University of Jordan

About: University of Jordan is a education organization based out in Amman, Jordan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 7796 authors who have published 13764 publications receiving 213526 citations.

Piperine: A review of its biological effects.

Abstract: Medicinal plants have been used for years as a source of food, spices, and, in traditional medicine, as a remedy to numerous diseases. Piper nigrum, belonging to the family Piperaceae is one of the most widely used spices all over the world. It has a distinct sharp flavor attributed to the presence of the phytochemical, piperine. Apart from its use as a spice, P. nigrum is frequently used for medicinal, preservation, and perfumery purposes. Black pepper contains 2-7.4% of piperine, varying in content is associated with the pepper plant. Piperine displays numerous pharmacological effects such as antiproliferative, antitumor, antiangiogenesis, antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, cardioprotective, antimicrobial, antiaging, and immunomodulatory effects in various in vitro and in vivo experimental trials. Furthermore, piperine has also been documented for its hepatoprotective, anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective properties. This review highlights and discusses the medicinal and health-promoting effects of piperine, along with possible mechanisms of its action in health promotion and disease prevention. In addition, the present review summarizes the recent literature related to piperine as a therapeutic agent against several diseases.

Inhibition of hormone sensitive lipase and pancreatic lipase by Rosmarinus officinalis extract and selected phenolic constituents

Abstract: Rosmarinus officinalis L. (Rosemary) has been long claimed to have hypogylcemic-hypolipidemic dual effects in folkloric medicine. In an effort to explain rosemary's claimed benefits, numerous published studies have investigated an array of pharmacologic activities of the plant including anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic and metabolic effects. The question remained, however, as how rosemary would target both plasma lipids and glucose levels simultaneously. A newer mechanism has been suggested, in which targeting the hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) would be the common link between the two metabolic effects. In fact, HSL has been extensively studied for its effects on the metabolic switch between glucose and free fatty acids (FFAs) as an energy source. The current manuscript summarizes a significant amount of work that was undertaken to identify plant species native to Jordan with potential HSL and pancreatic lipase (PL) inhibitory activities. Our results demonstrated in vitroinhibitory effects of R. officnalis on both HSL and PL in a dose dependent manner. Interestingly, the rosemary extract had an IC50 for PL that was several fold lower than the IC50 for HSL, indicating a higher affinity to the former enzyme (13.8 and 95.2 μg/mL for PL and HSL, respectively). In addition, we have compared the inhibitory activities of purified constituents found in rosemary to the parent plant [rosmarinic acid (RA), chlorogenic acid (CA), caffeic acid (CaA) and gallic acid (GA)]. Our results showed that all the tested compounds (RA, CA, CaA, and GA) were able to inhibit the PL and HSL activities in a dose dependent manner, but with different potencies. PL and HSL IC50 values were calculated for each compound and GA was found to be the most potent (IC50 10.1 and 14.5 for PL and HSL, respectively). Further work is necessary to determine whether our in vitro findings would correlate with the in vivo effects. Nonetheless, our results are a first step in fully understanding the long claimed hypoglycemic-hypolipidemic dual effects of rosemary. Simultaneous targeting of both HSL and PL is likely to open the door for a new era in our continuous battle against DM type 2 and its cardiovascular complications. Currently, we are working on identifying the most active constituents of the plant to evaluate a structure-activity relationship which would pave the road for future therapeutic use. Key words: Rosmarinus officinalis, Rosemary, obesity, diabetes mellitus, pancreatic lipase, hormone sensitive lipase, phenolic compounds, rosmarinic acid.

Structure of crystalline and paracrystalline condensed matter

Abstract: The experience of microparacrystals, in intermediate stages between “perfect crystalline” and “amorphous structures,” and as “building bricks” in condensed matter, has become accepted as a basic physical concept. Their existence was proven by optical and x-ray diffraction studies. A review and summary of the following aspects is presented mainly for the benefit of scientists working in the field of polymers: (1) basic features of the paracrystal; (2) types of paracrystalline distortions and their effects on the reflection profiles of the x-ray diffraction pattern; (3) the physical basis of the theory of paracrystallinity; (4) experimental determination of the paracrystalline distortion parameter g, the crystallite size Lhkt , and the α∗ value; (5) x-ray diffraction evidence of the existence of microparacrystals; and (6) examples of electron microscope observations of paracrystals in polymers as well as in other materials.