(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1993) Bester, Christoffel Carolus; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Medical Microbiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Certain aspects of the pharmacokinetics of a novel diglucoside, hypoxoside, were investigated in mice and rats.
After intragastric dosage of the mouse, hypoxoside was hydrolysed to its aglycone, rooperol. Most enzyme activity occurred in the mouse caecum with intestinal bacteria playing a major role in producing the hydrolytic enzymes. Caecalase extracts hydrolysed hypoxoside in vitro but this activity ceased after the mice were treated with antibiotics, suggesting bacteria as the enzyme
source. However, in vivo tests with similar antibiotic-treated mice seemed to demonstrate a minor second, possibly mucosal source of hypoxoside hydrolysing B-glucosidase. An attempt to isolate a single strain of faecal bacteria capable of this activity was unsuccessful although hypoxoside was
hydrolysed by pure cultures of some non-intestinal clinical isolates