver, stomach, duodenum and small intestine. The alternative changes are expressed most of all in duodenum and small intestine.
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