Comparison of plants used for skin and stomach problems in Trinidad and Tobago with Asian ethnomedicine

RefereedThis paper provides a preliminary evaluation of fifty-eight ethnomedicinal plants used in Trinidad and Tobago for skin problems, stomach problems, pain and internal parasites for safety and possible efficacy. Thirty respondents, ten of whom were male were interviewed from September 1996 to September 2000 on medicinal plant use for health problems. The respondents were obtained by snowball sampling, and were found in thirteen different sites, 12 in Trinidad and one in Tobago. The uses are compared to those current in Asia. Bambusa vulgaris, Bidens alba, Jatropha curcas, Neurolaena lobata, Peperomia rotundifolia and Phyllanthus urinaria are possibly efficacous for stomach problems, pain and internal parasites. Further scientific study of these plants is warranted

A configurational and conformational study of aframodial and its diasteriomers via experimental and theoretical VA and VCD spectroscopies

In thiswork we present the experimental and theoretical vibrational absorption (VA) and the theoretical vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra for aframodial. In addition, we present the theoretical VA and VCD spectra for the diasteriomers of aframodial. Aframodial has four chiral centers and hence has 24 = 16 diasteriomers, which occur in eight pairs of enantiomers. In addition to the four chiral centers, there is an additional chirality due to the helicity of the entire molecule, which we show by presenting 12 configurations of the 5S,8S,9R,10S enantiomer of aframodial. The VCD spectra for the diasteriomers and the 12 configurations of one enantiomer are shown to be very sensitive not only to the local stereochemistry at each chiral center, but in addition, to the helicity of the entire molecule. Here one must be careful in analyzing the signs of the VCD bands due to the ?non-chiral? chromophores in themolecule, since one has two contributions; one due to the inherent chirality at the four chiral centers, and one due to the chirality of the side chain groups in specific conformers, that is, its helicity. Theoretical simulations for various levels of theory are compared to the experimental VA recorded to date. The VCD spectra simulations are presented, but no experimental VCD and Raman spectra have been reported to date, though some preliminary VCD measurements have been made in Stephens? lab in Los Angeles. The flexible side chain is proposed to be responsible for the small size of the VCD spectra of this molecule, even though the chiral part of the molecule is very rigid and has four chiral centers. In addition to VCD and Raman measurements, Raman optical activity (ROA) measurementswould be very enlightening, as in many cases bands which areweak in both theVAand VCD, may be large in the Raman and/orROAspectra. The feasibility of using vibrational spectroscopy tomonitor biological structure, function and activity is a worthy goal, but this work shows that a careful theoretical analysis is also required, if one is to fully utilize and understand the experimental results. The reliability, reproduceability and uniqueness of the vibrational spectroscopic experiments and the information which can be gained from them is discussed, as well as the details of the computation of VA, VCD and Raman (and ROA) spectroscopy for molecules of the complexity of aframodial, which have multiple chiral centers and flexible side chains