Pharmacological effects of Fucus spiralis extracts and phycochemicals: a comprehensive review

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonçalo P. Rosa ◽  
Maria Carmo Barreto ◽  
Ana M.L. Seca

Abstract The value of macroalgae to the pharmaceutical and food industries has increased, due to their richness in compounds with relevant biological activities and health effects. However, there are still many species that are worth exploring, like the edible Fucus spiralis L., widespread throughout the European and African Atlantic coasts. In order to demonstrate the phycochemical, pharmacological and nutritional potential of F. spiralis, this work presents a comprehensive review of studies regarding the bioactivities of F. spiralis extracts and their phycochemicals. A critical analysis of studies is presented, identifying the challenges and opportunities, and unveiling the knowledge gaps in order to guide future research with this alga. Although the studies performed so far have shown the potential of F. spiralis, this review shows that there is still a big gap in the knowledge about its metabolites. In this context, it is suggested that future investigations should focus more on the isolation and unequivocal structural characterization of the metabolites, such as phlorotannins. In addition, some weaknesses in the reviewed literature are mentioned here, which should be avoided in future work, in order to allow a better evaluation of the validity of results and their comparison.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 9812
Author(s):  
Norziana Jamil ◽  
Qais Saif Qassim ◽  
Farah Aqilah Bohani ◽  
Muhamad Mansor ◽  
Vigna Kumaran Ramachandaramurthy

The infrastructure of and processes involved in a microgrid electrical system require advanced technology to facilitate connection among its various components in order to provide the intelligence and automation that can benefit users. As a consequence, the microgrid has vulnerabilities that can expose it to a wide range of attacks. If they are not adequately addressed, these vulnerabilities may have a destructive impact on a country’s critical infrastructure and economy. While the impact of exploiting vulnerabilities in them is understood, research on the cybersecurity of microgrids is inadequate. This paper provides a comprehensive review of microgrid cybersecurity. In particular, it (1) reviews the state-of-the-art microgrid electrical systems, communication protocols, standards, and vulnerabilities while highlighting prevalent solutions to cybersecurity-related issues in them; (2) provides recommendations to enhance the security of these systems by segregating layers of the microgrid, and (3) identifies the gap in research in the area, and suggests directions for future work to enhance the cybersecurity of microgrids.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Foster Vander Elst ◽  
Peter Vuust ◽  
Morten L. Kringelbach ◽  
Nicholas HD Foster

Ancient and culturally universal, dance is important in many areas of life and brings pleasure, motivational, and health benefits. This is the first comprehensive review of research into its neuroscientific aspects. To produce it, we devised a map of the field, identified relevant papers using the PRISMA guidelines, then summarised and evaluated the results of those papers. We also suggest avenues for future research in: the interactive and collective aspects of dance; groove; dance performance; dance observation; and dance therapy. The interactive and collective aspects of dance constitute a vital part of the field, but have received almost no attention to date. More research has been conducted in the other areas, but they would benefit from additional attention.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-381
Author(s):  
Anuja Akhouri ◽  
Richa Chaudhary

Purpose This paper aims to review the available academic literature on CSR from employees’ perspective, with an objective to better understand the individual-level analysis of CSR and clarify the current state of thinking in the area. Specifically, the authors present the evolution of the concept of CSR, from the historical overview to the emergence of recent theory and conceptualizations; the underlying theoretical foundations of CSR; the studied variables for CSR; and the research gaps and future work avenues in the field of CSR. Design/methodology/approach In all, 158 articles from 72 journals were included in the review, and a comprehensive analysis of the reviewed articles was performed. Findings This paper makes a significant contribution to the literature by presenting a comprehensive review of the articles published in academic journals, focusing on employees’ perspective of CSR. The findings advance the understanding of the research trend in employee-focused micro-level CSR research. They will assist organizations better understand “why,” “how” and “when” employees react to CSR initiatives of an organization. This paper also identifies the existing gaps in employee-centric CSR research, which will provide important directions for future research in the area. Research limitations/implications The review focused exclusively on journal publications. Dissertations, conference papers, working papers and practitioner papers were excluded, as they are not peer-reviewed. Originality/value This paper is one of the comprehensive review papers that focus exclusively on employees’ perspective of CSR, by analyzing 158 articles from the period 1961-2017.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Amanda Mara Teles ◽  
João Victor Silva-Silva ◽  
Juan Matheus Pereira Fernandes ◽  
Ana Lucia Abreu-Silva ◽  
Kátia da Silva Calabrese ◽  
...  

Syzygium aromaticum has a diversity of biological activities due to the chemical compounds found in its plant products such as total phenolic compounds and flavonoids. The present work describes the chemical analysis and antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antitrypanosomal activity of the essential oil of S. aromaticum. Eugenol (53.23%) as the major compound was verified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. S. aromaticum essential oil was more effective against S. aureus (MIC 50 μg/mL) than eugenol (MIC 250 μg/mL). Eugenol presented higher antioxidant activity than S. aromaticum essential oil, with an EC50 of 12.66 and 78.98 µg/mL, respectively. S. aromaticum essential oil and eugenol exhibited Trypanosoma cruzi inhibitory activity, with IC50 of 28.68 ± 1.073 and 31.97 ± 1.061 μg/mL against epimastigotes and IC50 of 64.51 ± 1.658 and 45.73 ± 1.252 μg/mL against intracellular amastigotes, respectively. Both compounds presented low cytotoxicity, with S. aromaticum essential oil displaying 15.5-fold greater selectivity for the parasite than the cells. Nitrite levels in T. cruzi-stimulated cells were reduced by essential oil (47.01%; p  = 0.002) and eugenol (48.05%; p  = 0.003) treatment. The trypanocidal activity of S. aromaticum essential oil showed that it is reasonable to use it in future research in the search for new therapeutic alternatives for trypanosomiasis.


2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rena Conti ◽  
David L. Veenstra ◽  
Katrina Armstrong ◽  
Lawrence J. Lesko ◽  
Scott D. Grosse

Personalized medicine is health care that tailors interventions to individual variation in risk and treatment response. Although medicine has long strived to achieve this goal, advances in genomics promise to facilitate this process. Relevant to present-day practice is the use of genomic information to classify individuals according to disease susceptibility or expected responsiveness to a pharmacologic treatment and to provide targeted interventions. A symposium at the annual meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making on 23 October 2007 highlighted the challenges and opportunities posed in translating advances in molecular medicine into clinical practice. A panel of US experts in medical practice, regulatory policy, technology assessment, and the financing and organization of medical innovation was asked to discuss the current state of practice and research on personalized medicine as it relates to their own field. This article reports on the issues raised, discusses potential approaches to meet these challenges, and proposes directions for future work. The case of genetic testing to inform dosing with warfarin, an anticoagulant, is used to illustrate differing perspectives on evidence and decision making for personalized medicine.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2806
Author(s):  
Muhammad Harris ◽  
Johan Potgieter ◽  
Kashif Ishfaq ◽  
Muhammad Shahzad

The collagen hydrolysate, a proteinic biopeptide, is used for various key functionalities in humans and animals. Numerous reviews explained either individually or a few of following aspects: types, processes, properties, and applications. In the recent developments, various biological, biochemical, and biomedical functionalities are achieved in five aspects: process, type, species, disease, receptors. The receptors are rarely addressed in the past which are an essential stimulus to activate various biomedical and biological activities in the metabolic system of humans and animals. Furthermore, a systematic segregation of the recent developments regarding the five main aspects is not yet reported. This review presents various biological, biochemical, and biomedical functionalities achieved for each of the beforementioned five aspects using a systematic approach. The review proposes a novel three-level hierarchy that aims to associate a specific functionality to a particular aspect and its subcategory. The hierarchy also highlights various key research novelties in a categorical manner that will contribute to future research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison E. Fowler ◽  
Rebecca E. Irwin ◽  
Lynn S. Adler

Parasites are linked to the decline of some bee populations; thus, understanding defense mechanisms has important implications for bee health. Recent advances have improved our understanding of factors mediating bee health ranging from molecular to landscape scales, but often as disparate literatures. Here, we bring together these fields and summarize our current understanding of bee defense mechanisms including immunity, immunization, and transgenerational immune priming in social and solitary species. Additionally, the characterization of microbial diversity and function in some bee taxa has shed light on the importance of microbes for bee health, but we lack information that links microbial communities to parasite infection in most bee species. Studies are beginning to identify how bee defense mechanisms are affected by stressors such as poor-quality diets and pesticides, but further research on this topic is needed. We discuss how integrating research on host traits, microbial partners, and nutrition, as well as improving our knowledge base on wild and semi-social bees, will help inform future research, conservation efforts, and management.


Author(s):  
Akanksha Gupta ◽  
Abhishek K Tripathi ◽  
Pushpraj S Gupta

Background: Bauhinia variegata Linn. is a native plant of Asia and China. B. variegata is found in tropical regions of the world. It belongs to family Leguminosae. It is used for diarrhea, hemorrhoids, constipation, piles, edema, leprosy, wounds, tumors, etc.  Objective: The objective of the present study was to perform extraction of B. variegata flower and isolation of active constituents from the extract. Materials and Methods: The ethanolic extraction of B. variegata flower was performed using the Soxhlet apparatus. The isolation of active constituents from the extract was performed using chromatographic techniques. In column chromatographic studies, n-hexane- [dichloromethane (DCM)] (2:8) was used as an eluting system and further purified through thin layer chromatography (TLC). Compound A and B were isolated through chromatographic techniques, then the molecular formula and characterization of these compounds were carried out with mass and infrared (IR) spectral analysis. Results and Discussion: The percentage yield of B. variegata ethanolic extract (BVE) was found to be 20.8% w/w. The different fractions were F1 having 12.5 grams with n-hexane, F2 (17.1 grams) with CH2Cl2, F3 (21.2 grams) with EtOAc, and F4 (13.4 grams) with EtOH. Compound A and B were isolated from the solvent fractions of n-hexane-DCM (2:8) and EtOAc-DCM (1:9), respectively. The compound A was characterized as 3-hydroxy-6-methoxy-2-phenyl-4H-chromen-4-one. The compound B was characterized as 3-hydroxy-6-methyl-2-phenyl-4H-chromen-4-one. Conclusion: Thus, B. variegata flowers possess active components that need to identify their biological activities.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily L. Dennis ◽  
Karen Caeyenberghs ◽  
Robert F. Asarnow ◽  
Talin Babikian ◽  
Brenda Bartnik-Olson ◽  
...  

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability in children in both developed and developing nations. Children and adolescents suffer from TBI at a higher rate than the general population; however, research in this population lags behind research in adults. This may be due, in part, to the smaller number of investigators engaged in research with this population and may also be related to changes in safety laws and clinical practice that have altered length of hospital stays, treatment, and access to this population. Specific developmental issues also warrant attention in studies of children, and the ever-changing context of childhood and adolescence may require larger sample sizes than are commonly available to adequately address remaining questions related to TBI. The ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) Pediatric Moderate-Severe TBI (msTBI) group aims to advance research in this area through global collaborative meta-analysis. In this paper we discuss important challenges in pediatric TBI research and opportunities that we believe the ENIGMA Pediatric msTBI group can provide to address them. We conclude with recommendations for future research in this field of study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (31) ◽  
pp. 3895-3904
Author(s):  
João R.C. Araújo ◽  
Adriana R. Campos ◽  
Marina de Barros M.V. Damasceno ◽  
Sacha A.A.R. Santos ◽  
Maria K.A. Ferreira ◽  
...  

Background: Plant lectins have shown promising biological activities in the central nervous system (CNS). Objective: This study evaluated the effect of DAL, a lectin isolated from the seeds of the Dioclea altissima species, having binding affinity to D-glucose or D-mannose residues, on mice behavior. Methods: Mice (n=6/group) were treated (i.p.) with DAL (0.25, 0.5 or 1 mg/kg) or vehicle and subjected to several tests (open field/OFT, marble-burying/MBT, hole-board/HBT, elevated plus maze/PMT, tail suspension/ TST, forced swimming/FST or rotarod/RRT). Pizotifen, cyproheptadine, flumazenil, L-NAME, 7-NI, Larginine or yohimbine were administered 15 min before DAL (0.5 mg/kg) and the animals were evaluated on PMT. It was also verified whether the DAL effect depended on its structural integrity and ability to interact with carbohydrates. Results: The results showed there were no neurobehavioral changes in the mice at the RRT, FST and locomotion in the OFT. DAL (0.25, 0.5 or 1 mg/kg) increased the behavior of grooming and rearing in the OFT, head dips in the HBT, pedalling in the TST and decreased the number of marbles hidden in the MBT. In the PMT, DAL (0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg) and Diazepam increased the frequency of entries in the open arms and the time of permanence in the open arms without affecting the locomotor activity. The effect of DAL was dependent on carbohydrate interaction and protein structure integrity and it prevented by pizotifen, cyproheptadine, flumazenil, L-NAME and 7-NI, but not by L-arginine or yohimbine. Conclusion: DAL was found to have an anxiolytic-like effect mediated by the 5-HT and GABAergic receptors and NO pathway.


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