Three new indole alkaloids with methyl chanofruticosinates skeletal system, viz., methyl 12-methoxy-N1-decarbomethoxychanofruticosinate, methyl 12-methoxychanofruticosinate and methyl 11,12-dimethoxychanofruticosinate, in addition to methyl 11,12-methylenedioxy-N1-decarbomethoxychanofruticosinate, have been isolated from the leaves of Kopsia flavida Blume. The structures of these three new indole alkaloids were assigned by NMR spectral data using various 2D-techniques.
A novel derivative of sucrose, beta-(3,6-di-O-feruloyl)-fructofuranosyl-alpha-(2,3,4,6-tetra-O-ac etyl)- glucopyranoside, was isolated from the wood of Bhesa paniculata. Its structure was determined by a combination of 2D 1H-1H and 1H-13C correlation NMR spectroscopy. The known compounds, glycerol 1-9',12'-octadecadienoate, beta-sitosterol, (+/-)-pinoresinol, methyl 3,4-dihydroxybenzoate, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acid, anofinic acid and 2-(1'-methylethenyl)-benzofuran-5-carboxylic acid were also isolated.
The genus Dillenia is comprised of about 100 species of evergreen and deciduous trees or shrubs of disjunct distribution in the seasonal tropics of Madagascar through South and South East Asia, Malaysia, North Australia, and Fiji. Species from this genus have been widely used in medicinal folklore to treat cancers, wounds, jaundice, fever, cough, diabetes mellitus, and diarrhea as well as hair tonics. The plants of the genus also produce edible fruits and are cultivated as ornamental plants. Flavonoids, triterpenoids, and miscellaneous compounds have been identified in the genus. Their extracts and pure compounds have been reported for their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic, antidiabetes, antioxidant, antidiarrheal, and antiprotozoal activities. Mucilage from their fruits is used in drug formulations.
Dillenia (Dilleniaceae) is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in tropical and subtropical trees of Southern Asia, Australasia, and the Indian Ocean Islands. Until now, only eight Dillenia species have been reported to be used traditionally in different countries for various medical purposes. Out of eight species, D. pentagyna (Roxb), D. indica (Linn.) and D. suffruticosa (Griffith Ex. Hook. F. & Thomsom Martelli) have been reported to be used to treat cancerous growth.
This study depicts a profile of existence of heavy metals (Cu, Ni, Zn, Cd, Hg, Mn, Fe, Na, Ca, and Mg) in some important herbal plants like (H. Integrifolia, D. regia, R. communis, C. equisetifolia, N. oleander, T. populnea, M. elengi, H. schizopetalus, P. pterocarpum) from Pakistan and an antidiabetic Malaysian herbal drug product containing (Punica granatum L. (Mast) Hook, Momordica charantia L., Tamarindus indica L., Lawsonia inermis L.) using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Heavy metals in these herbal plants and Malaysian product were in the range of 0.02-0.10 ppm of Cu, 0.00-0.02 ppm of Ni, 0.02-0.29 ppm of Zn, 0.00-0.04 ppm of Cd, 0.00-1.33 ppm of Hg, 0.00-0.54 ppm of Mn, 0.22-3.16 ppm of Fe, 0.00-9.17 ppm of Na, 3.27-15.63 ppm of Ca and 1.85-2.03 ppm of Mg. All the metals under study were within the prescribed limits except mercury. Out of 10 medicinal plants/product under study 07 were beyond the limit of mercury permissible limits. Purpose of this study is to determine heavy metals contents in selected herbal plants and Malaysian product, also to highlight the health concerns related to the presence of toxic levels of heavy metals.
Avian influenza or bird flu is a common problem of domestic and wild birds. Some of its strains are able to cross the species barrier and cause infection in various members of class Mammalia. In view of relatively lesser efficacy of vaccines, antiviral therapies remain the only choice for the sustenance of mammals acquiring this highly devastating infection. This study is based on the evaluation of antiviral potential of methanol extracts of eleven selected Cholistani plants. The methanol extracts were prepared by using dried plants material followed by concentrating in a rotary evaporator and finally air dried before dissolving in nanopure water. The suspension was filter sterilized and subjected to in ovo antiviral assays. The allantoic fluids were harvested and haemagglutinin (HA) titers were determined. Among the eleven plants evaluated all methanol extracts were found effective against AIV H9N2 except S. baryosma extract. The medicinal plants O. compressa, N. procumbens, and S. surattense were found to be more effective than others and they retained HA titers at 0 after challenge. The next in order were extracts of O. esculentum, H. salicornicum and S. fruticosa which kept HA titers at 4, 8 and 16 respectively. The extracts of H. recurvum, P. antidotale, S. icolados and A. aspera were found less effective than above mentioned plant extracts and they kept the HA titers at 32, 64, 128 and 256 respectively. These results led us to conclude that the medicinal plants of Cholistan region are a rich source of antiviral agent(s) against AIV H9N2 and could be a source of cost effective alternate therapeutics.
This study was conducted to investigate the antifungal potential and cytotoxicity of selected medicinal plants from Malaysia. The extracts from the stem of Cissus quadrangularis and the leaves of Asplenium nidus, Pereskia bleo, Persicaria odorata and Sauropus androgynus were assayed against six fungi using p-iodonitrotetrazolium-based on colorimetric broth microdilution method. All the plant extracts were found to be fungicidal against at least one type of fungus. The strongest fungicidal activity (minimum fungicidal concentration=0.16 mg/mL) were exhibited by the hexane extract of C. quadrangularis, the hexane, chloroform, ethanol and methanol extracts of P. bleo, the hexane and ethyl acetate extracts of P. odorata, and the water extract of A. nidus. In terms of cytotoxicity on the African monkey kidney epithelial (Vero) cells, the chloroform extract of P. odorata produced the lowest 50% cytotoxic concentration (100.3 ± 4.2 μ g/mL). In contrast, none of the water extracts from the studied plants caused significant toxicity on the cells. The water extract of A. nidus warrants further investigation since it showed the strongest fungicidal activity and the highest total activity (179.22 L/g) against Issatchenkia orientalis, and did not cause any toxicity to the Vero cells.
A cytotoxic bisindole alkaloid possessing an unprecedented structure constituted from the union of an eburnan half and a novel vinylquinoline alkaloid has been isolated from Leuconotis griffithii. The structure was established by analysis of the spectroscopic data and confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. A possible biogenetic pathway to the novel quinolinic coupling partner is presented from an Aspidosperma precursor.
[structure: see text] A new indole alkaloid, arboflorine, possessing a novel pentacyclic carbon skeleton and incorporating a third nitrogen atom was obtained from the Malayan Kopsia arborea. The structure was established by spectroscopic analysis, and a possible biogenetic pathway from a preakuammicine-type precursor is presented.
Clinacanthus nutans (Lindau) (C. nutans) has diverse uses in traditional herbal medicine for treating skin rashes, insect and snake bites, lesions caused by herpes simplex virus, diabetes mellitus and gout in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and China. We previously showed that C. nutans has the ability to modulate the induction of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) expression in SH-SY5Y cells through the inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs). In the current study, we elucidated the effect of C. nutans on the hCMEC/D3 human brain endothelial cell line. Endothelial cells are exposed to high levels of the cholesterol oxidation product, 7-ketocholesterol (7KC), in patients with cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and this process is thought to mediate pathological inflammation. 7KC induced a dose-dependent loss of hCMEC/D3 cell viability, and such damage was significantly inhibited by C. nutans leaf extracts but not stem extracts. 7KC also induced a marked increase in mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-1β IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in brain endothelial cells, and these increases were significantly inhibited by C. nutans leaf but not stem extracts. HPLC analyses showed that leaf extracts have a markedly different chemical profile compared to stem extracts, which might explain their different effects in counteracting 7KC-induced inflammation. Further study is necessary to identify the putative phytochemicals in C. nutans leaves that have anti-inflammatory properties.
Garcinia species are reported to possess antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anti-HIV and anti-Alzheimer's activities. This study aimed to investigate the in vitro cholinesterase enzyme inhibitory activities of garcihombronane C (1), garcihombronane F (2), garcihombronane I (3), garcihombronane N (4), friedelin (5), clerosterol (6), spinasterol glucoside (7) and 3β-hydroxy lup-12,20(29)-diene (8) isolated from Garcinia hombroniana, and to perform molecular docking simulation to get insight into the binding interactions of the ligands and enzymes. The cholinesterase inhibitory activities were evaluated using acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzymes. In this study, compound 4 displayed the highest concentration-dependent inhibition of both AChE and BChE. Docking studies exhibited that compound 4 binds through hydrogen bonds to amino acid residues of AChE and BChE. The calculated docking and binding energies also supported the in vitro inhibitory profiles of IC50. In conclusion, garcihombronanes C, F, I and N (1-4) exhibited dual and moderate inhibitory activities against AChE and BChE.
A new coumarin, hoseimarin (1), together with four other xanthones, trapezifolizanthone (2), osajaxanthone (3), β-mangostin (4) and caloxanthone A (5), were isolated from the stem bark of Calophyllum hosei. The structures of these compounds were established by using spectroscopic analysis which included (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, COSY, DEPT, HMQC and HMBC experiments.
Medicinal plants are the main natural pools for the discovery and development of new drugs. In the modern era of computer-aided drug designing (CADD), there is need of prompt efforts to design and construct useful database management system that allows proper data storage, retrieval and management with user-friendly interface. An inclusive database having information about classification, activity and ready-to-dock library of medicinal plant's phytochemicals is therefore required to assist the researchers in the field of CADD. The present work was designed to merge activities of phytochemicals from medicinal plants, their targets and literature references into a single comprehensive database named as Medicinal Plants Database for Drug Designing (MPD3). The newly designed online and downloadable MPD3 contains information about more than 5000 phytochemicals from around 1000 medicinal plants with 80 different activities, more than 900 literature references and 200 plus targets. The designed database is deemed to be very useful for the researchers who are engaged in medicinal plants research, CADD and drug discovery/development with ease of operation and increased efficiency. The designed MPD3 is a comprehensive database which provides most of the information related to the medicinal plants at a single platform. MPD3 is freely available at: http://bioinform.info .
Ipomoea carnea Jacq. is an important folklore medicinal plant, assessed for its underexplored biological potential. Antioxidant, cytotoxic, antiproliferative and polyphenolic profile of whole plant was evaluated using various techniques. Maximum extract recovery (29% w/w), phenolic [13.54 ± 0.27 μg GAE/mg dry weight (DW)] and flavonoid (2.11 ± 0.10 μg QE /mg DW) content were recorded in methanol-distilled water (1:1) flower extract. HPLC-DAD analysis quantified substantial amount of six different polyphenols ranging from 0.081 to 37.95 μg/mg extract. Maximum total antioxidant and reducing potential were documented in methanol-distilled water and acetone-distilled water flower extracts (42.62 ± 0.47 and 24.38 ± 0.39 μg AAE/mg DW) respectively. Ethanol-chloroform root extract manifested highest free radical scavenging (IC50 of 61.22 μg/mL) while 94.64% of the extracts showed cytotoxicity against brine shrimps. Ethanol leaf extract exhibited remarkable activity against THP-1 cell line (IC50 = 8 ± 0.05 μg/mL) and protein kinases (31 mm phenotype bald zone).
Azadirachta indica has long been used in traditional medicine. This study focused on isolation and characterisation of active ingredients in the extract, its fractions (NF-EA, NF-AQ, NF-G) and its effect on the cholesterol absorption activity. The NF-EA fraction was identified by marker compounds by LC-ESI-QTOF/MS. Cholesterol absorption activity was performed by measuring the solubility and size of cholesterol micelles. The intestinal motility was also examined by isolated rat's ileum to test the contraction. The extract and its fractions consist of flavonoids and phenolic compounds, like quercetin, kaempferol and myricetin. We found that A. indica extract and NF-EA increase cholesterol micelles size, while the extract, NF-AQ, myricetin and quercetin, reduced the solubility of cholesterol in micelles. The extract and quercetin inhibited the contraction induced by KCl up to 29 and 18%, respectively, and also decreased CaCl2-induced contraction. This finding is in support to traditional uses of A. indica as cholesterol-lowering agents and regulator of gastrointestinal motility.
Two new biflavonoids, pyranoamentoflavone 7-methyl ether (1) and pyranoamentoflavone 4'-methyl ether (2), have been isolated from the leaves of Calophyllum venulosum. The structures of these two new compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic data.
The stem bark extracts of Bauhinia rufescens Lam. (Fabaceae) yielded 6-methoxy-7-methyl-8-hydroxydibenz[b,f]oxepin, alpha-amyrin acetate, beta-sitosterol 3-O-beta-D-xylopyranoside, 4-(2'-Hydroxyphenethyl)-5-methoxy-2-methylphenol, menisdaurin and sequoyitol. Their structures were determined using spectroscopic methods and comparisons with the literature data. For the antimicrobial assay Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial and fungal strains were tested, while the tyrosinase inhibition assay utilized L-DOPA as a substrate for the tyrosinase enzyme. 6-Methoxy-7-methyl-8-hydroxydibenz[b,f]oxepin, a-amyrin acetate, beta-sitosterol 3-O-D-xylopyranoside, menisdaurin and sequoyitol showed weak to moderate activities with minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) values in the range of 112.5-900 microg/mL against all bacterial strains, while the MIC values for the fungal strains were in the range of 28.1-450 microg/mL. In the tyrosinase inhibition assay, a-amyrin acetate was found to be moderately active against tyrosinase with an inhibition of 62% at 0.1 mg/mL. This activity was lower than that of the positive control, kojic acid (85%).
Goniothalamin produced by the Malaysian medicinal plant, Goniothalamus andersonii J. Sinclair, strongly inhibits plant growth. However, its mode of action has not been characterized at the gene expression level. We conducted DNA microarray assay to analyze the changes in early gene responses of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. After a 6-h exposure to goniothalamin, we observed an upregulation of genes highly associated with heat response, and 22 heat shock protein (AtHSP) genes were upregulated more than 50 fold. Together with these genes, we observed upregulation of the genes related to oxidative stress and protein folding. Also, the genes related to cell wall modification and cell growth, expansin (AtEXPA) genes, were significantly downregulated. The results suggested that goniothalamin induces oxidative stresses and inhibits the expression of cell wall-associated proteins resulting in growth inhibition of Arabidopsis seedlings.
A crude methanol extract of Goniothalamus andersonii J. Sinclair strongly inhibited elongation of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) radicles. We conducted bioassay-guided purification of G. andersonii bark extract and obtained goniothalamin as the major bioactive compound. Its EC50 values against elongation of lettuce radicles and hypocotyls were 50 and 125 micromol L(-1), respectively. Among the six species tested, timothy was the most sensitive to goniothalamin. Quantification of this compound in other Goniothalamus species suggested that the plant inhibitory activity of this genus is explainable by goniothalamin, with G. calcareus as an exception.
The aim of this research was to identify the volatile metabolites produced in different organs (leaves, stem and roots) of Polygonum minus, an important essential oil producing crop in Malaysia. Two methods of extraction have been applied: Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) and hydrodistillation coupled with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Approximately, 77 metabolites have been identified and aliphatic compounds contribute significantly towards the aroma and flavour of this plant. Two main aliphatic compounds: decanal and dodecanal were found to be the major contributor. Terpenoid metabolites were identified abundantly in leaves but not in the stem and root of this plant. Further studies on antioxidant, total phenolic content, anticholinesterase and antimicrobial activities were determined in the essential oil and five different extracts. The plant showed the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity in polar (ethanol) extract for all the tissues tested. For anti-acetylcholinesterase activity, leaf in aqueous extract and methanol extract showed the best acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activities. However, in microbial activity, the non-polar extracts (n-hexane) showed high antimicrobial activity against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) compared to polar extracts. This study could provide the first step in the phytochemical profiles of volatile compounds and explore the additional value of pharmacology properties of this essential oil producing crop Polygonum minus.