PARTE UTILIZADA= Used part: Partes aereas.

ACCIÓN FARMACOLÓGICA= Pharmacological action: desinfectante, antiinflamatorio. Para afecciones de la vista, irritaciones, conjuntivitis, supuraciones.

POSOLOGÍA= Posology: En decocción, una cucharada por taza de agua; dejar hervir 5 minutos. Se deja enfriar tapado. Se lava los ojos tres veces al día.

ZONA GEOGRÁFICA= Geografical zone: Europa

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

Euphrasia includes perennial or annual green parasitic plants, and has a disjunct bipolar distribution except for one transtropical connection across the high mountains of Oceania.  The disjunction is coupled with strikingly contrasting patterns of morphol. diversity between the southern and northern hemispheres, making it an exciting model to study processes of evolutionary diversification which shaped present floras.  We inferred the relationships among 51 species representing 14 of the 15 sections of the genus based on nrDNA ITS and cpDNA trnL intron, trnL-trnF and atpB-rbcL intergenic spacers.  Maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference support monophyly of the genus and of several intrageneric groups characterized by morphol., ploidy level, and geog. range.  Mol. phylogenetic dating using Bayesian "relaxed" clock methods suggests that the earliest Euphrasia radiations occurred min. 11-8 Mya with bipolarity being achieved 7-5 Mya.  Biogeog. analyses using explicit model-based approach inferred Eurasia as an ancestral area for the genus.  The most parsimonious reconstruction found by a dispersal-vicariance anal. requires 17 dispersals to account for the current biogeog. pattern and supports Eurasian origin for Euphrasia.  Both long-distance dispersal and across land vicariance can be invoked to explain the diversification in the genus, which experienced rapid radiations driven by new ecol. opportunities of the late Pliocene and Pleistocene but also retained a set of local endemic or relict species of an earlier origin.

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

The main compd. of the traditionally known herbal eye-remedy, Euphrasia rostkoviana Hayne (eyebright) is isolated in high purity, identified and quantified in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode with external calibration method using the isolated compd. as std.  For structure elucidation high-performance liq. chromatog. (HPLC)-electrospray ionization source (ESI)-tandem mass spectrometry, HPLC-ESI-time-of-flight, and NMR spectroscopy are used.  The main compd. is identified as acteoside, a phenyletanoid glycoside, exhibiting strong antioxidant activity.  Purity of the isolated compd. is over 97%, hence it is amenable to be used as std. for quantitation.  Acteoside content is 2.56 ± 0.19 g/100 g dry plant sample.  According to the method performance test results the concn.-response plot is linear (r2 = 0.997), precision and accuracy are all within acceptable range (highest RSD: 6.27%).  SPE and method recovery are good, 98.6% (RSD 1.56%, n = 3) and 91.0% (RSD 2.1%, n = 3), resp.  Detn. is carried out with a reliable, fast, characterized method, using a self produced std.  (c) 2011 Preston Publications.

1) Hierbas medicinales. Montevideo : Instituto Botánico La Selva, 2003, 64p.

2) GUSSAROVA, Galina, et al. Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the bipolar Euphrasia (Orobanchaceae): Recent radiations in an old genus. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 2008, vol.48, nº2, p.444-460.
 
3) BLAZICS, Balazs, et al. Identification and LC-MS-MS Determination of Acteoside, the Main Antioxidant Compound of Euphrasia Rostkoviana, Using the Isolated Target Analyte as External Standard. Journal of Chromatographic Science. 2011, vol.49, nº3, p.203-208.