Chemomapping of artichoke (cynara scolymus l.) and fenugreek (trigonella foenum-graecum l.) extracts, and analysis of generated biological effects using in vitro and in vivo modell systems

A disszertációmban azokról a kutatásokról számolok be, amelyek az articsóka és a görögszéna beltartalmi értékei, illetve élettani hatásai közötti összefüggésekre irányulnak. Első lépésként vizes és alkoholos extraktumokat készítettem szárított articsókalevélből és görögszénamagból, majd tanulmányoztam azok bioaktív hatóanyagait (UHPLC-ESI-MS), valamint meghatároztam összpolifenol- és összflavonoid-tartalmukat, illetve in vitro antioxidáns kapacitását (UV-VIS spektrofotométer). Az articsóka és görögszéna extraktumok élettani hatásait tanulmányozva megállapítottam, hogy a vizes és alkoholos kivonataim nem befolyásolják kedvezőtlenül a Drosophila melanogaster életképességét, azaz in vivo nem citotoxikusak és nem növelik meg sem a kromoszómatörések sem a pontmutációk gyakoriságát, vagyis nem genotoxikusak (SMART tesztrendszer). Továbbá megállapítottam, hogy a vizes és alkoholos kivonatok eltérő módon befolyásolják a humán emlőkarcinoma sejtvonalak életlépességét (MTT viabilitás/proliferációs teszt). A vizes extraktumok bifázisos hatása egyszerre utal kis koncentráció esetén az adaptív stresszválaszok hatékonyságának növelésére, míg nagy koncentráció esetén a proliferáció gátlásra. Az alkoholos extraktumok erőteljes in vitro citotoxicitása pedig apoptózis által indukált sejthalálra enged következtetni. Mindent egybevetve, a kísérleti eredményeim arra utalnak, hogy mind az articsóka, mind a görögszéna extraktumok genotoxicitás nélküli tumorellenes hatása egy olyan alap, amelyre ráépíthetők ezen növények humán prevenciós és/vagy terápiás alkalmazásai.In my doctoral dissertation the presented experiemental data are meant to correlate the bioactive compounds content and generated biological effects of artichoke- and fenugreek extracts. Therefore, I have prepared aqueous- and alcoholic extracts from artichoke and fenugreek, then by chemomapping I have determined the bioactive compound profile, total polyphenol-, total flavonoid content and the in vitro antioxidant capacity of all extracts. The in vivo studies of generated biological effects have shown that the artichoke- and fenugreek extracts do not reduce viability of Drosophila melanogaster, and are not cytotoxic nor genotoxic since they fail to increase the chromosomal breakage and gene mutation rate. The in vitro studies have revealed that the aqueous- and alcoholic extracts do affect differently the viability of human breast carcinoma cell lines. The aqueous artichoke- and aqueous fenugreek extracts affect viability in biphasic manner, suggesting the concentration-dependent implication of adaptive stress response and cytotoxicity. The alcoholic artichoke- and alcoholic fenugreek extracts feature a pronounced cytotoxic effect across a wide concentration range that seems to be related to apoptosis induced cell death. Taken together, all these data are suggesting that the artichoke and fenugreek extracts non-genotoxic butanti-tumoral effects represent a solid scientific ground in order to prove these plants potential usefulness in preventing and/ortreating human conditions like cancer.d

Impact of heavy metal polluted wastewater sediment on element content and enzyme activity of Sudan grass

Growth chamber pot experiment was set up with two varieties of Sudan grass. Plants were grown in uncontaminated (control) topsoil of the former wastewater settling pond from Debrecen, which was amended with 10% (m/m) of wastewater sediment (P: 5125; Fe: 22756, Pb: 287; Cr: 1027; Zn: 888 mg/kg). The elemental composition of soil and shoots of plants and activities of some enzymes in leaves were measured. It can be concluded that the roots and shoots of plant individuals of both varieties consistently took up higher concentrations of each of the elements from the medium "enriched" with wastewater sediment. The elevated element concentrations were found in some cases in the roots, and in other cases in the leaves (K: ~2000 (soil) - ~13000 (root) - ~30000 (shoot) mg/kg; Cr: ~330 (soil) - ~3,30 (root) - ~0,189 (shoot) mg/kg). The excessive accumulation of toxic elements was not observed. The activities of four enzymes were measured in the leaves of plants (glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, G6PDH; isocitrate-dehydrogenase, ICDH; peroxidase, POX; catalase, CAT). The enzyme activities of POX increased meanwhile that of CAT decreased significantly, in spite of slight differences. As a trend, the specific activity for G6PDH increased by 26% (GK Csaba) and 36% (Akklimat), while values for ICDH became higher by 28% (GK Csaba) and 41.5% (Akklimat), for the two varieties studied, respectively. The latter results were not statistically supported

The effect of toxic elements on the microanatomy of the leaves of the Salix alba L.

The effects of a heavy metal containing wastewater sediment on two cultivars of white willow were investigated in a pot experiment. Our aim was to examine the effect of toxic elements on the microanatomical parameters of the leaves of the tested plant. We examined the following parameters: stomatic density, stoma width and length, lamina thickness, adaxial and abaxial epidermis thickness, mesophyll thickness, palisad and spongy parenchyma thickness, main vein width and length. The experiment had the following results: with the presence of toxic elements, the thickness of the lamina increased, within this, there was a significant growth in the thickness of the spongy parenchyma.  The width and the length of the main vein decreased, so did the extent of the xylem cavities. The extent of the collenchymal stock of the leaf venation increased. The number of stomas increased, but the size of the stomas decreased. As a result of toxic element contamination, the number of Ca-oxalate crystals increased within the leaf mesophyll

Antioxidant activity, total flavonoid, total phenolic and anthocyanin contents of Cynara scolymus L. leaves and Trigonella foenum-graecum L. seeds

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Diverging dc conductivity due to a flat band in disordered pseudospin-1 Dirac-Weyl fermions

Several lattices, such as the dice or the Lieb lattice, possess Dirac cones and a flat band crossing the Dirac point, whose effective model is the pseudospin-1 Dirac-Weyl equation. We investigate the fate of the flat band in the presence of disorder by focusing on the density of states (DOS) and dc conductivity. While the central hub-site does not reveal the presence of the flat band, the sublattice resolved DOS on the non-central sites exhibits a narrow peak with height 1/pg with g the dimensionless disorder variance. Although the group velocity is zero on the flat band, the dc conductivity diverges as ln(1/g) with decreasing disorder due to interband transitions around the band touching point between the propagating and the flat band. Generalizations to higher pseudospin are given

Comparative chemomapping of phytoconstituents from different extracts of globe artichoke - Cynara scolymus L.

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Analysis of phytoconstituent profile of fenugreek - Trigonella foenum-graecum L. - seed extracts

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