https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/faculty/cisneros/Papers/Thaipong_2006.pdf

Comparison of ABTS, DPPH, FRAP, and ORAC assays for estimating antioxidant activity from guava fruit extracts

The decline in the high incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, parkinsonism, and Alzheimer-type dementia among the Chamorro population of the western Pacific islands of Guam and Rota, coupled with the absence of demonstrable viral and hereditable factors in this disease, suggests the gradual disappearance of an environmental factor selectively associated with this culture. One candidate is seed of the neurotoxic plant Cycas circinalis L., a traditional source of food and medicine which has been used less with the Americanization of the Chamorro people after World War II. Macaques were fed the Cycas amino acid beta-N-methylamino-L-alanine, a low-potency convulsant that has excitotoxic activity in mouse brain, which is attenuated by N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists. These animals developed corticomoto-neuronal dysfunction, parkinsonian features, and behavioral anomalies, with chromatolytic and degenerative changes of motor neurons in cerebral cortex and spinal cord. In concert with existing epidemiological and animal data, these findings support the hypothesis that cycad exposure plays an important role in the etiology of the Guam disease.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/237/4814/517.full.pdf

T. R. Seshadri

Papers

Neurotoxic compounds of the seeds of lathyrus sativus

Polyphenols of Pterocarpus and Dalbergia woods

The glucosides of Butea monosperma

Chemical components of the fruits of Psidium guava

Constitution of mangiferin.