Fresh juice of cocomerina pear an ancient and rare fruit with red pulp: a new source of polyphenols for human health

The aim of this study was to focus our attention on two ecotypes of an ancient variety of Pyrus communis recently rediscovered whose main feature is the reddish and/or red color pulp. There are two ecotypes of this pear that ripen in August and October, both of which are nowadays cultivated only in a small area of central Italy. Since it is known that the juices obtained by cold pressing maintain unaltered nutritional properties and are easy to prepare, it seemed interesting to examine, in both the ecotypes, the polyphenols, flavonoids and anthocyanins content. A greater concentration of these secondary metabolites in late type pear juice correlated with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity evaluated by DPPH, ORAC and 5I-Lipoxygenase assay, respectively, was shown. We can confirm that the fruits of cocomerina pear can be considered a new source of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds. In fact, even the fresh juices, when compared to the extracts studied in our previous work, have shown antioxidant and antiinflammatory properties. The results obtained allow us, therefore, to assume that the introduction of fresh juices obtained from this rediscovered variety of pear, may have positive implications for population health benefit

Antioxidant Activity of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Extracts in Cell-free and Cell culture Systems

Punica granatum L. (Punicaceae) fruits have been widely used in folk medicine; a number of therapeutic properties of pomegranate preparations has been reported (Duke and Ayensu, 1985), including vermifugal, taenicidal, astringent, antispasmodic, antihysteric, diuretic, carminative, emmenagogue and antiinflammatory. More recently, De Nigris et al. (2005) reported that pomegranate juice may exert a preventive role in atherosclerotic disease. These actions have been ascribed to the presence of anthocyanins, cyanidin, ellagitannins, punicalagin and vitamin C. It has been reported (Gil et al., 2000) that industrial pomegranate juice (obtained from both arils and rinds) displays antioxidant activity against reactive oxygen species; this activity has been found to be higher than that of red wine and green tea; arils-only juice seems to be less active than whole fruit juice. Further studies, including one from our group (Ricci et al., in press), dealt with the antioxidant activity of whole, arils or rinds pomegranate juices/extracts: however, these research works have been carried out exclusively in cell-free systems

Total polyphenol content, in vitro antifungal and antioxidant activities of callus cultures from Inula crithmoides L.

This is the first report on the antioxidant and antifungal activities of callus cultures from Inula crithmoides L. (Asteraceae). Callus cultures were initiated from leaf sections, on initial culture MS basal medium supplemented with various concentrations of 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), NAA (1-naphthaleneacetic acid) and IBA (indole-3-butyric acid) and a 72% survival was achieved. Significant differences between the various auxins used as phytohormones on callus growth were found. Maximum callusing was noticed on the leaf explants grown on MS basal medium supplemented with 1 mgL–12,4-D. Subsequently the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the methanol extract from calli were investigated. Antioxidant studies suggested that the methanol extracts of dark-grown and light-grown callus were able to reduce the stable free radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrilhydrazyl (DPPH). In the inhibition against lipid peroxidation, extracts of dark-grown callus showed the strongest effect with IC50values better than those of the standards. The methanol extract of callus cultures had significant antifungal activity only against two of the fungi tested: Alternaria solani and Phytophthora cryptogea. Against all the other tested fungi, the I. crithmoides calli extracts showed fungistatic activity

Bioassay-Guided Isolation of Antiproliferative Compounds from Limbarda crithmoides (L.) Dumort

Limbarda crithmoides (L.) Dumort (Asteraceae) n-hexane extract displayed high cell proliferation inhibitory activity against acute myeloid leukaemia cells (OCI-AML3) and was therefore subjected to a bioassay-guided multistep separation procedure. Two thymol derivatives, namely 10-acetoxy-8,9-epoxythymol tiglate (1) and 10-acetoxy-9-chloro-8,9-dehydrothymol (2), were isolated and identified by means of NMR spectroscopy. Both of them exhibited a significant dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation