Nonsaponifiable lipid components of the pollen of elder (Sambucus nigra L.)

Analytical strategies for discriminating archeological fatty substances from animal origin

Mass spectrometry (MS) is an essential tool in the field of biomolecular archeology to characterize amorphous organic residues preserved in ancient ceramic vessels. Animal fats of various nature and origin, namely subcutaneous fats of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, and also of dairy products, are those most commonly identified in organic residues in archeological pottery. Fats and oils of marine origin have also been revealed. Since the first applications of MS coupled with gas chromatography (GC) in archeology at the end of 1980s, several developments have occurred, including isotopic determinations by GC coupled to isotope ratio MS and identification of triacylglycerols (TAGs) structure by soft ionization techniques (ESI and APCI). The combination of these methods provides invaluable insights into the strategies of exploitation of animal products in prehistory. In this review, I focus on the analytical strategies based upon MS that allow elucidation of the structure of biomolecular constituents and determination of their isotopic values to identify the nature of animal fat components preserved in highly complex and degraded archeological matrices.

Anticancer and antithrombin activity of Russian plants

A chromogenic bioassay was utilized to determine the antithrombin activity of the methylene chloride and methanol extracts prepared from forty-five plants of Russia. Mouse leukemia cells (L1210) were utilized to screen these extracts for activity against cancer. The results indicated that eight plant extracts demonstrated 90% or higher activity in the inhibition of thrombin. Also, nine methanol extracts demonstrated activity of 90% or higher in the inhibition of mouse leukemia L1210 cells. The methanol extracts of Quercus robur and Sanguisorba officinalis demonstrated high activity against both thrombin and cancer.