Essential Oils in Desert Plants I. Physical Constants

Adams, Maxwell; Billinghurst, Ruth

doi:10.1021/ja01410a041

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Essential oils are assumed to provide resistance against drought. For example, the concentration of the essential oil of Artemisia tridentata, a desert plant growing in western US, was found to be 0.04% in May, 0.23% in June, 0.39% in July, and 0.83% in September, suggesting that these variations reflect a drought resistance developed by the plant [8]. However, essential oils comprise usually less than 1% of dried plant material and neither manifest the entire plant's capability to cope with the environment nor the plant's entire phytochemical reservoir of valuable components.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticancer attributes of desert plants

et al. 2012

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The ever-increasing emergence of the resistance of mammalian tumor cells to chemotherapy and its severe side effects reduces the clinical efficacy of a large variety of anticancer agents that are currently in use. Thus, despite the significant progress in cancer therapeutics in the last decades, the need to discover and to develop new, alternative, or synergistic anticancer agents remains. Cancer prevention or chemotherapy based on bioactive fractions or pure components derived from desert plants with known cancer-inhibiting properties suggests promising alternatives to current cancer therapy. Plants growing on low nutrient soils and/or under harsh climatic conditions, such as extreme temperatures, intense solar radiation, and water scarcity, are particularly susceptible to attack from reactive oxygen species and have evolved efficient antioxidation defense systems. The many examples of desert plants displaying anticancer effects as presented here indicates that the same defensive secondary metabolites protecting them against the harsh environment may also play a protective or a curative role against cancer, as they also do against diabetes, neurodegenerative, and other acute and chronic diseases. The present review highlights a plethora of studies focused on the antineoplastic properties of desert plants and their prinicipal phytochemicals, such as saponins, flavonoids, tannins, and terpenes. Although many desert plants have been investigated for their antitumor properties, there are many that still remain to be explored - a challenge for the prospective cancer therapy of the future.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticancer attributes of desert plants

et al. 2012

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“…Some thirty varieties of Artemisia have been distinguished in these districts, but tridentata is by far the most common. Preliminary investigations (1,2) have shown that the leaves and green twigs contain about one per cent of a steam-volatile oil which contains -pinene, cineole or eucalyptole, 1-camphor, and other substances which were unidentified. In view of the importation of large quantities of eucalyptus oil and camphor, as well as the incomplete identification of the components of the oil, it appeared desirable to investigate the oil further.Adams and Billinghurst (1) have found that the maximum yield of oil was obtained in the late summer or fall.…”

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confidence: 99%