Lipase-catalyzed transesterification of flaxseed oil with cinnamic acid (CA) or ferulic acid (FA) using an immobilized lipase from Candida antarctica (E.C. 3.1.1.3) was conducted to evaluate whether the lipophilized products provided enhanced antioxidant activity in the oil. Lipase-catalyzed transesterification of flaxseed oil with CA or FA produced a variety of lipophilized products (identified using ESI-MS-MS) such as monocinnamoyl/feruloyl-diacylglycerol, dicinnamoyl-monoacylglycerol and monocinnamoyl-monoacylglycerol. The free radical scavenging activity of the lipophilized products of lipase-catalyzed transesterification of flaxseed oil with CA or FA toward 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH.) were both examined in ethanol and ethyl acetate. The polarity of the solvents proved important in determining the radical scavenging activity of the substrates. Unesterified FA showed the highest free radical scavenging activity among all substrates tested while CA had negligible activity. The esterification of CA or FA with flaxseed oil resulted in significant increase and decrease in the radical scavenging activity compared with the native phenolic acid, respectively. Based on the ratio of a substrate to DPPH. concentration, lipophilized FA was a much more efficient free radical scavenger compared to lipophilized CA and was able to provide enhanced antioxidant activity in the flaxseed oil. Lipophilized cinnamic acid did not provide enhanced radical scavenging activity in the flaxseed oil as the presence of natural hydrophilic antioxidants in the oil had much greater radical scavenging activity.
Zingiber officinale Roscoe. (Family Zingiberaceae) is well known in Asia. The plant is widely cultivated in village gardens in the tropics for its medicinal properties and as a marketable spice in Malaysia. Ginger varieties are rich in physiologically active phenolics and flavonoids with a range of pharmacological activities. Experiments were conducted to determine the feasibility of increasing levels of flavonoids (quercetin, rutin, catechin, epicatechin, kaempferol, naringenin, fisetin and morin) and phenolic acid (gallic acid, vanillic acid, ferulic acid, tannic acid, cinnamic acid and salicylic acid), and antioxidant activities in different parts of Malaysian young ginger varieties (Halia Bentong and Halia Bara) with CO(2) enrichment in a controlled environment system. Both varieties showed an increase in phenolic compounds and flavonoids in response to CO(2) enrichment from 400 to 800 µmol mol-1 CO(2). These increases were greater in rhizomes compared to leaves. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) results showed that quercetin and gallic acid were the most abundant flavonoid and phenolic acid in Malaysian young ginger varieties. Under elevated CO(2) conditions, kaempferol and fisetin were among the flavonoid compounds, and gallic acid and vanillic acid were among the phenolic compounds whose levels increased in both varieties. As CO(2) concentration was increased from 400 to 800 µmol mol-1, free radical scavenging power (DPPH) increased about 30% in Halia Bentong and 21.4% in Halia Bara; and the rhizomes exhibited more enhanced free radical scavenging power, with 44.9% in Halia Bentong and 46.2% in Halia Bara. Leaves of both varieties also displayed good levels of flavonoid compounds and antioxidant activities. These results indicate that the yield and pharmaceutical quality of Malaysian young ginger varieties can be enhanced by controlled environment production and CO(2) enrichment.
Orthosiphon stamineus, Benth, also known as Misai Kucing in Malaysia and Java tea in Indonesia, is traditionally used in Southeastern Asia to treat kidney dysfunctions, diabetes, gout and several other illnesses. Recent studies of Orthosiphon stamineus pharmacological profile have revealed antioxidant properties and other potentially useful biological activities thereby lending some scientific support to its use in folk medicine. So far the genotoxicity of Orthosiphon stamineus extracts has not been evaluated. In this study the genotoxic potential of Orthosiphon stamineus aqueous extract was investigated by the Salmonella/microsome mutation assay and the mouse bone marrow micronucleus test.
The use of acetosyringone in Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer into plant hosts has been favored for the past few decades. The influence of other phenolic compounds and their effectiveness in Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation systems has been neglected. In this study, the efficacy of four phenolic compounds on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of the unicellular green alga Nannochloropsis sp. (Strain UMT-M3) was assessed by using β-glucuronidase (GUS) assay. We found that cinnamic acid, vanillin and coumarin produced higher percentages of GUS positive cells as compared to acetosyringone. These results also show that the presence of methoxy group in the phenolic compounds may not be necessary for Agrobacterium vir gene induction and receptor binding as suggested by previous studies. These findings provide possible alternative Agrobacterium vir gene inducers that are more potent as compared to the commonly used acetosyringone in achieving high efficiency of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in microalgae and possibly for other plants.
Orthosiphon stamineus (OS) has been traditionally used to treat diabetes, kidney and urinary disorders, high blood pressure and bone or muscular pain. To assess the possibility of drug-herb interaction via interference of metabolism, effects of four OS extracts of different polarity and three active constituents (sinensetin, eupatorin and rosmarinic acid) on major human cDNA-expressed cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes were investigated. Three substrate-probe based high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) assays were established to serve as activity markers for CYP2C9, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4. Our results indicate that OS extracts and constituents exhibited differential modulatory effects on different CYPs. While none of the OS components showed significant inhibition on CYP2C9, eupatorin strongly and uncompetitively inhibited CYP2D6 activity with a K(i) value of 10.2μM. CYP3A4 appeared to be the most susceptible enzyme to OS inhibitory effects. It was moderately inhibited by OS dichloromethane and petroleum ether extract with mixed-type and noncompetitive inhibitions (K(i)=93.7 and 44.9μg/mL), respectively. Correlation study indicated that the inhibition was accounted for by the presence of eupatorin in the extracts. When IC(50) values of these extracts were expressed in volume per dose unit to reflect inhibitory effect at recommended human doses from commercially available products, moderate inhibition was also observed. In addition, CYP3A4 was strongly and noncompetitively inhibited by eupatorin alone, with a K(i) value of 9.3μM. These findings suggest that co-administration of OS products, especially those with high eupatorin content, with conventional drugs may have the potential to cause drug-herb interactions involving inhibition of major CYP enzymes.
Two poorly studied, morphologically allied Alpinia species endemic to Borneo, viz., A. ligulata and A. nieuwenhuizii, were investigated here for their rhizome essential oil. The oil compositions and antimicrobial activities were compared with those of A. galanga, a better known plant. A fair number of compounds were identified in the oils by GC-FID and GC/MS analyses, with large differences in the oil composition between the three species. The rhizome oil of A. galanga was rich in 1,8-cineole (29.8%), while those of A. ligulata and A. nieuwenhuizii were both found to be extremely rich in (E)-methyl cinnamate (36.4 and 67.8%, resp.). The three oils were screened for their antimicrobial activity against three Gram-positive and three Gram-negative bacteria and two fungal species. The efficiency of growth inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus var. aureus was found to decline in the order of A. nieuwenhuizii>A. ligulata ∼ A. galanga, while that of Escherichia coli decreased in the order of A. galanga>A. nieuwenhuzii ∼ A. ligulata. Only the A. galanga oil inhibited the other bacteria and the fungi tested.
An HPLC method with ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry detection has been optimized and validated for the simultaneous determination of phenolic compounds, such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) as antioxidants, and octyl methyl cinnamate (OMC) as UVB-filter in several personal care products. The dynamic range was between 1 to 250 mg/L with relative standard deviation less than 0.25% (n = 4). Limits of detection for BHA, BHT, and OMC were 0.196, 0.170, and 0.478 mg/L, respectively. While limits of quantification for BHA, BHT, and OMC were 0.593, 0.515, and 1.448 mg/L, respectively. The recovery for BHA, BHT, and OMC was ranged from 92.1-105.9%, 83.2-108.9%, and 87.3-103.7%, respectively. The concentration ranges of BHA, BHT, and OMC in 12 commercial personal care samples were 0.13-4.85, 0.16-2.30, and 0.12-65.5 mg/g, respectively. The concentrations of phenolic compounds in these personal care samples were below than maximum allowable concentration in personal care formulation, that is, 0.0004-10 mg/g, 0.002-5 mg/g, and up to 100 mg/g for BHA, BHT, and OMC, respectively.
A novel bacterial consortium, NAR-2 which consists of Citrobacter freundii A1, Enterococcus casseliflavus C1 and Enterobacter cloacae L17 was investigated for biodegradation of Amaranth azo dye under sequential microaerophilic-aerobic condition. The NAR-2 bacterial consortium with E. casseliflavus C1 as the dominant strain enhanced the decolorization process resulting in reduction of Amaranth in 30 min. Further aerobic biodegradation, which was dominated by C. freundii A1 and E. cloacae L17, allowed biotransformation of azo reduction intermediates and mineralization via metabolic pathways including benzoyl-CoA, protocatechuate, salicylate, gentisate, catechol and cinnamic acid. The presence of autoxidation products which could be metabolized to 2-oxopentenoate was elucidated. The biodegradation mechanism of Amaranth by NAR-2 bacterial consortium was predicted to follow the steps of azo reduction, deamination, desulfonation and aromatic ring cleavage. This is for the first time the comprehensive microaerophilic-aerobic biotransformation pathways of Amaranth dye intermediates by bacterial consortium are being proposed.
Eleven compounds:goniomicin A (1), goniomicin B (2), goniomicin C (3), goniomicin D (4), tapisoidin (5), goniothalamin (6), 9-deoxygoniopypyrone (7), pterodondiol (8), liriodenine (9), benzamide (10) and cinnamic acid (11), were isolated from the stem bark of Goniothalamus tapisoides. All compounds were identified by spectroscopic analysis and, for known compounds, by comparison with published data. Goniothalamin (6) exhibited mild cytotoxic activity towards a colon cancer cell line (HT-29), with an IC(50)value of 64.17 ± 5.60 µM. Goniomicin B (2) give the highest antioxidant activity in the DPPH assay among all compounds tested, with an IC(50) of 0.207 µM.
Leaves of Andrographis paniculata and Orthosiphon stamineus were extracted with water, ethanol, methanol and chloroform to assess their potential as antibacterial and antioxidant agents. High performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that the methanolic extracts of A. paniculata and O. stamineus leaves gave the highest amounts of andrographolide and rosmarinic acid, respectively. These leaf extracts exhibited antimicrobial and antioxidant activities and, at the highest concentration tested (200 mg/mL), showed greater inhibitory effects against the Gram positive bacteria Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus than 10% acetic acid. Andrographis paniculata and O. stamineus methanolic and ethanolic leaf extracts also showed the strongest antioxidant activity as compared with the other extracts tested. The bioactive compounds present in these leaf extracts have the potential to be developed into natural antibacterial and antioxidant agents that may have applications in animal and human health.
Phytochemicals and antioxidants from plant sources are of increasing interest to consumers because of their roles in the maintenance of human health. Most of the secondary metabolites of herbs are used in a number of pharmaceutical products.
The present study aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying the anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic effects of ethyl-p-methoxycinnamate isolated from Kaempferia galanga.
Rice is one of the most important cereal crops with great potential for biotechnology progress. In transformation method, antibiotic resistance genes are routinely used as powerful markers for selecting transformed cells from surrounding non-transformed cells. In this study, the toxicity level of hygromycin was optimized for two selected mutant rice lines, MR219 line 4 and line 9. The mature embryos were isolated and cultured on an MS medium with different hygromycin concentrations (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 mg L(-1)). Evidently, above 60 mg L(-1) was effective for callus formation and observed completely dead. Further there were tested for specific concentration (0-60). Although, 21.28% calli survived on the medium containing 45 mg L(-1) hygromycin, it seemed suitable for the identification of putative transformants. These findings indicated that a system for rice transformation in a relatively high frequency and the transgenes are stably expressed in the transgenic plants. Green shoots were regenerated from the explant under hygromycin stress. RT-PCR using hptII and gus sequence specific primer and Southern blot analysis were used to confirm the presence of the transgene and to determine the transformation efficiency for their stable integration in regenerated plants. This study demonstrated that the hygromycin resistance can be used as an effective marker for rice transformation.
Polygonum minus is an aromatic plant, which contains high abundance of terpenoids, especially the sesquiterpenes C15H24. Sesquiterpenes were believed to contribute to the many useful biological properties in plants. This study aimed to functionally characterize a full length sesquiterpene synthase gene from P. minus. P. minus sesquiterpene synthase (PmSTS) has a complete open reading frame (ORF) of 1689 base pairs encoding a 562 amino acid protein. Similar to other sesquiterpene synthases, PmSTS has two large domains: the N-terminal domain and the C-terminal metal-binding domain. It also consists of three conserved motifs: the DDXXD, NSE/DTE, and RXR. A three-dimensional protein model for PmSTS built clearly distinguished the two main domains, where conserved motifs were highlighted. We also constructed a phylogenetic tree, which showed that PmSTS belongs to the angiosperm sesquiterpene synthase subfamily Tps-a. To examine the function of PmSTS, we expressed this gene in Arabidopsis thaliana. Two transgenic lines, designated as OE3 and OE7, were further characterized, both molecularly and functionally. The transgenic plants demonstrated smaller basal rosette leaves, shorter and fewer flowering stems, and fewer seeds compared to wild type plants. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of the transgenic plants showed that PmSTS was responsible for the production of β -sesquiphellandrene.
Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen that causes candidiasis in humans. In recent years, metabolic pathways in C. albicans have been explored as potential antifungal targets to treat candidiasis. The glyoxylate cycle, which enables C. albicans to survive in nutrient-limited host niches and its. Key enzymes (e.g., isocitrate lyase (ICL1), are particularly attractive antifungal targets for C. albicans. In this study, we used a new screening approach that better reflects the physiological environment that C. albicans cells experience during infection to identify potential inhibitors of ICL. Three compounds (caffeic acid (CAFF), rosmarinic acid (ROS), and apigenin (API)) were found to have antifungal activity against C. albicans when tested under glucose-depleted conditions. We further confirmed the inhibitory potential of these compounds against ICL using the ICL enzyme assay. Lastly, we assessed the bioavailability and toxicity of these compounds using Lipinski's rule-of-five and ADMET analysis.
Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum, and Cinnamon cassia), the eternal tree of tropical medicine, belongs to the Lauraceae family. Cinnamon is one of the most important spices used daily by people all over the world. Cinnamon primarily contains vital oils and other derivatives, such as cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic acid, and cinnamate. In addition to being an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, anticancer, lipid-lowering, and cardiovascular-disease-lowering compound, cinnamon has also been reported to have activities against neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. This review illustrates the pharmacological prospective of cinnamon and its use in daily life.
Although the anti-diabetic activity of cinnamic acid, a pure compound from cinnamon, has been reported but its mechanism(s) is not yet clear. The present study was designed to explore the possible mechanism(s) of anti-diabetic activity of cinnamic acid in in vitro and in vivo non-obese type 2 diabetic rats. Non-obese type 2 diabetes was developed by injecting 90 mg/kg streptozotocin in 2-day-old Wistar pups. Cinnamic acid and cinnamaldehyde were administered orally to diabetic rats for assessing acute blood glucose lowering effect and improvement of glucose tolerance. Additionally, insulin secretory activity of cinnamic acid and cinnamaldehyde was evaluated in isolated mice islets. Cinnamic acid, but not cinnamaldehyde, decreased blood glucose levels in diabetic rats in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Oral administration of cinnamic acid with 5 and 10 mg/kg doses to diabetic rats improved glucose tolerance in a dose-dependent manner. The improvement by 10 mg/kg cinnamic acid was comparable to that of standard drug glibenclamide (5 mg/kg). Further in vitro studies showed that cinnamaldehyde has little or no effect on glucose-stimulated insulin secretion; however, cinnamic acid significantly enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in isolated islets. In conclusion, it can be said that cinnamic acid exerts anti-diabetic activity by improving glucose tolerance in vivo and stimulating insulin secretion in vitro.
Blue-green alga (Spirulina platensis) is a well renowned nutri-supplement due to its high nutritional and medicinal properties. The aim of this study was to examine the wound healing efficiency of Spirulina platensis at various solvent extracts using in vitro scratch assay on human dermal fibroblast cells (HDF). Various gradient solvent extracts (50 μg/ml of methanolic, ethanolic and aqueous extracts) from Spirulina platensis were treated on HDF cells to acquire its wound healing properties through scratch assay and in this investigation we have used allantoin, as a positive control to compare efficacy among the phytoextracts. Interestingly, aqueous extract were found to stimulate proliferation and migration of HDF cells at given concentrations and enhanced closure rate of wound area within 24 hours after treatment. Methanolic and ethanolic extracts have shown proliferative effect, however these extracts did not aid in the migration and closure of wound area when compared to aqueous extract. Based on phytochemical profile of the plant extracts analyzed by LC-MS/MS, it was shown that compounds supposedly involved in accelerating wound healing are cinnamic acid, narigenin, kaempferol, temsirolimus, phosphatidylserine isomeric derivatives and sulphoquinovosyl diacylglycerol. Our findings concluded that blue-green algae may pose potential biomedical application to treat various chronic wounds especially in diabetes mellitus patients.
Orthosiphon stamineus Benth. (Lamiaceae) is a traditional medicinal plant which has been used in treating various ailments such as kidney diseases, bladder inflammation, arthritis and diabetes. The leaves contain high concentration of phenolic compounds, thus, rosmarinic acid (RA), 3'-hydroxy-5, 6, 7, 4'-tetramethoxyflavone (TMF), sinensetin (SIN) and eupatorin (EUP) were chosen as a marker compounds for standardization of various O. stamineus leaf extracts.
Neurodegenerative diseases are linked to neuronal cell death and impairment of neurite outgrowth. An edible mushroom, Pleurotus giganteus was found to stimulate neurite outgrowth in vitro but the chemical constituents and the underlying mechanism is yet to be elucidated. The chemical constituents of P. giganteus (linoleic acid, oleic acid, cinnamic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, succinic acid, benzoic acid, and uridine) were tested for neurite outgrowth activity. Uridine (100 μM) was found to increase the percentage of neurite-bearing cells of differentiating neuroblastoma (N2a) cells by 43.1 ± 0.5%, which was 1.8-fold higher than NGF (50 ng/mL)-treated cells. Uridine which was present in P. giganteus (1.80 ± 0.03 g/100g mushroom extract) increased the phosphorylation of extracellular-signal regulated kinases (ERKs) and protein kinase B (Akt). Further, phosphorylation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) was also increased. MEK/ERK and PI3K-Akt-mTOR further induced phosphorylation of cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB) and expression of growth associated protein 43 (GAP43); all of which promoted neurite outgrowth of N2a cells. This study demonstrated that P. giganteus may enhance neurite outgrowth and one of the key bioactive molecules responsible for neurite outgrowth is uridine.