“
“The effects of Piper guineense seeds (Piperaceae) on conception of mice (Mus musculus) were investigated.

Thirty sexually mature mice (3 weeks old) were distributed in plastic cages with each cage containing two females and one male animal. Similar cages and same number of animals were set up as controls. Animals were fed a mixture of feed with extracts of P. guineense seed at various test concentrations (10, 20, 30 and 40 mg/kgBW). Controls were fed similar ration of normal diet without extract. The experiment lasted for 42 days, consisting of 21 days of feeding with extracts with males and females mice staying together in cages, and 21 days of feeding without extracts but male and female animals kept in separate cages to stop further sexual behavior.

All the female mice in Selleck AZD9291 MK-1775 inhibitor the control cages gave birth to young ones between the 28 and 35th day of the test periods but no animal in the test group showed signs of pregnancy and none had implantation of fetus in the womb. Histopathology sections of testis and ovary of test animals showed inflamed cells of the gonads compared to normal cells in the controls. Three alkaloidal amides (Piperanine, Delta alpha,beta-dihydrowasanine and isobutyl-(E,E)-2,4-decadienamide) were isolated by HPLC analysis of the extracts. On the bases of the results obtained, it was concluded that seeds of P. guineense contain substances that interferes with conception in mice.”
“Evaluation of: de Goede J, Verschuren WM, Boer JM, Kromhout D, Geleijnse JM. alpha-linolenic acid intake and 10-year incidence of coronary heart disease and stroke in 20,000 middle-aged men and women in The Netherlands. PLoS ONE 6(3), e17967 (2011). The polyunsaturated fatty acid of the n-3 series alpha-linolenic (ALA) is an essential fatty acid for humans, meaning that it cannot be synthesized and must be obtained from food sources. In addition, the inefficient synthesis of eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic NVP-BSK805 (DHA), the more polyunsaturated n-3 fatty acids found in seafood, from ALA makes both EPA and

DHA ‘semi-essential’. There is a growing body of scientific evidence from epidemiological studies and some clinical trials indicating that intake of marine n-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), either as fish oil concentrates or fatty (so-called blue) fish, has a cardioprotective effect. The association of dietary ALA, which is the vegetable n-3 fatty acid, with cardiovascular health has been less widely investigated than that of fish-derived n-3 fatty acids and is unclear. Thus, a new study relating ALA intake to cardiovascular outcomes in a sizable cohort is welcome. Such is the present report of 10-year findings in the MORGEN study, a large Dutch population-based cohort, part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study.