Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0277787 (stigma)
 13,352 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The reproductive phenology and the floral anatomy of two species of Aloe kept under nursery conditions were analized in eastern Venezuela from September 2001 to September 2002. A. vera flowered between December and May; A. saponaria from November through August. In both species, the anthesis lasted 48 h., the anther dehiscence coincided with the opening of the perianth, the stigma receptivity was higher on the second day of anthesis and nectar production reached 0.34 ml/flower. In A. vera 228 +/- 77 yellow flowers on long scapes of 76 +/- 11 cm and with 1 - 3 shafts were observed; A. saponaria had 94 +/- 33 orange flowers on more compact scapes with 3-5 shafts. The pollen/ovule ratio was 4 115.2 in A. vera and 3 247.1 in A. saponaria, thus they can be classified as compulsory xenogams. Frequent visits of Apis mellifera, Trigona sp., Poliste sp., Eumenes sp., Vespa sp., Leucippus fallax and Amazilia tobaci were recorded. Although both species showed a high production of pollen and nectar, and the presence of potential pollinators, by the end of the flowering period, fruits were only observed in A. saponaria, with a 12 % reproductive efficiency. Coupled with the stigmatic receptivity results and the preliminary intra and interspecific crossing experiments, this suggests the existence of protandry and self-incompatibility as reproductive barriers reducing endogamy in these species.
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PMID:[Reproductive phenology and flower anatomy of the plants Aloe vera and Aloe saponaria (Aloaceae) in Cumana, Venezuela]. 1941 32

Diabetes mellitus is an endocrine disorder that affects more than 100 million people worldwide. South African plants namely Terminalia sericea, Euclea natalensis, Warbugia salutaris, Aloe ferox, Artemisia afra, Sclerocarya birrea, Spirostachys africana and Psidium guajava were investigated for their in vitro alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase properties, and antioxidant activities. Terminalia sericea stem bark extract showed the best results against alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase enzymes. Bioassay-guided fractionation of an acetone extract of T. sericea stem bark led to the isolation of four known compounds namely beta-sitosterol (1), beta-sitosterol-3-acetate (2), lupeol (3), and stigma-4-ene-3-one (4), in addition to two inseparable sets of mixtures of isomers [epicatechin-catechin (M1), and gallocatechin-epigallocatechin (M2). 1 and 3 showed the best inhibitory activity on alpha-glucosidase (IC50:54.5 and 66.5 microM). Bio-evaluation of the inhibitory activity of the purified compounds on alpha-amylase showed that 3 and 1 exhibited IC50 values of 140.7 and 216.02 microM, respectively against alpha-amylase. Compounds 2, M1, 3 and M2 were found to be non-toxic to Vero cells. This study is the first to report alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase activity of M1, M2, 2 and 4 isolated from T. sericea, which validated the traditional use of the bark of T. sericea for diabetes in South Africa.
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PMID:Antidiabetic activity of Terminalia sericea constituents. 2222 65