PARTE UTILIZADA=Used part: Planta entera. 

ACCIÓN FARMACOLÓGICA= Pharmacological action: Emoliente. 

COMPOSICIÓN QUÍMICA= Chemical composition: Um estudo fitoquímico com plantas de Amaranthus spinosus encontrou em suas folhas espinasterol e uma saponina derivada do ácido oleanólico. 

ZONA GEOGRÁFICA= Geografical zone: Pantropical. 

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

The Amaranthus viridis agglutinin (AVA) gene from Amaranthus viridis L. was cloned by PCR. The gene is 1 831 bp long, include one 922 bp intron and two exons of 212 bp and 697 bp. The AVA gene with and without intron were inserted downstream of 35S promoter into a vector pBI121 to get pBI121AVA-GUS and pBI121AVAc-GUS vector resp. After transformed into tobacco (Nicotinana tobatum) plant with leaf disk transformation. Results of PCR and GUS detection showed that the transformants were transgenic tobacco plants. The results from insect bioassay with peach aphid (Myzus persicae) showed that the transgenic plants of pBI121AVA-GUS and pBI121AVAc-GUS were aphid resistant, evidenced by a 60.81%.apprx.50.63% redn. in insect population d., some plants were more than 97%. AVA gene of aphid resistance is regarded as a new member in Amaranthus lectin families. 

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) A lectin from the seeds of Amaranthus viridis has been purified by affinity chromatog. on asialofetuin-linked amino activated silica.  Amaranthus viridis lectin (AVL) has a native mol. mass of 67 kDa.  It is a homodimer composed of two 36.6 kDa subunits.  The lectin gave a single band in non-denaturing PAGE at pH 4.5 and pH 8.3 and a single peak on HPLC size exclusion and cation exchange columns.  The purified lectin was specific for both T-antigen and N-acetyl-D-lactosamine, markers for various carcinomas, in addn. to N-acetyl-D-galactosamine, asialofetuin and fetuin.  This lectin reacted strongly with red blood cells (RBCs) from human ABO blood groups and rat.  It also reacted with rabbit, sheep, goat and guinea pig RBCs.  The lectin is a glycoprotein having no metal ion requirement for its activity.  Denaturing agents such as urea, thiourea and guanidine-HCl had no effect on its activity when treated for 15 min.  AVL showed significant antiproliferative activity toward HB98 and P388D1 murine cancer cell lines.  It also exerted antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium oxysporum but not against Rhizoctonia solani, Trichoderma reesei, Alternaria solani and Fusarium graminearum.

2) From Amaranthus viridis L., three flavonoid compds. were isolated and identified as quercetin, isoquercetin, and rutin.  A triterpene saponin glycoside was also isolated and identified.  The saponin content was found to be 0.4%.  The aq., alc. and butanolic exts. possessed variable degrees of antiinflammatory, antipyretic and antihepatotoxic effects.  Only the aq. ext. showed an anthelmintic effect.

1) TOURSARKISSIAN, Martín. Plantas medicinales de Argentina : sus nombres botánicos, vulgares, usos y distribución geográfica. Buenos Aires : Hemisferio Sur, 1980, p.2.

2) LORENZI, Harri; MATOS, José de Abreu. Plantas medicinais no brasil: nativas e exóticas . Nova Odessa, SP: Instituto Plantarum, 2002. p. 43.

3) DENG, Zhi-nian; LI, Nan; WEI, Yuan-wen; LU, Wei-li; LI, Yang-rui. Cloning of AV A gene from Amaranthus viridis and effect of aphid resistance on transgenic tobacco plants. Ziran Kexueban. 2007, Vol.25, nº1, p.86-90.

4) KAUR, Navjot; DHUNA, Vikram; KAMBOJ, Sukhdev Singh; AGREWALA, Javed N.; SINGH, Jatinder.  A novel antiproliferative and antifungal lectin from Amaranthus viridis Linn seeds. Protein & Peptide Letters. 2006, Vol.13, nº9, p.897-905.
 
5) EL-HOSSARY, Ghanem A.; EL-SOFANY, Rabie H.; FARAG, Moh. A. Phytochemical and biological investigation of Amaranthus viridis L. growing in Egypt. Bulletin of the Faculty of Pharmacy (Cairo University). 2000, Vol.38, nº2, p.129-132.