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Origanum vulgare, known for its medicinal value, is officially accepted in many countries. The flowers and leaves are used globally in homeopathy. In Brazilian folk medicine, O. vulgare has been used to treat diabetes mellitus. This study evaluated the hypoglycemic activity of an infusion extract (RosCE) of commercially available O. vulgare leaves in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Oral administration of RosCE resulted in the reduction of blood glucose levels after the first day of treatment, compared to the diabetic control group. These results showed that RosCE displays hypoglycemic activity, which may be due to the combined effect of rosmarinic acid, and other minor compounds. Reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection was used to identify and quantify the major constituents of RosCE. This study presents evidence that supports the folkloric use of O. vulgare for the treatment of hyperglycemia, confirming the use of its infusion as an antidiabetic herbal medicine.

Hyptis pectinata (L.) Poit is a folk medicinal species in Northeast Brazil. In this work, seedlings of H. pectinata were cultured in vitro under diverse light quality spectra and under the influence of two distinct chemical elicitors, salicylic acid and silver nitrate (SN), at concentrations of 30 and 60 μM. Growth parameters, biomass and rosmarinic acid (RA) content were evaluated. RA may be associated with the functional properties of this plant. In the light quality experiments, the highest level of rosmarinic acid was found under red light (161.65 ± 8.64 μg g-1 DW (dry weight)) at 20 days (4.26-fold higher than the control white light). Among the evaluated elicitors, elicitation with 60 μM SN at 3 days and 30 μM SN at 6 days favored the highest rosmarinic acid content (6361.70 ± 216.96 and 4542.98 ± 92.53 μg g-1 DW, respectively), with relatively high biomass yield and a similar number of leaves and height as those of control seedlings. This approach is new for H. pectinata.

Vochysia divergens (Vochysiaceae) is considered an invasive species in the wetlands of the Brazilian Pantanal, which hinders the cultivation of agricultural species. In this study, we evaluated the chemical profile by HPLC-DAD (high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector) of leaves extracts from V. divergens seedlings inoculated with endophytic fungi isolated from V. divergens roots. These fungi were collected on dry (D) and wet (W) seasons in the Pantanal. The presence of tannin hexahydroxydiphenoyl (HHDP)-galloyl-glucose and flavone 3',5'-dimethoxy-luteolin were predominant in the seedlings inoculated with endophytic fungi W experiments at 100 and 80%, respectively. Likewise, flavone 3',5-dimethoxy-luteolin-7-O-β-glucoside showed a similar representation in the two evaluated periods, compared with 5-methoxy-luteolin, which was detected only in seedlings inoculated with W endophytic fungi. This approach is new to V. divergens, which has no scientific data on its in vitro elicitation, in the search for a better understanding of the ecological relationships of this species.