Natural products chemistry: The emerging trends and prospective goals

GC-MS Analysis of European Mistletoe (Viscum album L.) Plant Grown at Syrian Coastal Area

In this study, efforts were made to isolate phtochemicals from European mistletoe (Viscum album L.) using hot (Soxhlet) and cold (magnetic rotation) extraction methods. The dried Viscum album L. (10 g) were extracted exhaustively by Soxhlet with methanol and dichloroethane solvents. Subsequently, 1 μL of sample was utilized for GC/MS analysis, which exhibited 50 peaks of phytoconstituents in the range of 0.12-22.04%. The highest flavonoids content was determined using quercetin calibration curve having a value of 62.26 mg QE/g dry weight.

Protective effect of royal jelly against diclofenac-induced hepato-renal damage and gastrointestinal ulcerations in rats

Objective

Evaluation of traditionally used royal jelly (RJ) for the management of hepato-renal damage and gastrointestinal ulcerations caused by diclofenac.

Methods

Forty adult male Wistar rats were allocated into four groups. Rats of the 1^st group received only saline and served as normal group. The remaining 3 groups received diclofenac (50 mg/kg/day, I.P.) for 7 days. Group 2 served as diclofenac-control group. Groups 3 and 4 received RJ (150 and 300 mg/kg/day, P.O.) respectively for 30 days. Twenty-four hours after the last treatment, blood samples were collected, rats were sacrificed, and livers, kidneys, stomachs & intestines were harvested. Stomachs and intestines were tested for ulcer counts. Serum levels of AST, ALT, creatinine and urea were investigated. Hepatic, renal, gastric and intestinal tissue contents of myeloperoxidase (MPO) and prostaglandin-E2 (PGE2) were measured. Histopathological examinations were also performed followed by immunohistochemical determination of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression.

Results

Diclofenac administration caused significant deterioration of all the above mentioned parameters. RJ improved hepatic and renal functions. Gastric and intestinal ulcer counts were significantly ameliorated. Hepatic, renal, gastric and intestinal tissue PGE-2 contents and COX-2 expression were significantly elevated. RJ also significantly reduced MPO content and iNOS expression as compared to diclofenac-control group. Improvements of the histopathological pictures of hepatic, renal, gastric and intestinal tissues were also apparent.

Conclusion

The study demonstrates promising protective effects of RJ against diclofenac-induced hepato-renal damage and gastrointestinal ulceration in rats.

Oxodealkenylative Cleavage of Alkene C(sp3 )-C(sp2 ) Bonds: A Practical Method for Introducing Carbonyls into Chiral Pool Materials

Reported herein is a one-pot protocol for the oxodealkenylative introduction of carbonyl functionalities into terpenes and terpene-derived compounds. This transformation proceeds by Criegee ozonolysis of an alkene, reductive cleavage of the resulting α-alkoxy hydroperoxide, trapping of the generated alkyl radical with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl (TEMPO), and subsequent oxidative fragmentation with MMPP. Using readily available starting materials from chiral pool, a variety of carbonyl-containing products have been accessed rapidly in good yields.

Therapeutic Interventions for Countering Leishmaniasis and Chagas's Disease: From Traditional Sources to Nanotechnological Systems

The incidence of neglected diseases in tropical countries, such as Leishmaniasis and Chagas's disease, is attributed to a set of biological and ecological factors associated with the socioeconomic context of developing countries and with a significant burden to health care systems. Both Leishmaniasis and Chagas's disease are caused by different protozoa and develop diverse symptoms, which depend on the specific species infecting man. Currently available drugs to treat these disorders have limited therapeutic outcomes, frequently due to microorganisms' drug resistance. In recent years, significant efforts have been made towards the development of innovative drug delivery systems aiming to improve bioavailability and pharmacokinetic profiles of classical drug therapy. This paper discusses the key facts of Leishmaniasis and Chagas's disease, the currently available pharmacological therapies and the new drug delivery systems for conventional drugs.

Chemical Barcoding: A Nuclear-Magnetic-Resonance-Based Approach To Ensure the Quality and Safety of Natural Ingredients

One of the greatest challenges facing the functional food and natural health product (NHP) industries is sourcing high-quality, functional, natural ingredients for their finished products. Unfortunately, the lack of ingredient standards, modernized analytical methodologies, and industry oversight creates the potential for low quality and, in some cases, deliberate adulteration of ingredients. By exploring a diverse library of NHPs provided by the independent certification organization ISURA, we demonstrated that nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy provides an innovative solution to authenticate botanicals and warrant the quality and safety of processed foods and manufactured functional ingredients. Two-dimensional NMR experiments were shown to be a robust and reproducible approach to capture the content of complex chemical mixtures, while a binary normalization step allows for emphasizing the chemical diversity in each sample, and unsupervised statistical methodologies provide key advantages to classify, authenticate, and highlight the potential presence of additives and adulterants.

Lignans and Neolignans: Plant secondary metabolites as a reservoir of biologically active substances

Lignans and neolignans are plant secondary metabolites derived from the oxidative coupling of phenylpropanoids. Biological activity of these phenolic compounds ranges from antioxidant, antitumor (terminaloside P, IC₅₀ = 10 nM), anti-inflammatory, anti-neurodegenerative (schibitubin B, IC₅₀ = 3.2 nM) and antiviral (patentiflorin A, IC₅₀ = 14-23 nM) to antimicrobial. In addition, it was observed that several members of this group, namely enterolactone and its biochemical precursors also known as phytoestrogens, possess important protective properties. Most of these lignans and neolignans are presented in reasonable amounts in one's diet and thus the protection they provide against the colon and breast cancer, to name a few, is even more important to note. Similarly, neuroprotective properties were observed (schisanwilsonin G, IC₅₀ = 3.2 nM) These structural motives also serve as an important starting point in the development of anticancer drugs. Presumably the most famous members of this family, etoposide and teniposide, synthetic derivatives of podophyllotoxin, are used in the clinical treatment of lymphocytic leukemia, certain brain tumors, and lung tumors already for nearly 20 years. This review describes 413 lignans and neolignans which have been isolated between 2016 and mid-2018 being reported in more than 300 peer-reviewed articles. It covers their source, structure elucidation, and bioactivity. Within the review, the structure-based overview of compounds as well as the bioactivity-based overview of compounds are described.