DIVERSIDAD GENÉTICA Y MEJORAMIENTO DE PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants and improvement of medicinal herbs

The largest family of flowering plants Asteraceae (Compositae) is found to contain 12 major lineages rather than 5 as previously suggested. Five of these lineages heretofore had been circumscribed in tribe Mutisieae (Cichorioideae), a taxon shown by earlier mol. studies to be paraphyletic and to include some of the deepest divergences of the family. Combined analyses of 10 chloroplast DNA loci by different phylogenetic methods yielded highly congruent well-resolved trees with 95% of the branches receiving moderate to strong statistical support. A strategy of sampling genera identified by morphol. studies as anomalous, supported by broader character sampling than previous studies, resulted in identification of several novel clades. The generic compns. of subfamilies Carduoideae, Gochnatioideae, Hecastocleidoideae, Mutisioideae, Pertyoideae, Stifftioideae, and Wunderlichioideae are novel in Asteraceae systematics and the taxonomy of the family has been revised to reflect only monophyletic groups. These results contradict earlier hypotheses that early divergences in the family took place on and spread from the Guayana Highlands (Pantepui Province of northern South America) and raise new hypotheses about how Asteraceae dispersed out of the continent of their origin. Several nodes of this new phylogeny illustrate the vast differential in success of sister lineages suggesting focal points for future study of species diversification. The results also provide a backbone exemplar of Asteraceae for supertree construction. Sequence data are deposited in GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ under accession nos. EU243147-EU243239, EU243242-EU243334, and EU384938-EU385604. 

ÚLTIMOS AVANCES EN LA QUÍMICA Y ACTIVIDADES BACTERIOLÓGICAS EN LAS PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants, last advances on chemistry and bacteria activities on the medicinal herbs

1) Ethanolic crude exts. from the roots of Chaptalia nutans, traditionally used in Brazilian folk medicine, were screened against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using the disk diffusion test technique.  S. aureus with 14 mm inhibition zone was considered susceptible.  E. coli and P. aeruginosa without such a zone were considered resistant.  As a result of this finding, the ethanolic crude ext. was fractionated on silica gel column chromatog. into 5 fractions.  The Et acetate fraction was active against S. aureus and Bacillus subtilis.  Further column chromatog. sepn. of the Et acetate fraction afforded 30 fractions, which were assayed against S. aureus.  Fractions 16 and 17 showed inhibition zones with S. aureus, indicating the presence of active compds., and were subjected to purifn. by repeated preparative thin layer chromatog.  The pure compd. 7-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-nutanocoumarin inhibited B. subtilis and S. aureus at concns. of 62.5 mg/mL and 125 mg/mL, resp.  The antibacterial property of C. nutans appears to have justified its use for the treatment of wounds, which are contaminated through bacterial infections.
 

PARTE UTILIZADA= Used part: Raíz. 

ACCIÓN FARMACOLÓGICA= Pharmacological action: Resolutivo (oftalmias), anticatarral, antiblenorrágico, antifebril, secante, diurético, balsámico, febrífugo, resolutivo. 

COMPOSICIÓN QUÍMICA= Chemical composition: Se ha registrado la presencia del ácido parasórbico, 3alfa-hidroxi-5-metilvalerolactona, en partes aéreas y prunasina en las hojas (Dominguez, et al., 1988; Fikenscher & Hegnauer, 1977). 

ZONA GEOGRÁFICA= Geografical zone: América. 

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Origen:
Originaria del continente americano, se distribuye de México a Sur América y el Caribe (ADAMS, 1972; MARTINEZ, 1979), en matorrales húmedos o secos o bosques abiertos, frecuente en bosques de pino, praderas bien drenadas, orillas de caminos, asociada a vegetación perturbada de bosques tropicales subperennifolios y a veces en campos abiertos, desde el nivel del mar hasta 2,000 m s.n.m. (LUNDELL, 1937; CLEWELL, 1975; NASH, 1976; INI, 1994). En Panamá se encuentra en Bocas Del Toro, área del Canal, Coclé, Colón, Darién, Herrera, Los Santos, Panamá, Kunayala y Veraguas (CORREA, et al, 2004).

Usos etnomédicos y modo de empleo:
En Centro América y el Caribe, la decocción de la planta con raíz es un remedio comúnmente usado para tratar catarro pulmonar, asma, bronquitis, convulsiones, tos, gonorrea, para aliviar el parto (MORTON, 1981), para dolores de muelas, nervios y disentería (INI, 1994; HOUSE, et al, 1995), como resolutivo en las oftalmías, para los catarros pulmonares (ALCORN, 1984; ROIG, 1992). En Colombia las hojas secas se usan para detener hemorragias e inducir el sueño y el cocimiento de las raíces se usan para combatir las lombrices intestinales (CORREA & BERNAL, 1990); en Brasil la infusión de la raíz se usa para fiebres, sífilis (TORRADO TRUITI & SARRAGIOTTO, 1998). En Costa Rica, la infusión de hojas secas se utiliza como antiinflamatorio (BADILLA, et al, 1999) y en México, las hojas secas, por vía externa se usan para el dolor de muela y las infecciones en la piel y calambres (HEINRICH, 1992, SVETAZ, et al, 2010). Mas propiedades en el libro.

Origin

Jamaica

Folk medicinal uses

Browne, 'It is reckoned an excellent diuretic and is used as such by many people'. Sloane believed the decoction to be of value for colic and wind, colds, convulsions; as a drink for women at childbirth and to provoke the menses. More recently Beckwith reports the use of the leaf, either boiled or fresh, ground up with oil or fat as a dressing for boils.

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Origin

Jamaica

Folk medicinal uses

This plant (usually called "whiteback") is still used to make tea. Application of the juice to wounds is an old remedy.

1) TOURSARKISSIAN, Martín.  Plantas medicinales de Argentina : sus nombres botánicos, vulgares, usos y distribución geográfica. Buenos Aires : Hemisferio Sur, 1980, p.29.

2) 270 (doscientos setenta) plantas medicinales iberoamericanas. Santiago de Bogotá : CYTED-SECAB, 1995, p.100.

3) PANERO, Jose L.; FUNK V. A. The value of sampling anomalous taxa in phylogenetic studies: Major clades of the Asteraceae revealed. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 2008, vol.47, nº2, p.757-782.
 
4) TRUITI, Maria da Conceicao Torrado, et al. In vitro antibacterial activity of a 7-O-b -D-glucopyranosyl-nutanocoumarin from Chaptalia nutans (Asteraceae). Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. 2003, vol.98, nº2, p.283-286.

5) Gupta, Mahabir P.; Santana, Ana Isabel; Espinosa, Alex/ Plantas medicinales de Panamá. sd: sd. - p. sd.

6) Asprey, G.F; Phylis Thornton/ Medicinal plants of Jamaica. Parts I & II. – p. 9.

7) Asprey, G.F; Phylis Thornton/ Medicinal plants of Jamaica. Parts III & IV. – p. 53.