Education, Careers & Professional News
Cucumber vs cucumber
Source
Deccan Herald
Date
2005-01-07
Information
Sea cucumbers are cucumber-shaped echinoderms of the genus Cucumaria (Latin designation for vegetable cucumber sounds similar - Cucumis) having a flexible body with tentacles surrounding the mouth. Very recently, Russian researchers have discovered that certain substances produced by Cucumaria are similar to plant glycosides by the chemical structure and can inhibit the growth of roots of cucumber sprouts.
The biochemists analysed published data on the properties of cucumariosides (glycosides produced by Cucumaria) and concluded that their effects on animal and plant cells have similar chemical mechanism. These substances actively interact with the cell membrane, which accounts for their ability to act as antifungal and antitumour agents and also for their toxic effects on some fishes (destruction of blood cells).
Besides, the group of cucumariosides includes some immunostimulating and radioprotective agents. Techniques for the extraction of glycosides from the body of sea cucumbers and for their fractionation are already developed and tested.
Russian biochemists placed cucumber seeds onto wet tissues to germinate and treated the sprouts with solutions of various glycosides originated from Cucumaria.
Some cucumariosides acted like growth inhibitors of plant origin and suppressed the growth of cucumber roots. The fact that the plant responded to the biologically active agent of animal origin is very curious. The researchers explain this effect by the ability of cucumariosides for interacting with membrane enzymes of plant and animal cells in the same way. At a low concentration of cucumariosides, the enzymes become inactive.
At a higher concentration of these glycosides, the membrane becomes permeable, which causes the leakage of ions (primarily, potassium) and small molecules from the cell. This accounts for the ability of glycosides to suppress the growth of microflora and embryos of sea urchins (echinoderms, relations of sea cucumbers). Cucumariosides being strongest inhibitors of root growth have molecules with only one reactive group formed of sulphur and oxygen, and least active cucumariosides that produced very insignificant effect on the root growth have three reactive groups in each molecule. This discovery has important implications for biotechnology.