Project description:The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Buddleja alternifolia, a perennial garden plant and common medicinal plant is widely distributed in west China. The plastome is 154,357 bp in length, with one large single copy region of 85,406 bp, one small single copy region of 18,071 bp, and two inverted repeat (IR) regions of 25,440 bp. It contains 130 genes, including 85 protein-coding genes, 8 ribosomal RNA, and 37 transfer RNA. Phylogenetic tree shows that B. alternifolia formed one clade with Buddleja colvilei and Buddleja sessilifolia. The published plastome of B. alternifolia provides significant insight for elucidating the phylogenetic relationship of taxa genus Buddleja.
Project description:BackgroundPeroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) belong to the nuclear receptors superfamily and are transcription factors activated by specific ligands. Liver X receptors (LXR) belong to the nuclear hormone receptors and have been shown to play an important role in cholesterol homeostasis. From the previous screening of several medicinal plants for potential partial PPARγ agonists, the extracts of Cornus alternifolia were found to exhibit promising bioactivity. In this paper, we report the isolation and structural elucidation of four new compounds and their potential as ligands for PPAR.MethodsThe new compounds were extracted from the leaves of C. alternifolia and fractionated by high-performance liquid chromatography. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic evidence and analysis of their hydrolysis products.ResultsThree new iridoid glycosides including an iridolactone, alternosides A-C (1-3), a new megastigmane glycoside, cornalternoside (4) and 10 known compounds, were obtained from the leaves of C. alternifolia. Kaempferol-3-O-β-glucopyranoside (5) exhibited potent agonistic activities for PPARα, PPARγ and LXR with EC50 values of 0.62, 3.0 and 1.8 μM, respectively.ConclusionsWe isolated four new and ten known compounds from C. alternifolia, and one known compound showed agonistic activities for PPARα, PPARγ and LXR.General significanceCompound 1 is the first example of a naturally occurring iridoid glycoside containing a β-glucopyranoside moiety at C-6.
| S-EPMC3482494 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The complete chloroplast genome of Buddleja officinalis Maxim.
Project description:Influenza virus causes high morbidity among the infected population annually and occasionally the spread of pandemics. Melaleuca alternifolia Concentrate (MAC) is an essential oil derived from a native Australian tea tree. Our aim was to investigate whether MAC has any in vitro inhibitory effect on influenza virus infection and what mechanism does the MAC use to fight the virus infection. In this study, the antiviral activity of MAC was examined by its inhibition of cytopathic effects. In silico prediction was performed to evaluate the interaction between MAC and the viral haemagglutinin. We found that when the influenza virus was incubated with 0.010% MAC for one hour, no cytopathic effect on MDCK cells was found after the virus infection and no immunofluorescence signal was detected in the host cells. Electron microscopy showed that the virus treated with MAC retained its structural integrity. By computational simulations, we found that terpinen-4-ol, which is the major bioactive component of MAC, could combine with the membrane fusion site of haemagglutinin. Thus, we proved that MAC could prevent influenza virus from entering the host cells by disturbing the normal viral membrane fusion procedure.
Project description:Melaleuca alternifolia is commonly known as the medicinal tea tree. The complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence is 160,104?bp in length, with a quantitative molecule structure comprising two copies of inverted repeats (IRa and IRb) of 26,737?bp separated by a large single copy (LSC) of 88,151bp, a small single copy (SSC) of 18,479?bp. A total of 131 genes were identified including 84 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, eight rRNA genes and two pseudogene (?ycf1, ?infA), respectively. Phylogenomic analysis suggests that M. alternifolia is closely related to the rest species of Myrtaceae with strong bootstrap values.