Disease relevance of Acorus

• Treatment of methylmagnesium iodide with (E)-2',4',5'-trimethoxycinnamaldehyde (2), an oxidized product of abundantly available toxic (Z)-phenylpropanoid (1) of Acorus calamus, gave (E)-4-(2',4',5'-trimethoxyphenyl)but-3-en-2-ol (3) which upon dehydration with copper sulphate/silica gel under microwave irradiation for 3 min afforded 4 in 58% yield [1].

High impact information on Acorus

• Phylogenetic analysis of rbcL sequences identifies Acorus calamus as the primal extant monocotyledon [2].
• This protocol was used to determine the beta-asarone content of Acorus calamus rhizome of a diploid variety harvested from the wetlands of the United States and the triploid variety from India obtained commercially [3].
• In addition to a number of known compounds, four new phenylpropanes isoacoramone, (cis) epoxyasarone, (threo) 1',2'-dihydroxyasarone and (erythro) 1',2'-dihydroxyasarone were obtained from the roots of Acorus tatarinowii ("Shi-Chang-Pu" in Chinese) [4].
• NMDA recepter-mediated neuroprotection by essential oils from the rhizomes of Acorus gramineus [5].
• Two novel lectins were purified from rhizomes of two sweet flag species, namely Acorus calamus (Linn.) and Acorus gramineus (Solandin Ait.) by affinity chromatography on mannose linked epoxy-activated Sepharose 6B [6].

Associations of Acorus with chemical compounds

• One step conversion of toxic beta-asarone from Acorus calamus into 1-(2,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-1,2-dihydroxypropane and asaronaldehyde occurring in Piper clusii [7].
• Protective effect of acorus calamus against acrylamide induced neurotoxicity [8].
• The aim of this study was to evaluate the protective effect of both ethyl acetate and methanolic extract of Acorus calamus LINN against noise stress (30 d, 100 dBA/4h/d) induced changes in the rat brain [9].
• Acorus lectins were stable up to 55 degrees C, did not require metal ions for their activity and were also affected by high concentrations of denaturants like urea, thiourea and guanidine-HCl [6].
• The hexane fraction from methanol extract of Acorus calamus rhizome was the most effective, exhibiting LC50 and LC90 values of 0.04 mgcm(-2) and 0.09 mgcm(-2) respectively [10].

Gene context of Acorus

• The phylogenetic relationship of Acorus gramineus and three types of Acorus calamus was analyzed by comparing the 700 bp sequence of a 5S-rRNA gene spacer region [11].

References