Rheum ribes L. (rhubarb) is belonging to Polygonaceae, and its roots and fresh shoots are consumed as vegetable in Turkey. This plant is considered to be one of the most important pharmaceutical raw materials in Middle East. In this study, the antiradical, antimicrobial, cytotoxic and bioactive properties of water, ethanol, and methanol extracts of R. ribes stems were determined. R. ribes stems water, ethanol and methanol extracts are better scavenged ABTS^•+ (99.27, 99.91, and 99.88%), DPPH^• (83.11, 81.42, and 83.26%), and OH^• radicals (93.49, 94.21, 95.86%) than standard antioxidant BHA (95.32, 80.49, and 93.78%). Stems of R. ribes abundantly include bioactive compounds, dominated by rutin, catechin, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, α-tocopherol and vitamin D. These extracts show effective cytotoxic properties against PC-3, A2780, HCT-116 and MCF-7 cancer cell lines at 24h. It is found that R. ribes contain high amount important bioactive contents, and has effective antiradical and cytotoxic properties. Graphical Abstract

Apelin is an adipose tissue derived peptidergic hormone. In this study, 40 male Sprague–Dawley rats were used (four groups; n = 10). Apelin-13 at three different dosages (1, 5 and 50 μg/kg) was given intraperitoneally while the control group received vehicle the same route for a period of 14 days. In results, apelin-13 caused significant decreases in serum testosterone, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone levels (p < 0.05). Administration of apelin-13 significantly increased body weights, food intake, serum low-density lipoprotein and total cholesterol levels (p < 0.05), but caused significant decreases in high-density lipoprotein levels (p < 0.05). Serum glucose and triglyceride levels were not significantly altered by apelin-13 administration. Significant decreases in both uncoupling protein (UCP)-1 levels in the white and brown adipose tissues and UCP-3 levels in the biceps muscle (p < 0.05) were noted. The findings of the study suggest that apelin-13 may not only lead to obesity by increasing body weight but also cause infertility by suppressing reproductive hormones.

We investigated the cytotoxic effects of the newly synthesized cyclotriphosphazene derivatives on A2780 (ovarian), PC-3 and LNCaP (prostate) cancer cell lines. 4′-hydroxy-substituted-chalcone compounds (2–8) were reacted with diphenyl-cyclotriphosphazene (DPP) in the presence of acetone/K₂CO₃ in order to obtain novel cyclotriphosphazene compounds (DPP 2–8). The structures of DPP 2–8 were characterized by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, FT-IR, elemental analysis, ¹H, ¹³C-APT, and ³¹P NMR measurements. The thermal properties of all phosphazene compounds have been studied after synthesis and characterization procedure. The cytotoxic effects of DPP 2–8 were examined primarily by applying the MTT method based on the measurement of mitochondrial activity. In this regard, several phosphazene compounds have shown high chemotherapeutic effect at low dose (p < 0.05). When the cytotoxic effects of DPP 2–8 at doses of 1, 5, 25, 50 and 100 µM on A2780 cells were examined, it was observed that DPP-3, DPP-4, DPP-5 and DPP-7 were more effective than other derivatives suggested by their high Log IC₅₀ values (p < 0.05). The compounds DPP 2–8 possess cytotoxic activity against PC-3 and LNCaP cells (especially compounds DPP-4 and DPP-5, p < 0.05).