Medical ethnobotany of the Yucatec Maya: Healers' consensus as a quantitative criterion

Medical Ethnobotany of the Yucatec Maya: Healers' Consensus as a Quantitative Criterion. Economic Botany 53(2):144-160, 1999. There is an urgent need to obtain information on the relative importance of a taxon used medicinally as compared to others within the same culture. This was achieved through a documentation of the current indigenous medical uses of 320 species in three Yucatec Maya communities during 18 months of fieldwork. The 1549 individual reports documented were divided into nine groups, which classify indigenous uses. The frequency of usage of the individual plants reported was employed in the analysis of the ethnobotanical importance of the respective taxa. Species cited more frequently in a group of indigenous uses are regarded to be of greater ethnobotanical importance than those cited only by a few informants. In order to obtain information on possible biological, pharmacological and toxicological effects of some particularly important species, the scientific literature on these taxa was evaluated systematically. The study is the basis for phytochemical and pharmacological evaluations of the traditional use

Medicinal Flora of the Popoluca, Mexico: A botanical systematical perspective

We studied the medicinal plants used by the Popoluca of the Sierra de Santa Marta (eastern Mexico). Using Moerman's method of regression analysis we determined which ethnomedically used taxa are over-represented in the Popolucan pharmacopoeia (e.g., Asteraceae) and which are underrepresented (e.g., Orchidaceae). Moerman et al. (1999) found high correlation between the holarctic pharmacopoeias and assumed that apart from the relatedness of the northern floras a "global pattern of human knowledge" may account for this finding. Although the Popoluca dwell in a habitat dominated by a neotropical flora but intermixed with important holarctic elements, they include considerably fewer neotropical taxa in their pharmacopoeia as one would expect if the historical transmitted knowledge were influencing their selection. This finding confirms the theory stated by Moerman et al. However, the Popoluca include some neotropical taxa in their pharmacopoeia and thus a moderate correlation exists between the Popolucan pharmacopoeia and the neotropical pharmacopoeia analysed by Moerman et al. We therefore conclude that apart from historically transmitted knowledge about specific taxa the "global pattern of human knowledge” addressed by Moerman et al. is largely based on "common selection criteria.

Luddin type anthraquinone glycosides from Putoria calabrica

Two new lucidin type anthraquinone glycosides, putorinoside A (1) and putorinoside B (2) were isolated from Putoria calabrica, in addition to two known anthraquinone glycosides, lucidin 3-O-β-glucopyranoside (3) and lucidin 3-O-primeveroside (4). Based on spectroscopic data, putorinosides A and B were identified as 2-hydroxymethyl-1-methoxy-3,5,6-trihydroxyanthraquinone 3-O-β-glucopyranoside and 2-hydroxymethyl-1-methoxy-3,6-dihydroxyanthraquinone 3-O-β-glucopyranoside, respectively

"Pharmakognosie – Phytopharmazie"

n/

Pharmacy at the ETH Zürich – Past and Present

Pharmacy has a long-standing tradition at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The last 149 years have seen a vigorous expansion from a single professor to a faculty of about ten and from a few students per year to about one hundred in 2003. Starting out as part of the Chemistry section in the early days of the ETH, Pharmacy became an independent unit in 1916 when it was moved to a new location at Clausiusstrasse 25. With various changes in organizational structure it remained there until 1993, when it was transferred to the Irchel Campus of the University of Zürich due to lack of space. Upon the installation of autonomous departments at the ETH in 2003, the critical size for organizational units was becoming an issue. As a consequence the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences together with the three Chemistry Laboratories and the Institute of Chemical and Bioengineering decided to establish the new Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB). With the move to the HCI Hönggerberg, the five Institutes of the D-CHAB have also become re-united at the same location

a diterpene from the marine brown alga dictyota bartayresll

From the dichlorometharic extract of the brown alga Dictyota bartayresii a new diterpene,hydroxypachdictyol A,of the hydroazulenoid type has been isolated and characterized. The structure of the new compound was determined from spectroscopic data

New cytotoxic sesquiterpene lactones from Warionia saharae

Cytotoxicity-guided fractionation of the MeOH-sol. part of the CH2Cl2 ext. of the leaves of W. saharae led to the isolation of the 2 new guaianolide-type sesquiterpene lactones, 5alpha H-3beta ,4beta -epoxy-14-oxo-guaia-1(10),11(13)-dien-6alpha ,12-olide (I), 5alpha H-2beta ,4beta -epoxy-3alpha -hydroxy-guaia-1(10),11(13)-dien-6alpha ,12-olide (II), and the new eudesmane type sesquiterpene 1beta ,6alpha -dihydroxycostic acid (III). In addn., the known sesquiterpene lactones 5alpha H-2beta -hydroxyguaia-3(4),10(14),11(13)-trien-6alpha ,12-olide (IV), reynosin, 5alpha H-1alpha ,10alpha :3alpha ,4alpha -diepoxyguaia-11(13)-en-6alpha ,12-olide (V), and dehydroleucodin were isolated together with the known flavone hispidulin. Cytotoxicity testing of the sesquiterpene lactones against the KB cancer cell line (ATCC CCL17) revealed IC50 values of 3.5 (I), 2.6 (IV), 2.7 (reynosin), 4.3 (V), 3.6 (II), and 1.3 (dehydroleucodin) micro g/mL. III was not active up to 20 micro g/mL