Rudolf Vrabec

• Doctor of Pharmacy
• PostDoc Position at Charles University in Prague

This review aims to provide information about the anticancer potential of harmine, a β-carboline alkaloid that was initially isolated in 1847 from the seeds and roots of Peganum harmala L. Various studies have revealed that it possesses a wide range of therapeutic qualities, including anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, antidiabetic, and,...

This phytochemical study presents the isolation of eight alkaloids from Zephyranthes citrina Baker. The structures of the new alkaloids, zephycitrine (1) and 6-oxonarcissidine (2), were established by analysis of spectroscopic and spectrometric data. Processing the EtOH extract under acid–base conditions yielded the unreported isolation artifacts 3...

This article is a critical review of the taxonomy and phytochemistry of the genus Zephyranthes Herb., a group of plants known for their beautiful flowers and traditional medicinal uses. The present review summarizes the occurrence, isolation, and identification of specialized metabolites, which have recently been frequently studied because of their...

The incidence rate of malaria and the ensuing mortality prompts the development of novel antimalarial drugs. In this work, the activity of twenty-eight Amaryllidaceae alkaloids (1–28) belonging to seven different structural types was assessed, as well as twenty semisynthetic derivatives of the β-crinane alkaloid ambelline (28a–28t) and eleven deriv...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in elderly people; currently, there is no efficient treatment. Considering the increase in life expectancy worldwide AD rates are predicted to increase enormously, and thus the search for new AD drugs is urgently needed. A great amount of experimental and clinical evidence indicated that...

Clivia miniata (Amaryllidaceae) is an herbaceous evergreen flowering plant that is endemic to South Africa and Swaziland and belongs to one of the top-10 traded medicinal plants in informal medicine markets in South Africa. The species has been reported as the most important component of a traditional healer’s pallet of healing plants. Eighteen kno...

Tuberculosis (TB) is a widespread infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The increasing incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains has created a need for new antiTB agents with new chemical scaffolds to combat the disease. Thus, the key question is: how to search for new antiTB and where to...

One undescribed indole alkaloid together with twenty-two known compounds have been isolated from aerial parts of Vinca minor L. (Apocynaceae). The chemical structures of the isolated alkaloids were determined by a combination of MS, HRMS, 1D, and 2D NMR techniques, and by comparison with literature data. The NMR data of several alkaloids have been...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive age-related neurodegenerative disease recognized as the most common form of dementia among elderly people. Due to the fact that the exact pathogenesis of AD still remains to be fully elucidated, the treatment is only symptomatic and available drugs are not able to modify AD progression. Considering the incr...

This study investigates the activation of human immune cells (T, B, and NK cells, and granulocytes) by the ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Scutellaria baicalensis root (SBR) and to identify the compounds responsible for such an effect. The cell activation was determined by expression of the cell surface glycoprotein CD69 (cluster of differentiati...