The Essential Oil of Eucalyptus tereticornis and its Constituents, alpha- and beta-Pinene, Show Accelerative Properties on Rat Gastrointestinal Transit

The essential oil of Eucalyptus tereticornis (EOET) has pharmacological activities but their effects on the gastrointestinal tract are yet unknown. It possesses alpha- and beta-pinene as minor constituents, isomers largely used as food or drink additives. In this work, we studied their actions on gut motility. After feeding with a liquid test meal, conscious rats received perorally EOET, alpha-, or beta-pinene, and the fractional dye retention was determined. EOET and its constituents decreased the gastric retention. In anesthetized rats, pinenes increased gastric tonus, while enhancing the meal progression in the small intestine of conscious rats. Both alpha- and beta-pinene contracted gastric strips in vitro but relaxed the duodenum. Conversely, EOET relaxed both the gastric and duodenal strips. In conclusion, EOET accelerates the gastric emptying of liquid, and part of its action is attributed to the contrasting effects induced by alpha- and beta-pinene on the gut.

Antitubercular constituents from the hexane fraction of Morinda citrifolia Linn. (Rubiaceae)

A crude ethanol extract and hexane fraction from Morinda citrifolia Linn. (Rubiaceae) show antitubercular activity. The major constituents of the hexane fraction are E-phytol, cycloartenol, stigmasterol, beta-sitosterol, campesta-5,7,22-trien-3beta-ol and the ketosteroids stigmasta-4-en-3-one and stigmasta-4-22-dien-3-one. E-Phytol, a mixture of the two ketosteroids, and the epidioxysterol derived from campesta-5,7,22-trien-3beta-ol all show pronounced antitubercular activity. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

The influence of key chemical constituents in activated sludge on surface and flocculating properties

This paper examines the influence of the chemical constituents of activated sludge and extracted extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on the surface properties, hydrophobicity, surface charge (SC) and flocculating ability (FA) of activated sludge floes. Activated sludge samples from 7 different full-scale wastewater treatment plants were examined. Protein and humic substances were found to be the dominant polymeric compounds in the activated sludges and the extracted EPS, and they significantly affected the FA and surface properties, hydrophobicity and SC, of the sludge floes. The polymeric compounds proteins, humic substances and carbohydrates in the sludge floes and the extracted EPS contributed to the negative SC, but correlated negatively to the hydrophobicity of sludge floes. The quantity of protein and carbohydrate within the sludge and the extracted EPS was correlated positively to the FA of the sludge floes, while increased amounts of humic substances resulted in lower FA. In contrast, increased amounts of total extracted EPS had a negative correlation to FA. The results reveal that the quality and quantity of the polymeric compounds within the sludge floes is more informative, with respect to understanding the mechanisms involved in flocculation, than if only the extracted EPS are considered. This is an important finding as it indicates that extracting EPS may be insufficient to characterise the EPS. This is due to the low extraction efficiency and difficulties involved in the separation of EPS from other organic compounds. Correlations were observed between the surface properties and FA of the sludge floes., This confirms that the surface properties of the, sludge flocs play an important role in the bioflocculation process but that also other interactions like polymer entanglement are important. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical constituents from the stem of Brosimum potabile (Moraceae)

Three coumarins, 5-methoxypsoralene, xanthyletin, and (-)-marmesin, have been isolated from the ethanolic extract of the stem of the Amazonian plant Brosimum potabile. The structures were determined on the basis of NMR analyses and by comparison with spectroscopic data in the literature. The analysis of the hexane fractions by GC-MS in EIMS mode suggested the presence of (1-methylpentyl)-benzene; α,α-dimethyl-4-(1-methylethyl)-benzenemethanol; 1-methyl-3,5-bis(1-methylethyl)-benzene; urs-12-ene; chola-5,22-dien-3β-ol; cholesta-4,6-dien-3β-ol; sitosteryl 9(Z)-octadecenoate; cholesta-5,22-dien-3β-ol; cholesta-4,6,22-trien-3-one; and cholesta-4,22-dien-3-one. NMR data of other hexane fractions indicated the presence of 3β-acetoxy-lup-12,20(29)-diene; 3β-acetoxy-olean-12-ene; 3β-acetoxy-urs-12-ene; and adian-5-ene. All these compounds are first described in B. potabile.

Seasonal effects and antifungal activity from bark chemical constituents of Sterculia apetala (Malvaceae) at Pantanal of Miranda, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

In the Southern Pantanal, the hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), an endangered species, often chooses the manduvi tree (Sterculia apetala) as a nesting site, because of its physical properties. In addition, the chemical composition of the wood may also contribute to a nesting selection by the hyacinth macaws. The objective of this study was to determine the main chemical components of S. apetala bark for two seasons, and evaluate its fungicidal potential. Bark samples from S. apetala trees with and without nests of A. hyacinthinus were collected in January (wet season) and August (dry season) of 2012. The inhibition of mycelium growth (MGI) from tree samples with and without nests were assessed using a phytochemical analysis to evaluate their antifungal activity against Trichoderma sp. Phytochemical analysis confirmed the presence of phenolic compounds and flavonoids. In both seasons, samples obtained from nested trees had higher content of total phenols than those collected from non-nested trees. The average content of total flavonoids was higher in January for samples with nest and in August for samples without nest. All selected samples showed antifungal activity, and those with nest collected in August (peak of hyacinth macaw breeding) resulted in an MGI of 51.3%. Therefore, this percentage, related to the content of flavonoids and the presence of coumarins, may influence the reproductive success of hyacinth macaws and other species of birds, in this region. This is the first chemical study report with the stem bark of S. apetala.

Latex constituents from Calotropis procera (R. Br.) display toxicity upon egg hatching and larvae of Aedes aegypti (Linn.)

Calotropis procera R. Br. (Asclepiadaceae) is a well-known medicinal plant with leaves, roots, and bark being exploited by popular medicine to fight many human and animal diseases. This work deals with the fractionation of the crude latex produced by the green parts of the plant and aims to evaluate its toxic effects upon egg hatching and larval development of Aedes aegypti. The whole latex was shown to cause 100% mortality of 3rd instars within 5 min. It was fractionated into water-soluble dialyzable (DF) and non-dialyzable (NDF) rubber-free materials. Both fractions were partially effective to prevent egg hatching and most of individuals growing under experimental conditions died before reaching 2nd instars or stayed in 1st instars. Besides, the fractions were very toxic to 3rd instars causing 100% mortality within 24 h. When both fractions were submitted to heat-treatment the toxic effects were diminished considerably suggesting low thermostability of the toxic compounds. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of both fractions and their newly fractionated peaks obtained through ion exchange chromatography or desalting attested the presence of proteins in both materials. When submitted to protease digestion prior to larvicidal assays NDF lost most of its toxicity but DF was still strongly active. It may be possible that the highly toxic effects of the whole latex from C. procera upon egg hatching and larvae development should be at least in part due to its protein content found in NDF. However the toxicity seems also to involve non protein molecules present in DF.

Trypanocidal constituents in plants: 7. Mammea-type coumarins

Calophyllum brasiliense and Mammea americana (Clusiaceae) are two trees from the tropical rain forests of the American continent. A previous screening showed high trypanocidal activity in the extracts of these species. Several mammea-type coumarins, triterpenoids and biflavonoids were isolated from the leaves of C. brasiliense. Mammea A/AA was obtained from the fruit peels of M. americana. These compounds were tested in vitro against epimastigotes and trypomastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease. The most potent compounds were mammea A/BA, A/BB, A/AA, A/BD and B/BA, with MC100 values in the range of 15 to 90 g/ml. Coumarins with a cyclized ,-dimethylallyl substituent on C-6, such as mammea B/BA, cyclo F + B/BB cyclo F, and isomammeigin, showed MC100 values > 200 g/ml. Several active coumarins were also tested against normal human lymphocytes in vitro, which showed that mammea A/AA and A/BA were not toxic. Other compounds from C. brasiliense, such as the triterpenoids, friedelin, canophyllol, the biflavonoid amentoflavone, and protocatechuic and shikimic acids, were inactive against the epimastigotes. The isopropylidenedioxy derivative of shikimic acid was inactive, and its structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Our results suggest that mammea-type coumarins could be a valuable source of trypanocidal compounds.

L'Ordre dels constituents sintàctics oracionals majors en català

El treball és la primera part d’una tesi que tractarà la influència que la llengua materna (L1) pot exercir en l’adquisició de la segona llengua (L2). Concretament, la tesi se centrarà en la influència de les característiques gramaticals del panjabi i del romanès com a L1 en l’adquisició de l’ordre sintàctic del català com a L2. El treball de recerca descriu alguns aspectes de l’ordre sintàctic del català a partir de gramàtiques, de treballs específics sobre el tema, de l’anàlisi d’un corpus oral i del meu propi coneixement de la llengua com a parlant. Concretament s’estudien les oracions principals i les subordinades completives dependents de verbs com dir, suposar o pensar

Gondwana-derived microcontinents - The constituents of the Variscan and Alpine collisional orogens

The European Variscan and Alpine mountain chains are collisional orogens, and are built up of pre-Variscan ``building blocks'' which, in most. cases, originated at the Gondwana margin. Such pre-Variscan elements were part of a pre-Ordovician archipelago-like continental ribbon in the former eastern prolongation of Avalonia, and their present-day distribution resulted from juxtaposition through Variscan and/or Alpine tectonic evolution. The well-known nomenclatures applied to these mountain chains are the mirror of Variscan resp. Alpine organization. It is the aim of this paper to present a terminology taking into account their pre-Variscan evolution at the Gondwana margin. They may contain relics of volcanic islands with pieces of Cadomian crust, relics of volcanic arc settings, and accretionary wedges, which were separated from Gondwana by initial stages of Rheic ocean. opening. After a short-lived Ordovician orogenic event and amalgamation of these elements at the Gondwanan margin, the still continuing Gondwana-directed subduction triggered the formation of Ordovician Al-rich granitoids and; the latest Ordovician opening of Palaeo-Tethys. An example from the Alps (External Massifs) illustrates the gradual reworking of Gondwana-derived, pre-Variscan. elements during the Variscan and Alpine/ Tertiary orogenic cycles. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Generalized low-density codes with BCH constituents for full-diversity near-outage performance

A new graph-based construction of generalized low density codes (GLD-Tanner) with binary BCH constituents is described. The proposed family of GLD codes is optimal on block erasure channels and quasi-optimal on block fading channels. Optimality is considered in the outage probability sense. Aclassical GLD code for ergodic channels (e.g., the AWGN channel,the i.i.d. Rayleigh fading channel, and the i.i.d. binary erasure channel) is built by connecting bitnodes and subcode nodes via a unique random edge permutation. In the proposed construction of full-diversity GLD codes (referred to as root GLD), bitnodes are divided into 4 classes, subcodes are divided into 2 classes, and finally both sides of the Tanner graph are linked via 4 random edge permutations. The study focuses on non-ergodic channels with two states and can be easily extended to channels with 3 states or more.

Earnings management and audit adjustments: An empirical study of IBEX 35 constituents

Doubts about the reliability of a company's qualitative financial disclosure increase market participant expectations from the auditor's report. The auditing process is supposed to serve as a monitoring device that reduces management incentives to manipulate reported earnings. Empirical research confirms that it could be an efficient device under some circumstancesand recognizes that our estimates of the informativeness of audit reports are unavoidably biased (e.g., because of a client's anticipation of the auditing process). This empirical study supports the significant role of auditors in the financial market, in particular in the prevention of earnings management practice. We focus on earnings misstatements, which auditors correct with anadjustment, using a sample of past and current constituents of the benchmark market index in Spain, IBEX 35, and manually collected audit adjustments reported over the 1997-2004 period (42 companies, 336 annual reports, 75 earnings misstatements). Our findings confirm that companies more often overstate than understate their earnings. An investor may foresee earningsmisreporting, as manipulators have a similar profile (e.g., more leveraged and with lower sales). However, he may receive valuable information from the audit adjustment on the size of earnings misstatement, which can be significantly large (i.e., material in almost all cases). We suggest that the magnitude of an audit adjustment depends, other things constant, on annual revenues and free cash levels. We also examine how the audit adjustment relates to the observed market price, trading volume and stock returns. Our findings are that earnings manipulators have a lower price and larger trading volume compared to their rivals. Their returns are positively associated with the magnitude of earnings misreporting, which is not consistent with the possible pricing of audit information.