{"id":562,"date":"2013-08-22T04:55:40","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T04:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/?p=562"},"modified":"2013-08-22T04:55:40","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T04:55:40","slug":"g-protein-coupled-receptor-mediates-the-action-of-castor-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/2013\/08\/g-protein-coupled-receptor-mediates-the-action-of-castor-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"G Protein-Coupled Receptor Mediates the Action Of Castor Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Castor oil is one of the oldest drugs. When given orally, it has\u00a0a laxative effect and induces labor in pregnant females. The\u00a0effects of castor oil are mediated by ricinoleic acid, a hydroxylated\u00a0fatty acid released from castor oil by intestinal lipases. Despite the\u00a0wide-spread use of castor oil in conventional and folk medicine,\u00a0the molecular mechanism by which ricinoleic acid acts remains\u00a0unknown. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany have elucidated\u00a0that the EP3\u00a0prostanoid receptor is speci\ufb01cally activated by ricinoleic acid and it mediates the pharmacological effects of castor oil. In mice lacking EP3 receptors, the\u00a0laxative effect and the uterus contraction induced via ricinoleic\u00a0acid are absent. Although a conditional deletion of the EP3 receptor gene in intestinal epithelial cells did not affect castor oil-induced\u00a0diarrhea, mice lacking EP3 receptors only in smooth-muscle cells\u00a0were unresponsive to this drug. Thus, the castor oil metabolite\u00a0ricinoleic acid activates intestinal and uterine smooth-muscle cells\u00a0via EP3\u00a0prostanoid receptors. These \ufb01ndings identify the cellular\u00a0and molecular mechanism underlying the pharmacological effects\u00a0of castor oil and indicate a role of the EP3 receptor as a target to\u00a0induce laxative effects.<\/p>\n<p>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2012\/05\/15\/1201627109.full.pdf\">http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2012\/05\/15\/1201627109.full.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Castor oil is one of the oldest drugs. When given orally, it has\u00a0a laxative effect and induces labor in pregnant females. The\u00a0effects of castor oil are mediated by ricinoleic acid, a hydroxylated\u00a0fatty acid released from castor oil by intestinal lipases. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/2013\/08\/g-protein-coupled-receptor-mediates-the-action-of-castor-oil\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75,76,77],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-castor-oil-research","tag-castor-laxative","tag-ep3-receptors","tag-ricinoleic-acid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":563,"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions\/563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/castoroil.in\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}