Parkia speciosa is a food plant that grows indigenously in Southeast Asia. A great deal of interest has been paid to this plant due to its traditional uses in the treatment of several diseases. The pods contain many beneficial secondary metabolites with potential applications in medicine and cosmetics. However, studies on their phytochemical properties are still lacking. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to profile the bioactive compounds of P. speciosa pods collected from six different regions of Malaysia through ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) and α-glucosidase inhibitory potential. This study applied metabolomics to elucidate the differences between P. speciosa populations found naturally in the different locations and to characterize potential α-glucosidase inhibitors from P. speciosa pods. P. speciosa collected from different regions of Malaysia showed good α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, with a median inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 0.45-0.76 μg/mL. The samples from the northern and northeastern parts of Peninsular Malaysia showed the highest activity. Using UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS analysis, 25 metabolites were identified in the pods of P. speciosa. The findings unveiled that the pods of P. speciosa collected from different locations exhibit different levels of α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. The pods are a natural source of potent antidiabetic bioactive compounds.
The genus Parkia (Fabaceae, Subfamily, Mimosoideae) comprises about 34 species of mostly evergreen trees widely distributed across neotropics, Asia, and Africa. This review aims to provide an overview of the current status of the species from the genus Parkia in terms of its relationship between its phytochemistry and medical uses. Comprehensive information on Parkia species was retrieved from electronic databases, which were Web of Science, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Google Scholar. This review identified nine species from genus Parkia with properties of medicinal use. They are used traditionally to treat several ailments, such as diabetes, diarrhea, wounds, hypertension, cough, chronic piles, conjunctivitis, and measles. The most common species studied are P. biglobosa, P. speciosa, P. javanica, P. bicolor, P. biglandulosa, P. filicoidea, and P. clappertoniana. A considerable number of secondary metabolites, such as terpenoids, phenolic acids, flavonoids (aglycone and glycosides), and numerous volatile compounds have been identified in this genus, which are responsible for their diverse pharmacological activities. Their extracts, pure compounds and seed lectins have been reported for their anticancer, antimicrobial, antihypertensive, antiulcer, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimalarial, hepatoprotective, and antidiarrheal activities. The information gathered in this review might be of help for future studies in terms of the current knowledge on the link between the phytochemical components and medicinal uses. This could facilitate more discoveries on its potentials particularly in the pharmacological characteristics and potential to be developed into modern medicines.
Garcinia celebica L. syn. Garcinia hombroniana Pierre belongs to the family Clusiaceae, is indigenous to Southeast Asian countries. This review aims to provide updated, comprehensive and categorized information on the phytoconstituents and pharmacological effects of this species. The data collection mainly involved searches through databases named Scopus, Google Scholar, Pubmed and Springer Link. Approximately 100 phytochemicals were recorded in this review, with various classes of compounds such as triterpenoids, flavonoids, benzophenones, xanthones, depsidones and sterols identified. The most abundant compounds isolated belong to two chemical classes: triterpenoids and xanthones. Their extracts and pure compounds have been reported for their antibacterial, antiparasitic, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, antidiabetic, antituberculosis, antiplatelet aggregation, anti-neuraminidase and cholinesterase inhibitory activities. This review will provide a comprehensive understanding between the phytochemical components and its medicinal uses that may serve as a valuable resource for future drug development.
Cardiovascular diseases have become a major clinical burden globally. Heart failure is one of the diseases that commonly emanates from progressive uncontrolled hypertension. This gives rise to the need for a new treatment for the disease. Sacubitril/valsartan is a new drug combination that has been approved for patients with heart failure. This review aims to detail the mechanism of action for sacubitril/valsartan in cardiac remodeling, a cellular and molecular process that occurs during the development of heart failure. Accumulating evidence has unveiled the cardioprotective effects of sacubitril/valsartan on cellular and molecular modulation in cardiac remodeling, with recent large-scale randomized clinical trials confirming its supremacy over other traditional heart failure treatments. However, its molecular mechanism of action in cardiac remodeling remains obscure. Therefore, comprehending the molecular mechanism of action of sacubitril/valsartan could help future research to study the drug's potential therapy to reduce the severity of heart failure.
Limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification, and the dynamic range of detection of hepatitis B surface antigen antibody (anti-HBs) using a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) chip-based approach with Pichia pastoris-derived recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) as recognition element were established through the scouting for optimal conditions for the improvement of immobilization efficiency and in the use of optimal regeneration buffer. Recombinant HBsAg was immobilized onto the sensor surface of a CM5 chip at a concentration of 150 mg/L in sodium acetate buffer at pH 4 with added 0.6% Triton X-100. A regeneration solution of 20 mM HCl was optimally found to effectively unbind analytes from the ligand, thus allowing for multiple screening cycles. A dynamic range of detection of ∼0.00098-0.25 mg/L was obtained, and a sevenfold higher LOD, as well as a twofold increase in coefficient of variance of the replicated results, was shown as compared with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Evaluation of the assay for specificity showed no cross-reactivity with other antibodies tested. The ability of SPR chip-based assay and ELISA to detect anti-HBs in human serum was comparable, indicating that the SPR chip-based assay with its multiple screening capacity has greater advantage over ELISA.