American palm ethnomedicine: A meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many recent papers have documented the phytochemical and pharmacological bases for the use of palms (<it>Arecaceae</it>) in ethnomedicine. Early publications were based almost entirely on interviews that solicited local knowledge. More recently, ethnobotanically guided searches for new medicinal plants have proven more successful than random sampling for identifying plants that contain biodynamic ingredients. However, limited laboratory time and the high cost of clinical trials make it difficult to test all potential medicinal plants in the search for new drug candidates. The purpose of this study was to summarize and analyze previous studies on the medicinal uses of American palms in order to narrow down the search for new palm-derived medicines.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Relevant literature was surveyed and data was extracted and organized into medicinal use categories. We focused on more recent literature than that considered in a review published 25 years ago. We included phytochemical and pharmacological research that explored the importance of American palms in ethnomedicine.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 730 species of American palms, we found evidence that 106 species had known medicinal uses, ranging from treatments for diabetes and leishmaniasis to prostatic hyperplasia. Thus, the number of American palm species with known uses had increased from 48 to 106 over the last quarter of a century. Furthermore, the pharmacological bases for many of the effects are now understood.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Palms are important in American ethnomedicine. Some, like <it>Serenoa repens </it>and <it>Roystonea regia</it>, are the sources of drugs that have been approved for medicinal uses. In contrast, recent ethnopharmacological studies suggested that many of the reported uses of several other palms do not appear to have a strong physiological basis. This study has provided a useful assessment of the ethnobotanical and pharmacological data available on palms.</p

OS CONGRESSOS AGRÍCOLAS DO RIO DE JANEIRO E DE PERNAMBUCO E A EDUCAÇÃO (1878)

Este artigo apresenta um estudo sobre a educação nos Congressos Agrícolas do Rio de Janeiro e de Pernambuco (1878) realizado com o principal objetivo de examinar como se manifesta a proposta de constituição de escolas nos Congressos Agrícolas. Na segunda metade do século XIX, quando a sociedade brasileira intensificou o debate sobre o fim da escravidão e a iminente crise (falta) de mão-de-obra. A promulgação da Lei do Ventre Livre em 1871 acirrou o debate, levando a classe dominante, composta principalmente de grandes fazendeiros de café, a criar instituições para os primeiros (ingênuos) “libertos”, assim como propôs a criação de asilos e orfanatos de educação agrícola para receber e preparar as crianças para o trabalho.  Os discursos apresentados nos Anais dos dois Congressos Agrícolas revelam que a ensino primário e a instrução agrícola associado muitas vezes às leis coercitivas, eram compreendidos como essenciais para tornar possível a utilização do elemento nacional no serviço agrícola. Consideravam que os ingênuos e demais homens livres deveriam ser “recuperados” para uma vida digna, uma vida de trabalho, por meio da educação

Immobilization of peroxidase glycoprotein on gold electrodes modified with mixed epoxy-boronic acid monolayers

The development of bioelectronic enzyme applications requires the immobilization of active proteins onto solid or colloidal substrates such as gold. Coverage of the gold surface with alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMS) reduces nonspecific adsorption of proteins and also allows the incorporation onto the surface of ligands with affinity for complementary binding sites on native proteins. We present in this work a strategy for the covalent immobilization of glycosylated proteins previously adsorbed through weak, reversible interactions, on tailored SAMS. Boronic acids, which form cyclic esters with saccharides, are incorporated into SAMS to weakly adsorb the glycoprotein onto the electrode surface through their carbohydrate moiety. To prevent protein release from the electrode surface, we combine the affinity motif of boronates with the reactivity of epoxy groups to covalently link the protein to heterofunctional boronateepoxy SAMS. The principle underlying our strategy is the increased immobilization rate achieved by the weak interaction-induced proximity effect between slow reacting oxyrane groups in the SAM and nucleophilic residues from adsorbed proteins, which allows the formation of very stable covalent bonds. This approach is exemplified by the use of phenylboronates-oxyrane mixed monolayers as a reactive support and redox-enzyme horseradish peroxidase as glycoprotein for the preparation of peroxidase electrodes. Quartz crystal microbalance, atomic force microscopy, and electrochemical measurements are used to characterize these enzymatic electrodes. These epoxy-boronate functional monolayers; are versatile, stable interfaces, ready to incorporate glycoproteins by incubation under mild conditions