In vivo and in vitro studies to identify the hypoglycaemic constituents of Momordica charantia wild variant WB24

Wild bitter melon (Momordica charantia Linn. var. abbreviata Ser.) extract and its bioactive components suppress Propionibacterium acnes-induced inflammation

“…abbreviata Seringe) is a wild variety of Momordica charantia and is consumed as both a vegetable and as folk medicine in Taiwan. Bitter melon is known to contain numerous components such as alkaloids, steroidal glucosides, phenolics (Krawinkel & Keding, 2006), lysophosphatidylcholines (Kobori et al, 2008), conjugated linolenic acid isomers (Chuang et al, 2006), and cucurbitane-type triterpenoids (Chang et al, 2011;Hsu, Hsieh, Kuo, & Huang, 2011). 1-R-linolenoyl-LPC and 1-linoleoyl-LPC has been shown to negatively regulate TNF-a production in endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated RAW264.7 macrophages (Kobori et al, 2008).…”

Constituents of the stem of Cucurbita moschata exhibit antidiabetic activities through multiple mechanisms

“…The obtained powder was extracted with methanol (3 × 120 L) at room temperature (7 d each) (Chang et al, 2006(Chang et al, , 2011. The combined methanol extract was evaporated under reduced pressure to afford a black residue, which was suspended in H2O (6 L), and then partitioned sequentially, using ethyl acetate (EA) and n-butanol (3 × 4 L) as the solvents.…”

“…Glucose uptake assays in insulinresistant FL83B cells were performed by treating cells with 20 ng/ mL TNF-α for 5 h, followed by treating the cells with the investigated chemical and 100 nM insulin for 5 h. At 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 h after the addition of the chemical, glucose concentration of the culture medium was assayed, as previously described (Chang et al, 2011). For assays using normal FL83B cells, experiments were performed similarly except that cells were not pretreated with TNF-α.…”

“…Proinflammatory cytokines induced by obesity such as tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) interfere with the insulin-signalling pathway by suppressing the tyrosine phosphorylation or expression of IRSs and insulin receptor, causing insulin resistance in cells (Hirabara et al, 2012). Thus, in previous studies, we have used TNF-α to induce insulin resistance in FL83B cells and have developed a screening method using insulin-resistant cells to identify potential hypoglycaemic compounds for treating type 2 diabetes (Chang et al, 2011;Cheng, Huang, Chang, Tsai, & Chou, 2008). In the current study, this cell-based method was used to identify and characterize the hypoglycaemic constituents in Cucurbita moschata.…”

The Antimicrobial Activities of Phenylbutyrates against <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>

“…17) BHK-21 cells, purchased from the Bioresource Collection and Research Centre, were grown and counted to 10000 cells in a 96-well microplate. The cells were then treated with various concentrations (0 to 20 mm) of butyrate, 2-PB, 3-PB and 4-PB for 24 h in quadruplicate.…”