Chemical composition and biological activities of essential oils of Piper species from the Amazon
TL;DR: Information from the most recent articles on the chemical composition and biological activities of essential oils of Piper species collected in the Amazon are described, guiding researchers for future studies.
Abstract: The genus Piper, belonging to the family Piperaceae, includes approximately 2000 species of plants. Many of them are producers of essential oils. Species of this genus are popularly used for the tr...
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01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: Despite the superficial similarities with different genera of Piperaceae and Saururaceae, the segregate position of Verhuellia revealed by molecular phylogenetics is supported by morphological, developmental and anatomical data presented here.
Abstract: †Background and Aims The perianthless Piperales, i.e. Saururaceae and Piperaceae, have simple reduced flowers strikingly different from the other families of the order (e.g. Aristolochiaceae). Recent molecular phylogenies proved Verhuellia to be the first branch in Piperaceae, making it a promising subject to study the detailed structure and development of the flowers. Based on recently collected material, the first detailed study since 1872 was conducted with respect to morphology, anatomy and development of the inflorescence, pollen ultrastructure and fruit anatomy. †Methods Original scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and light microscopy (LM) observations on Verhuellia lunaria were compared with those of Piperaceae, Saururaceae and fossils. †Key Results The inflorescence is an indeterminate spike with sessile flowers, each in the axil of a bract, developing in acropetal, helical succession. Flowers consist of two (occasionally three) stamens with basifixed tetrasporangiate anthers and latrorse dehiscence by a longitudinal slit. The gynoecium lacks a style but has 3‐4 stigma branches and a single, basal orthotropous and unitegmic ovule. The fruit is a drupe with large multicellular epidermal protuberances. The pollen is very small, inaperturate and areolate, with hemispherical microechinate exine elements. †Conclusions Despite the superficial similarities with different genera of Piperaceae and Saururaceae, the segregate position of Verhuellia revealed by molecular phylogenetics is supported by morphological, developmental and anatomical data presented here. Unitegmic ovules and inaperturate pollen, which are synapomorphies for the genus Peperomia, are also present in Verhuellia.
TL;DR: In this paper , a green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from Piper chaudocanum leaf essential oils and their inhibitory effect on HepG2 cell lines was investigated.
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TL;DR: The paucity of in human studies limits the potential of essential oils as effective and safe phytotherapeutic agents, and more well-designed clinical trials are needed in order to ascertain the real efficacy and safety of these plant products.
Abstract: Essential oils are complex mixtures of hydrocarbons and their oxygenated derivatives arising from two different isoprenoid pathways. Essential oils are produced by glandular trichomes and other secretory structures, specialized secretory tissues mainly diffused onto the surface of plant organs, particularly flowers and leaves, thus exerting a pivotal ecological role in plant. In addition, essential oils have been used, since ancient times, in many different traditional healing systems all over the world, because of their biological activities. Many preclinical studies have documented antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities of essential oils in a number of cell and animal models, also elucidating their mechanism of action and pharmacological targets, though the paucity of in human studies limits the potential of essential oils as effective and safe phytotherapeutic agents. More well-designed clinical trials are needed in order to ascertain the real efficacy and safety of these plant products.
456 citations
01 Jan 1997
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review recent developments in calculation of estuarine scalar fluxes, suggest avenues for future improvement, and place the idea of flux calculation in a broader physical and biogeo-chemical context.
Abstract: The purpose of this contribution is to review recent developments in calculation of estuarine scalar fluxes, to suggest avenues for future improvement, and to place the idea of flux calculation in a broader physical and biogeo- chemical context. A scalar flux through an estuarine cross section is the product of normal velocity and scalar concen- tration, sectionally integrated and tidally averaged. These may vary on interannual, seasonal, tidal monthly, and event time scales. Formulation of scalar fluxes in terms of an integral scalar conservation expression shows that they may be determined either through "direct" means (measurement of velocity and concentration) or by "indirect" inference (from changes in scalar inventory and source/sink terms). Direct determination of net flux at a cross section has a long and generally discouraging history in estuarine oceanography. It has proven difficult to extract statistically significant net (tidally averaged) fluxes from much larger flood and ebb transports, and the best mathematical representation of flux mechanisms is unclear. Observations further suggest that both lateral and vertical variations in scalar transport through estuarine cross sections are large, while estuarine circulation theory has focused on two-dimensional analyses that treat either vertical or lateral variations but not both. Indirect estimates of net fluxes by determination of the other relevant terms in an integral scalar conservation balance may be the best means of determining scalar import-export in systems with residence times long relative to periods of tidal monthly fluctuations. But this method offers little insight into the interaction of circulation modes and scalar fluxes, little help in verifying predictive models, and may also be difficult to apply in some circumstances. Thus, the need to understand, measure, and predict anthropogenic influences on transport of carbon, nutrients, suspended matter, trace metals, and other substances across the land-margin brings a renewed urgency to the issue of how to best carry out estuarine scalar flux determination. An interdisciplinary experiment is suggested to test present understanding, available instruments, and numerical models.
238 citations
"Chemical composition and biological..." refers background in this paper
...The anatomical and physiological characteristics of the plant, biosynthetic routes, light, precipitation, place of growth (altitude, latitude) and nature of the soil (pH, constituents) are factors that can influence the chemical composition of essential oils (23)....
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TL;DR: This review, covering mainly papers of the last decade, focuses on recent findings on the different factors affecting the chemical composition of essential oils, such as exogenous and endogenous factors.
Abstract: This review, covering mainly papers of the last decade, focuses on recent findings on the different factors affecting the chemical composition of essential oils, such as exogenous and endogenous fa...
175 citations
TL;DR: Commercial development of bioinsecticides based on essential oils can follow several different pathways producing products with active ingredients differing in their genesis, and a mechanism for this action in rosemary oil has recently been demonstrated.
Abstract: Insecticidal action of plant essential oils has been an area of intensive research in the new millennium, according to a recent bibliometric analysis. Despite this overwhelming research effort, commercialization of bioinsecticides based on essential oils has lagged far behind, although such products have now been used in the USA for over a decade, and in the EU in the last 4–5 years. Recent progress in commercialization of these products is reviewed here. Essential oils and their mono- and sesquiterpenoid constituents are fast-acting neurotoxins in insects, possibly interacting with multiple receptor types. These compounds also display potentially important sublethal behavioural effects in pest insects, including feeding and oviposition deterrence and repellence. Synergy among essential oil terpenoids appears to be a common phenomenon, and a mechanism for this action in rosemary oil has recently been demonstrated. Commercial development of bioinsecticides based on plant essential oils can follow several different pathways producing products with active ingredients differing in their genesis. These include products whose active ingredients consist of (1) a mixture of essential oils; (2) a single essential oil, or a single terpenoid constituent; (3) a blend of terpenoids, synthetically produced, that emulate those in a plant essential oil; and (4) a novel (non-natural) blend of terpenoids obtained from different plant sources. Examples of each of these are provided.
128 citations