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GLYCOSIDES IN Viola Tricolor L.

GLYCOSIDES IN Viola Tricolor L.

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CHAPTER 1<br />

Preliminaries and aimsof the<br />

studies<br />

The use of medicinal plants was always an important part of the medical sys-<br />

temsoftheworld.Herbalmedicinalproductsareusefultherapeuticoptionsof- ten providing a saferform of therapy, andin manyinstances, specific remedies<br />

have been shown to be clinically effective. Their use is extensive and increas-<br />

ing. The evidence-based analyses of the traditional medicinal plants’ chemical<br />

composition and biological effect is inevitable in the development of new and<br />

effective phytomedicines.<br />

Althoughheartsease(<strong>Viola</strong>tricolorL.)hasbeenextensivelyusedinthetradi-<br />

tional medicine for the treatment of skin disorders and upper respiratory tract<br />

problemsforcenturies,thebiologicalactivityofitsmainsecondarymetabolites<br />

hashardlybeenstudied. Recent(yetunpublished)resultsofKeryetal. [1]sug-<br />

gest,however,thebeneficialeffectsofheartseaseinfusiononthemitochondria.<br />

A part of those interesting data are represented and discussed in Tab. 1.1 and<br />

Tab. 1.2.<br />

Mitochondriaareindispensableenergy-producingorganellesoftheeukary-<br />

oticcells. BytheprocessofcellularrespirationtheygenerateATP,whichisused<br />

asasourceofchemicalenergy. Besides,mitochondriaareinvolvedinarangeof<br />

other processes, such as signaling, cellulardifferentiation, cell death, as well as<br />

the control of the cell cycle and cell growth. Apparently, several diseases were<br />

found to be brought about by the impairment of mitochondrial functions e.g.<br />

Parkinson disease, Morbus Alzheimer’sand diabetes[2,3].<br />

It was demonstrated that a specific mutation of the mitochondrial DNA re-<br />

sults in β-cell dependent type 1 diabetes [4], and a decline in mitochondrial<br />

3

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