Browsing by Author "Veglio, F."
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Item Open Access In vitro biocompatibility of a new hydrogel with Crocin, powerful antioxidant found in Crocus Sativus L. flowers(Firenze University Press, 2013) Zeka, K.; Ruparelia, K. C.; Arroo, R. R. J.; Barnardi, S.; Corradini, V.; Pajewski, L. A.; Veglio, F.; Continenza, M. A.Recently, attention has been paid to the identification of natural antioxidants from the petals of Crocus S. flowers that are normally considered waste[1]. The antioxidant activities are mainly attributed to carotenoid compounds, like crocin. Scientific evidences demonstrate that this kind of compounds are among the most important natural plant sources of antioxidant activity in the human diet, protecting the body against damages caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS). This antioxidant was extracted using methanol and ethanol. In this experiment, it was used a new hydrogel consisting of three polymers - Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), Agar and Polyethylene glycol (PEG) – and Crocin, mixed, reticulated and then sterilized by gamma irradiation at 25 kGy. For the in vitro experimental protocol, it was used a primary culture of fibroblasts taken from the subcutaneous tissue of a newborn mice, seeding the cells on a little square (1cm2 area) of both kinds of hydrogel. As the ISO protocol prescribes, the experiments were repeated 3 times for each kind of hydrogel, stopping the culture at the 3rd, 7th and 14th day after the seeding. For all steps, 3 Petri dishes were used as controls without biomaterials. At fixed deadline, all Petri dishes were stained, using the Wright method for cell counting and morphological evaluations. The microscopic analysis revealed the complete biocompatibility of the hydrogel. The Petri dishes with this kind of new hydrogel has an overproduction of collagen from the fibroblasts. The presence of this natural important compound in saffron petals, now offers new possibilities for the best use of the hole flower. This study is still in progress.Item Metadata only Isolation, Purification and Identification of Cocin and Kaempferol, Powerful Antioxidants in Crocus sativus L. Flowers.(Phytochemical Society of Europe, 2014) Zeka, K.; Ruparelia, K. C.; Androutsopoulos, V. P.; Bhambra, Avninder S.; Pajewski, L. A.; Veglio, F.; Continenza, M. A.; Arroo, R. R. J.Crocus sativus L. is an autumn-flowering geophyte extensively grown and cultivated in countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Iran and India. Commercially used saffron is dried stigma which has been used for some of its physiologic properties for centuries. Recently, attention has been paid to the identification of new sources of safe natural antioxidants from Crocus sativus flowers that are normally wasted. The antioxidant activities are mainly attributed to their carotenoid and flavonoid compounds, like Crocin and Kaempferol. These bioactive compounds have important biological activities; cancer and prevention and treatment of heart, vascular disease. Crocin is a diester formed from the disaccharide gentiobiose and the dicarboxylic acid crocetin and is known to inhibit proliferation and nucleic acid synthesis. It induces apoptosis in the human tongue squamous cell carcinoma cell line Tca8113 and hepatocarcinoma. Kaempferol is a natural flavonoid. Numerous reports have shown that Kaempferol and/or Kaempferol glycosides induce cell death in a variety of cancer cells from different tissues. Many of these reports have shown that it is effective in reducing vascular endothelial growth factor expression in ovarian and colon cancer cells. Extraction of these antioxidants was carried out using methanol and ethanol in different concentrations for each compound. Isolation and purification, in comparison with authentic standards, was achieved by Flash Column Chromatography and Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). Crocin and Kaempferol were chemically characterised by infrared (IR), mass spectroscopy (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H & 13C NMR). The in-vitro cytotoxicity towards cancer cell lines will also be investigated. The presence of these important groups of medicinal natural products in saffron’s flowers that were considered waste, now paves the way of new biological effects.Item Metadata only Kaempferol, a powerful antioxidant from Crocus sativus L. flowers: an in vitro study(Firenze University Press, 2014) Zeka, K.; Ruparelia, K. C.; Arroo, R. R. J.; Bernardi, S.; Pajewski, L. A.; Veglio, F.; Continenza, M. A.Item Open Access Petals of Crocus sativus L. as a potential source of the antioxidants crocin and kaempferol.(Elsevier, 2015-05-20) Zeka, K.; Ruparelia, K. C.; Continenza, M. A.; Stagos, D.; Veglio, F.; Arroo, R. R. J.Saffron fromthe province of L'Aquila, in the Abruzzo region of Italy, is highly prized and has been awarded a formal recognition by the European Union with EU Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status. Despite this, the saffron regions are abandoned by the younger generations because the traditional cultivation of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is labour intensive and yields only one crop of valuable saffron stamens per year. Petals of the saffron Crocus have had additional uses in traditional medicine and may add value to the crops for local farmers. This is especially important because the plant only flowers between October andNovember, and farmers will need to make the best use of the flowers harvested in this period. Recently, the petals of C. sativus L., which are considered a wastematerial in the production of saffron spice,were identified as a potential source of natural antioxidants. The antioxidants crocin and kaempferol were purified by flash column chromatography, and identified by thin layer chromatography (TLC), HPLC–DAD, infrared (IR), and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H & 13C NMR) spectroscopy. The antioxidant activity was determined with the ABTS and DPPH tests. The antioxidant activities are mainly attributed to carotenoid and flavonoid compounds, notably glycosides of crocin and kaempferol. We found in dried petals 0.6% (w/w) and 12.6 (w/w) of crocin and kaempferol, respectively. Petals of C. sativus L. have commercial potential as a source for kaempferol and crocetin glycosides, natural compounds with antioxidant activity that are considered to be the active ingredients in saffron-based herbal medicine.Item Metadata only Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) Flowers: a good source of Crocin & Kaempferol.(CSIC, 2015-04) Zeka, K.; Micucci, M.; Ruparelia, K. C.; Androutsopoulos, V. P.; Budriesi, Roberta; Continenza, M. A.; Veglio, F.; Arroo, R. R. J.Crocus sativus L. is an autumn-flowering geophyte extensively cultivated in countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Iran and India. The only part used of the whole plant is its dried stigmas which have been used as a valuable spice and traditional medicine for centuries; the other parts of the flowers are normally wasted. Recently, attention was paid to the identification of natural antioxidants from the petals. The antioxidant activities were mainly attributed to carotenoid and flavonoid compounds, kaempferol and crocins. These bioactive compounds have important biological activities including prevention of heart and vascular disease, oocyte prevention and cancer. Crocins are glycosides of the carotenoid crocetin which is known to inhibit nucleic acid synthesis and cell proliferation. Numerous reports have shown that kaempferol and/or its glycosides induce cell death in a variety of cancer cells from different tissues. The antioxidants were extracted using aqueous alcohol followed by flash column chromatography purification, and analysed using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) by comparison with authentic standards. Crocin and kaempferol were further characterised by infrared (IR), mass spectroscopy (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (1H & 13C NMR). Kaempferol was assayed for toxicity towards MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines and multi-drug resistant MDA-MB468 breast cancer cell lines and MCF10A a normal breast cell line. In addition to their antitumor activity, in vitro biological assays have been exerted in order to assess the cardiovascular effects of the compounds. The cardiac activity assays, on guinea-pig left and right atria, as well as their relaxant activity on guinea-pig vascular (aorta) and nonvascular (ileum) smooth muscle were studied. The presence of very high amounts of antioxidants, notably of kaempferol, in saffron petals makes that we should considered them an important resource rather than a waste product.