PARTE UTILIZADA= Used part: Raíz.  

ACCIÓN FARMACOLÓGICA= Pharmacological action: Diurético (raíz), hipoglucemiante.  

COMPOSICIÓN QUÍMICA= Chemical composition: Alcaloides: En las hojas se encuentran: tecomina, tecomanina, tecostanina, tecostidina, actinidina, ácido antranílico, boschmiakina, skitantina, ácido antranílico, skatole, etc. En la corteza tecomina y tecomanina. Triterpenoides: alfa-amirina, ác. Ursólico y ác.oleánico. Compuestos fenólicos: ác. clorogénico, ác. slícilico, ác. protocatéquico, ác. cafeico, ác. gentísico, ác. vainíllico, ác. Sináptico y ác. O-cumárico. Glucósidos Iridoides: amarélósido, plantarenalósido, stansiósido. Flavonoides: cianina, cianidina, rutinósido y ácido siríngico. Otros: azúcares (dextrina, glucosa, fructosa, sacarosa y xilosa), resina ácida, taninos, principios pécticos, lapachol (tallo), inositol, polisacáridos (sacaran C), etc.  

ZONA GEOGRÁFICA= Geografical zone: desde Estados Unidos hasta N. de Argentina. 

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

DNA was isolated from leaves of 10 plant species (Cuminum cyminum, Vigna aconitifolia, Pennisetum typhoides, Tecoma stans, Lycium barbarum, Anogeissus acuminata, Tecomella undulata, Zizyphus mauritiana, Phoenix dactylifera, and Eruca sativa) and a fungus (Fusarium oxysporum) using the CTAB method. Three fixing solutions (alcohol, alcohol and chloroform, alcohol and EDTA) were used to produce high molecular weight DNA (> 40 kb). DNA quality and quantity was comparable for the 3 fixing solutions and liquid nitrogen grinding. Adding chloroform or EDTA to fixing solutions offered no advantage over absolute alcohol. Isolated DNA was suitable for RAPD analysis, restriction digestion, and cloning. This method does not require liquid nitrogen for fixation, grinding, or storage at -80°C, making it advantageous over other common protocols.

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

Methanolic ext. of roots of Tecoma stans (family Bignoniaceae) was analyzed for antibacterial activity against four clin. isolates.  Results against the selected microorganism Psuedomonas aeruginosa, show that the zone of inhibition was moderately higher than the other three selected microorganisms.

 Medicinal herbs are steadily increasing in complementary use for chronic and alterative therapies.  The health risks assocd. with herbal supplements have therefore been identified as a top research priority.  Tecoma stans (Tronadora), a Bignoniaceae plant, is a herbal drug traditionally consumed as tea in South America for the control of diabetes.  It contains the alkaloids of tecomine and tecostanine which were shown as functional compds. responsible for hypoglycemic activity.  However, the side effects of aq. exts. of this herbal tea were not reported.  In this study, studies sought to evaluate the cytotoxicity of water exts. from T. stans in human hepatoblastoma (HepG2).  Toxic effects of T. stans were concn.- and time-dependent in the presence and absence of fetal bovine serum (FBS).  Cells were incubated for £ 72-h with varying concns. of herbal exts. (60-100%), cytotoxicity was detd. spectrophotometrically by MTT and reported in terms of % cell viability.  For IC50 assay (24 h exposure), cytotoxicity was found at concn. of 60-100%.  Evaluation of the effects of T. stans and Brickellia cavanillesi (Asteraceae) in combination revealed that exts. of both herbal exts.' nontoxic levels of T. stans significantly reduced cell viability in a time-dependent manner.  Further studies are needed regarding the identification, toxicity, and mol. mechanism of action of active compds., as well as their cytotoxicity to other cell lines following exposure to both single and combined herbal exts. of these plants with anti-diabetic properties.

The combined Et acetate and methanolic exts. of the roots of Tecoma stans gave two iridoid compds., 5-deoxystantioside, plantarenaloside when subjected to chromatog. techniques.  In addn. to iridoid compds. luteolin, lupeol acetate and beta-sitosterol were also isolated.  The structures of these compds. were detd. by spectral means (1H NMR, IR, UV, MS).  Further the exts. and the isolates were subjected to antimicrobial studies, which showed moderate activity.

1) TOURSARKISSIAN, Martín. Plantas medicinales de Argentina : sus nombres botánicos, vulgares, usos y distribución geográfica. Buenos Aires : Hemisferio Sur, 1980, p. 15.

2) ALONSO, Jorge R. Tratado de fitomedicina : bases clínicas y farmacológicas. Buenos Aires : ISIS, 1998, p. 583.

3) SHARMA, R., et al. Isolating plant genomic DNA without liquid nitrogen. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter. 2003, vol.21, nº1, p.43-50.
 
4) RAMESH, T.; ANUSHA, V.; KUMAR, A. Ravi. Antibacterial activity of methanolic extract of roots of Tecoma stans. International Journal of Chemical Sciences. 2009, vol.7, nº1, p.6-8.
 
5) ZHU, Jinqiu; VINAS, Rene; SMITH, Ernest E. In vitro evaluation of human liver cancer cells and the potential cytotoxicity of Tecoma stans (Bignoniaceae) and Brickellia cavanillesi (Asteraceae) both single and in combination. Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry. 2008, vol.90, nº4, p.801-808.
 
6) GANAPATY, S., et al. Iridoid compounds and antimicrobial activity of the roots of Tecoma stans (L) Juss. Asian Journal of Chemistry. 2008, vol.20, nº6, p.4493-4497.