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Pak choi (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis) is a leafy vegetable that is widely available in Asia and consumed in rising quantities in Europe. Pak choi contains high levels of secondary plant metabolites, such as carotenoids, chlorophylls, glucosinolates, phenolic compounds, and vitamin K, which are beneficial for humans if consumed on a regular basis. The evaluation of the genotype-induced variation of secondary plant metabolites revealed that the cultivar ‘Amur’ contained the highest concentration of secondary plant metabolites. Furthermore, steaming retained more chlorophylls, glucosinolates, phenolic acids and flavonoid compounds than boiling. In contrast, both domestic cooking methods – boiling, and steaming – reduced the formation of glucosinolate breakdown products, especially the undesired epithionitriles and nitriles but less of the health-beneficial isothiocyanates.
FicucariconeD (1) and its 4 '-demethyl congener 2 are isoflavones isolated from fruits of Ficus carica that share a 5,7-dimethoxy-6-prenyl-substituted A-ring. Both naturalproducts were, for the first time, obtained by chemical synthesisin six steps, starting from 2,4,6-trihydroxyacetophenone. Key stepsare a microwave-promoted tandem sequence of Claisen- and Cope-rearrangementsto install the 6-prenyl substituent and a Suzuki-Miyaura crosscoupling for installing the B-ring. By using various boronic acids,non-natural analogues become conveniently available. All compoundswere tested for cytotoxicity against drug-sensitive and drug-resistanthuman leukemia cell lines, but were found to be inactive. The compoundswere also tested for antimicrobial activities against a panel of eightGram-negative and two Gram-positive bacterial strains. Addition ofthe efflux pump inhibitor phenylalanine-arginine-beta-naphthylamide(PA beta N) significantly improved the antibiotic activity in mostcases, with MIC values as low as 2.5 mu M and activity improvementfactors as high as 128-fold.