The First Illumina-Based De Novo Transcriptome Sequencing and Analysis of Safflower Flowers

BACKGROUND: The safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L., is a worldwide oil crop, and its flowers, which have a high flavonoid content, are an important medicinal resource against cardiovascular disease in traditional medicine. Because the safflower has a large and complex genome, the development of its genomic resources has been delayed. Second-generation Illumina sequencing is now an efficient route for generating an enormous volume of sequences that can represent a large number of genes and their expression levels. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To investigate the genes and pathways that might control flavonoids and other secondary metabolites in the safflower, we used Illumina sequencing to perform a de novo assembly of the safflower tubular flower tissue transcriptome. We obtained a total of 4.69 Gb in clean nucleotides comprising 52,119,104 clean sequencing reads, 195,320 contigs, and 120,778 unigenes. Based on similarity searches with known proteins, we annotated 70,342 of the unigenes (about 58% of the identified unigenes) with cut-off E-values of 10(-5). In total, 21,943 of the safflower unigenes were found to have COG classifications, and BLAST2GO assigned 26,332 of the unigenes to 1,754 GO term annotations. In addition, we assigned 30,203 of the unigenes to 121 KEGG pathways. When we focused on genes identified as contributing to flavonoid biosynthesis and the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, which are important pathways that control flower and seed quality, respectively, we found that these genes were fairly well conserved in the safflower genome compared to those of other plants. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our study provides abundant genomic data for Carthamus tinctorius L. and offers comprehensive sequence resources for studying the safflower. We believe that these transcriptome datasets will serve as an important public information platform to accelerate studies of the safflower genome, and may help us define the mechanisms of flower tissue-specific and secondary metabolism in this non-model plant

Sesquiterpenes from Cymbopogon proximus

Abstract: In addition to four previously reported compounds: proximadiol (1)

Chemical and biological assessment of high value pharmaceutical raw material from Egyptian orange peel

In Egypt, orange juice industries generate huge amount of waste peel that could be a source of raw materials with high value and economic return. Here, we explored a better model for waste management of citrus processing waste in Egypt by developing an ecofriendly method for preparation of value added materials. A high grade pectin (HGP) was obtained from the crude acidic water extract of the peel after passing through Diaion HP20 column. The HGP showed potent antidiabetic activity at lower dose than those reported in literature. It possessed significant effect on blood glucose (BG) level, as well as parameters relevant to liver and kidney functions in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. On the other hand, the essential oil (EO) prepared by cold press showed the highest yield (0.72% w/w) and it is the most applicable method of isolate orange oil on pilot scale. EO showed significant antimicrobial activity against the tested food borne pathogens. In conclusion, high value materials — HGP and EO were prepared on pilot scale from the waste orange peel. While the HGP can be included in food supplement for diabetic patients, EO can be used as a natural food preservative

Chemical and biological assessment of high value pharmaceutical raw material from Egyptian orange peel

404-412In Egypt, orange juice industries generate huge amount of waste peel that could be a source of raw materials with high value and economic return. Here, we explored a better model for waste management of citrus processing waste in Egypt by developing an ecofriendly method for preparation of value added materials. A high grade pectin (HGP) was obtained from the crude acidic water extract of the peel after passing through Diaion HP20 column. The HGP showed potent antidiabetic activity at lower dose than those reported in literature. It possessed significant effect on blood glucose (BG) level, as well as parameters relevant to liver and kidney functions in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. On the other hand, the essential oil (EO) prepared by cold press showed the highest yield (0.72% w/w) and it is the most applicable method of isolate orange oil on pilot scale. EO showed significant antimicrobial activity against the tested food borne pathogens. In conclusion, high value materials — HGP and EO were prepared on pilot scale from the waste orange peel. While the HGP can be included in food supplement for diabetic patients, EO can be used as a natural food preservative

PAGINA TIPO

SUMMARY. Pneumonia is common among critically ill burn patients and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among them. Prediction of mortality in patients with severe burns remains unreliable. The aim of this research is to study the incidence, early diagnosis and management of nosocomial pneumonia, and to discuss the relationship between pneumonia and death in burn patients. This prospective study was carried out on 80 burn patients (35 males and 45 females) admitted to Menoufiya University Hospital Burn Center and Chest Department, Egypt, from September 2011 to March 2012. Our findings showed an overall burn patient mortality rate of 26.25 % (21/80), 15% (12/80) incidence of pneumonia, and a 50% (6/12) mortality rate among patients with pneumonia compared to 22 % (15/68) for those without pneumonia. The incidence of pneumonia was twice as high in the subset of patients with inhalation injury as among those without inhalation injury (P< 0.001). It was found that the presence of pneumonia, inhalation injury, increased burn size, and advanced age were all associated with increased mortality (P< 0.001). In the late onset pneumonia, other associated factors also contributed to mortality. Severity of disease, severity of illness (APACHE score), organ failure, underlying co-morbidities, and VAP PIRO score all have significant correlations with mortality rate. Pneumonia was an important factor for predicting burn patient mortality. Early detection and management of pneumonia are absolutely essential

1-4 INDICE

SUMMARY. Pneumonia is common among critically ill burn patients and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among them. Prediction of mortality in patients with severe burns remains unreliable. The aim of this research is to study the incidence, early diagnosis and management of nosocomial pneumonia, and to discuss the relationship between pneumonia and death in burn patients. This prospective study was carried out on 80 burn patients (35 males and 45 females) admitted to Menoufiya University Hospital Burn Center and Chest Department, Egypt, from September 2011 to March 2012. Our findings showed an overall burn patient mortality rate of 26.25 % (21/80), 15% (12/80) incidence of pneumonia, and a 50% (6/12) mortality rate among patients with pneumonia compared to 22 % (15/68) for those without pneumonia. The incidence of pneumonia was twice as high in the subset of patients with inhalation injury as among those without inhalation injury (P< 0.001). It was found that the presence of pneumonia, inhalation injury, increased burn size, and advanced age were all associated with increased mortality (P< 0.001). In the late onset pneumonia, other associated factors also contributed to mortality. Severity of disease, severity of illness (APACHE score), organ failure, underlying co-morbidities, and VAP PIRO score all have significant correlations with mortality rate. Pneumonia was an important factor for predicting burn patient mortality. Early detection and management of pneumonia are absolutely essential