Figure 1

E. purpurea root ethanol extracts induce a transient increase in cytosolic Ca ²⁺ concentrations in HEK293 cells. (A) Left: Real-time monitoring of the change in cytosolic Ca²⁺ concentrations in HEK293 cells in response to repeated application of E. purpurea (Ech) extract (100 μg/ml). Δ[Ca²⁺]_iMax = 71 ± 4 nM (mean ± SEM, n = 3). Time-to-peak = 32 ± 2 s (mean ± SEM, n = 3). This Echinacea-evoked increase in cytosolic Ca²⁺ concentration was statistically significant (p < 0.001) as compared to the control cells, which were treated with 1% DMSO (dissolved in HEPES buffer).. Right: Pseudocolor images of calcium concentration in cells before treatment (control) and after treatment with E. purpurea extract. (B) Left: Real-time monitoring of the change in cytosolic Ca²⁺ in HEK293 cells in response to application of spinach extract (200 μg/ml), and then a subsequent application of E. purpurea extract (100 μg/ml). Right: Pseudocolor images of calcium concentration in cells before treatment (control), after treatment with spinach extract, and after treatment with E. purpurea extract. E. purpurea and spinach extracts were prepared with 95% ethanol [11], dried, and re-dissolved in 100% DMSO and diluted 1000 times with HEPES buffer (final concentration of DMSO is 0.1%) before applied to the cells for 2 min (the bar in the graph represents the application length). Data is an average trace of the treatment of at least 20 cells in each experiment, representative of three independent experiments.