stilbenes and Respiratory-Tract-Diseases

Inflammation is the principal response invoked by the body to address injuries. Despite inflammation constituting a crucial component of tissue repair, it is well known that unchecked or chronic inflammation becomes deleterious, leading to progressive tissue damage. Studies over the past years focused on foods rich in polyphenols with anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties, since inflammation was recognized to play a central role in several diseases. In this review, we discuss the beneficial effects of resveratrol, the most widely investigated polyphenol, on cancer and neurodegenerative, respiratory, metabolic, and cardiovascular diseases. We highlight how resveratrol, despite its unfavorable pharmacokinetics, can modulate the inflammatory pathways underlying those diseases, and we identify future opportunities for the evaluation of its clinical feasibility.

Topics: Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; Cardiovascular Diseases; Clinical Trials as Topic; Humans; Inflammation; Mice; Neoplasms; Obesity; Rats; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Resveratrol; Stilbenes

Eighty-three cases of dermatitis caused by wood or sawdust have been seen at St John's Hospital for Dieases of the Skin, London, in the last 20 years. The clinical details and results of patch tests are reported. The literature on dermatitis, mucosal irritation, asthma and other toxic effects of woods of some 300 botanical species is reviewed at length, with an index of scientific, trade and vernacular names, chemical formulae of the known sensitizing substances, and a table of the 28 toxic woods most often encountered. Pathogenesis, diagnosis and prophylaxis are discussed.

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Coumarins; Dermatitis, Contact; Dermatitis, Occupational; Dust; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Patch Tests; Plants, Toxic; Protective Clothing; Quinones; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Stilbenes; Terpenes; Urticaria; Wood