Myrtinols A-F : new anti-inflammatory peltogynoid flavonoid derivatives from the leaves of Australian Indigenous plant Backhousia myrtifolia

Our in-house ethnopharmacological knowledge directed our anti-inflammatory investigation into the leaves of Backhousia mytifolia. Bioassay guided isolation of the Australian indigenous plant Backhousia myrtifolia led to the isolation of six new rare peltogynoid derivatives named myrtinols A–F (1–6) along with three known compounds 4-O-methylcedrusin (7), 7-O-methylcedrusin (8) and 8-demethylsideroxylin (9). The chemical structures of all the compounds were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic data analysis, and absolute configuration was established using X-ray crystallography analysis. All compounds were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory activity by assessing the inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production and tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF-α) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon (IFN)-γ activated RAW 264.7 macrophages. A structure activity relationship was also established between compounds (1–6), noting promising anti-inflammatory potential by compounds 5 and 9 with an IC50 value of 8.51 ± 0.47 and 8.30 ± 0.96 µg/mL for NO inhibition and 17.21 ± 0.22 and 46.79 ± 5.87 µg/mL for TNF-α inhibition, respectively

Medicinal Plants of the Australian Aboriginal Dharawal People Exhibiting Anti-Inflammatory Activity

Chronic inflammation contributes to multiple ageing-related musculoskeletal and neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease. More recently, chronic neuroinflammation has been attributed to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease and autism-spectrum and obsessive-compulsive disorders. To date, pharmacotherapy of inflammatory conditions is based mainly on nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs which in contrast to cytokine-suppressive anti-inflammatory drugs do not influence the production of cytokines such as tumour necrosis factoror nitric oxide. However, their prolonged use can cause gastrointestinal toxicity and promote adverse events such as high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, and thrombosis. Hence, there is a critical need to develop novel and safer nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs possessing alternate mechanism of action. In this study, plants used by the Dharawal Aboriginal people in Australia for the treatment of inflammatory conditions, for example, asthma, arthritis, rheumatism, fever, oedema, eye inflammation, and inflammation of bladder and related inflammatory diseases, were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory activity in vitro. Ethanolic extracts from 17 Eucalyptus spp. (Myrtaceae) were assessed for their capacity to inhibit nitric oxide and tumor necrosis factor-production in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Eucalyptus benthamii showed the most potent nitric oxide inhibitory effect (IC 50 5.57 ± 1.4 g/mL), whilst E. bosistoana, E. botryoides, E. saligna, E. smithii, E. umbra, and E. viminali

Tristaenone A : a new anti-inflammatory compound isolated from the Australian Indigenous plant Tristaniopsis laurina

Inspired by ethnopharmacological knowledge, we conducted a bioassay-guided fractionation of the leaves of Tristaniopsis laurina which led to the discovery of a new anti-inflammatory compound, tristaenone A (1). The structure was elucidated by detailed spectroscopic data analysis, and the absolute configuration was established using X-ray crystallography analysis. Tristaenone A (1) suppressed LPS and IFN-γ-induced NO, TNF-α and IL-6 production in RAW 264.7 cells with IC50 values of 37.58 ± 2.45 μM, 80.6 ± 5.82 μM and 125.65 ± 0.34 μM, respectively. It also inhibited NF-κB nuclear translocation by 52.93 ± 14.14% at a concentration of 31.85 μM

From the bush to the brain : preclinical stages of ethnobotanical anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective drug discovery : an Australian example

The Australian rainforest is a rich source of medicinal plants that have evolved in the face of dramatic environmental challenges over a million years due to its prolonged geographical isolation from other continents. The rainforest consists of an inherent richness of plant secondary metabolites that are the most intense in the rainforest. The search for more potent and more bioavailable compounds from other plant sources is ongoing, and our short review will outline the pathways from the discovery of bioactive plants to the structural identification of active compounds, testing for potency, and then neuroprotection in a triculture system, and finally, the validation in an appropriate neuro-inflammatory mouse model, using some examples from our current research. We will focus on neuroinflammation as a potential treatment target for neurodegenerative diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s (PD), and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) for these plant-derived, anti-inflammatory molecules and highlight cytokine suppressive anti-inflammatory drugs (CSAIDs) as a better alternative to conventional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to treat neuroinflammatory disorders

Wiritjiribin : the first lyrebird

The article offers an analogous resemblance of the old woman Wiritjiribin, a wise grandmother who cares for the children in times of wildfires to the instincts of lyrebirds for survival during times of danger. It narrates on the incident of the wildfire and the immediate responses of human and animals to seek refuge and safety. It adds that even the wildlife has instincts to recognize the safe place to hide during times of trouble.3 page(s

Sensational pedagogies: Learning to be affected by country

Student capacities to actively listen, sense and feel are often relegated to lower order skills in an education system increasingly governed by measurable outcomes. While most school-based pedagogies focus their approach on cognition, this paper considers how we might make sense of the affective experiences that often resist the deep thinking, independent learning and explanation so often required of students. The guiding aim is to explore how affective learning can be better understood through an Indigenous Australian concept of Country. We apply the pedagogical work of Elizabeth Ellsworth, along with Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to explore ways in which sensation and affect are already a method of learning, but ones that are substantially under-valued in designed curricula. A series of interviews with senior Aboriginal people are presented to assist in understanding the various ways in which affect can lead to thought. The authors present three case studies to highlight how knowledge can be taught through affective experiences of Country

Featherlines : becoming human differently with earth others

Featherlines are the Aboriginal storylines of the great ancestral bird beings who traversed the Australian continent and continue to shape its living and non-living forms today. The research that underpins this chapter was carried out in D’harawal country of south western Sydney in eastern Australia. Here, at Yandelora the great Pelican ancestor begins its long journey through the country of many different language groups to join up the Bronze Winged Pigeon storyline, traversing the continent all the way to southern Australia. This linked storyline of Pelican and Bronze Winged Pigeon is a featherline, a storyline of bird creation ancestors. This chapter draws on the idea of the featherline to focus on the ways that birds shaped contemporary children’s experience of the Love Your Lagoons project. 300 children, their teachers and community educators participated in the project, walking to their local wetlands and incorporating their local wetlands into the school curriculum. In three of these schools birds were significant in shaping children’s experience, creating entangled relations with children and calling forth affective responses from children, teachers and researchers. These stories of becoming bird are brought into conversation with each other to illuminate the ways that birds shaped the methodological and pedagogical actions and meanings that enable us to learn to become human differently. In following the storyline of birds throughout this project, the featherlines of D’harawal country are evoked at the heart of the matter of our worldly methodological entanglements and their pedagogical enactments

Mudjil'dya'djurali dabuwa'wurrata (how the white waratah became red) : D'harawal storytelling and welcome to country "controversies"

The overarching purpose of this paper is to critically engage with non-Indigenous representations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Welcome to Country ceremonies, particularly within the conservative mainstream media and academic setting. The foundations of the paper will be drawn from both the critical Indigenous standpoint theories of white pathology by Moreton-Robinson (2015) and colonial storytelling by Behrendt (2016). Both these theories suggest that, too often, non-Indigenous representations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are more a reflection of non-Indigenous ideologies than accurate portrayals of Indigenous positionings. Further, an ancestral D'harawal Law Story will be utilized to reveal that Welcome to Country ceremonies, despite their contemporary adaptations under colonization, may be considered an essential contextual representation of Australia's true history prior to colonization, and thus should not be dismissed due to ideological misrepresentations or even tampered with by a colour-blind rhetoric

Sensational pedagogies : learning to be affected by country

Student capacities to actively listen, sense and feel are often relegated to lower order skills in an education system increasingly governed by measurable outcomes. While most school-based pedagogies focus their approach on cognition, this paper considers how we might make sense of the affective experiences that often resist the deep thinking, independent learning and explanation so often required of students. The guiding aim is to explore how affective learning can be better understood through an Indigenous Australian concept of Country. We apply the pedagogical work of Elizabeth Ellsworth, along with Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to explore ways in which sensation and affect are already a method of learning, but ones that are substantially under-valued in designed curricula. A series of interviews with senior Aboriginal people are presented to assist in understanding the various ways in which affect can lead to thought. The authors present three case studies to highlight how knowledge can be taught through affective experiences of Country

Aboriginal identity, world views, research and the story of the Burra'gorang

In recent times there has been a growing recognition that some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities have been harmed and even divided by those who question their very right to identify as ‘Indigenous or not’ (Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson 2016 ; New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group [NSW AECG] 2011 ). Numerous scholars have suggested that such ‘questions’ are an unfortunate extension of the continual epistemological violence (a pressure on ways of knowing) that has sought to eradicate the diverse world views, histories, and knowledges of our peoples since colonisation (Bodkin 2013a ; Moreton-Robinson 2011 ; Nakata 2012 ), and that they result in the emergence of stereotypical accusations of ‘inauthenticity’, ‘wanna-be-Aborigines’, ‘welfare-blacks’, ‘fragmentation’ and ‘cultural absurdity’ (Behrendt 2006 ). It is the purpose of this chapter to highlight the existence of this form of epistemological and identity-based violence and explain how it threatens our communities. In addition, such violence will be challenged by focusing on the strength of diverse world views, knowledges and unique stories that exist within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities today. We also offer you a traditional D’harawal Law Story as the central case study within this chapter. This Law Story holds valuable insights that may guide individuals and communities towards a stronger and more resilient future