Biological effects of resveratrol.

Phenolics in Food and Nutraceuticals is the first single-source compendium of essential information concerning food phenolics. This unique book reports the classification and nomenclature of phenolics, their occurrence in food and nutraceuticals, chemistry and applications, and nutritional and health effects. In addition, it describes antioxidant activity of phenolics in food and nutraceuticals as well as methods for analysis and quantification. Each chapter concludes with an extensive bibliography for further reading. Food scientists, nutritionists, chemists, biochemists, and health professionals will find this book valuable.

Phenolics in food and nutraceuticals

13C NMR spectra of pentacyclic triterpenoids--a compilation and some salient features

The fireplace combustion of wood is a significant and largely unregulated source of fine particle pollution in the United States. Source apportionment techniques that use particulate organic compounds as tracers have been successful in determining the contribution of wood smoke to ambient fine particle levels in specific areas in California. To apply these techniques to the rest of the United States, the differences in emissions profiles between different wood smoke sources and fuel types should be resolved. To this end, a series of fireplace source tests was conducted on six fuel wood species found in the Southern United States to determine fine particulate emission factors for total mass, ionic and elemental species, elemental and organic carbon, and over 250 individual organic compounds. The wood species tested, chosen for their high abundance and availability in the Southern U.S. region, were yellow poplar, white ash, sweetgum, mockernut hickory, loblolly pine, and slash pine. The differences in the emissions of compounds such as substituted phenols and resin acids help to distinguish between the smoke from hardwood and softwood combustion. Levoglucosan, a cellulose pyrolysis product which may serve as a tracer for wood smoke in general, was quantified in the emissions from all the wood species burned. The furofuran lignan, yangambin, which was emitted in significant quantities from yellow poplar combustion and not detected in any of the other North American wood smokes, is a potential species-specific molecular tracer which may be useful in qualitatively identifying particulate emissions from a specific geographical area where yellow poplar is being burned.

https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.files/fileID/12752

Chemical Characterization of Fine Particle Emissions from Fireplace Combustion of Woods Grown in the Northeastern United States

With the rapid advances made over the last two decades in biomedical research, there has been an unprecedented interest in unraveling the magical properties of some commonly used natural products. Consequently, a wide variety of natural products are under scrutiny for their clinical potential, both in terms of disease prevention and treatment. Among the compounds under investigation is a family of polymers given the name viniferin. These compounds elicit strong anti-fungal properties and are therefore included under the broad class of plant antibiotics known as phytoalexins (1). One remarkable compound in this list is resveratrol (RSV), a major active ingredient of stilbene phytoalexins, first isolated from the roots of the oriental medicinal plant Polygonum Capsidatum (Kojo-kon in Japanese) (2). Observations that this compound was an active ingredient of a folk plant known for its remedial effects against a host of human afflictions (2, 3) and that it was synthesized by leaf tissue in response to fungal infection of grapevines (Vitis vinifera) (4) provided the impetus for the increase in activity surrounding RSV in the field of biomedical research. The relatively high concentration of RSV in wine (5) and its documented cardioprotective effect (6) form the basis for the so-called “French paradox” (7). Most of the initial work on RSV was centered around its effects on metabolic pathways regulating cardiovascular biology, such as lipid metabolism and platelet function; however, since the reported cancer chemopreventive activity of RSV in animal models of carcinogenesis (8), recent investigations have been directed at understanding the molecular mechanism(s) of its diverse biological effects. As a result, the positive or negative effects of RSV on some important physiological pathways have been proposed as possible mechanisms for its observed cancer chemopreventive, cardioprotective, and neuroprotective activities. These include suppression of cellular proliferation via inhibition of key steps in the signal transduction pathways (9–12) and cyclin-dependent kinases (cdks) (13), promotion of cellular differentiation (14), scavenging/suppression of intracellular reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) (15), induction of apoptotic cell death through activation of mitochondria-dependent or -independent pathways (16–18), anti-inflammatory activity via down-regulation of proinflammatory cytokines (19, 20), and inhibition of androgen receptor function and estrogenic activity (21, 22). This review is intended to provide the reader with an appreciation of the diverse biological effects of this remarkable compound, which could have tremendous potential as a chemopreventive and/or chemotherapeutic agent in clinical medicine.

Resveratrol: from grapevines to mammalian biology

Resveratrol 3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (1) has been isolated from the seeds of Erythrophleum lasianthum (Caesalpinioidae, Leguminosae), a South African plant used in traditional medicine, and has shown antiplatelet aggregation activity. The synthesis of 1, related hydroxystilbenes, and their glucosides has been undertaken to provide larger quantities, for further biological evaluation, and has been accomplished via Wittig reactions followed by glucosylation under phase transfer catalysis.

Isolation, Synthesis, and Antiplatelet Aggregation Activity of Resveratrol 3-O-β-d-Glucopyranoside and Related Compounds†

Typhaphthalide and typharin, two phenolic compounds from Typha capensis.

Three novel prenylated xanthones, 1–3, have been isolated from the root bark of Garcinia gerrardii HARVEYex T. R. SIM (G. natalensis SCHLECHTER; G. transvaalensis BURTT DAVY; Guttiferae). Structure elucidation was achieved by a combination of one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopic techniques, including long-range HETCOR, mass spectroscopy, and chemical methods. Garcigerrin A (1) and B (2) are pyrano derivatives of 3. They all show a rare 1,4,5 oxygenation pattern of the xanthone nucleus. Xanthone 3 is fungicidal against Cladosporium cucumerinum.

Colin B. Rogers

Papers

Isolation, Synthesis, and Antiplatelet Aggregation Activity of Resveratrol 3-O-β-d-Glucopyranoside and Related Compounds†

Typhaphthalide and typharin, two phenolic compounds from Typha capensis.

Novel Prenylated Xanthones from Garcinia gerrardii HARVEY

Prenylated xanthones fromGarcinia livingstonei

The structure of imberbic acid, A 1α-hydroxy pentacyclic triterpenoid from Combretum imberbe