Phytochemical and Bioactive Potential of in vivo and in vitro Grown Plants of Centaurea ragusina L. - Detection of DNA/RNA Active Compounds in Plant Extracts via Thermal Denaturation and Circular Dichroism

Oxidative stress response to different exercise intensity with an automated assay: thiol/disulphide homeostasis

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different intensity treadmill exercises on the thiol disulphide homeostasis which is a new marker of oxidative stress in rats. Male albino Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups as follows: control (CNT), low (LEx), moderate (MEx) and high-intensity exercise (HEx) group. Exercise was performed for 4 weeks. Following completion of the experimental protocol, serum total thiol, native thiol and disulphide concentrations were determined using a novel automated measurement method. Additionally, dynamic disulphide status, reduced thiol, oxidised thiol and thiol oxidation reduction percentage ratios were compared among the groups. Disulphide levels were significantly lower in MEx group and highest in CNT group (p = .047). The lowest oxidised thiol and the highest reduced thiol were determined in CNT group (p = .086; p = .083). These findings indicate that moderate-intensity exercise is more effective in reducing oxidative stress than low and high-intensity exercise.

Comparison of pharmacological properties and phytochemical constituents of in vitro propagated and naturally occurring liverwort Lunularia cruciata

BACKGROUND

Study of phytochemicals and pharmacological properties of bryophytes has been neglected for a long time because of the three main reasons i.e. (i) difficulty in collection in large amount for analysis; (ii) their availablility only in particular season and (iii) their restricted geographic distribution. So, the aim of this work was to propagate Lunularia cruciata under in vitro condition for comparing its pharmacological properties and phytocmecial constituents with naturally grown counterparts.

METHOD

Axenic culture of L. cruciata was established by propagating gemmae under in vitro condition. Appropriate culture conditions, media, and the effect of hormones on growth and development were studied. The phytochemical composition was determined by GC-MS analysis and pharmacological activity was evaluated by assessing the antioxidant and anti-diabetic activities. For the antioxidant activity ABTS⁺ [2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)], DPPH^• (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and metal chelating assays were done and for evaluation of the in vitro anti-diabetic activity α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibitory activities were done.

RESULT

Growth of L. cruciata was recorded in half strength MS media. Benzylaminopurine (BAP: 2 mg/L) and 1-Naphtheleneacetic acid (NAA: 0.5 mg/L) were the successful hormonal combination. GC-MS analysis revealed the existence of nine key compounds in both in vitro and naturally grown L. cruciata. Result of antioxidant and anti-diabetic activity showed that in vitro grown L. cruciata has a more or less similar antioxidant and anti-diabetic activities as naturally grown ones. This result confirms the possibility of using in vitro grown plants in place of naturally grown plants for research and clinical purposes.

Ready-to-use green polyphenolic extracts from food by-products

To establish environmentally friendly polyphenolic extracts from grape and olive pomace, natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) were used coupled with alternative energy sources - ultrasound and microwave irradiation. Obtained extracts were characterized by HPLC analysis, while antioxidant capacity was determined by ORAC method. Furthermore, in vitro cytotoxicity of prepared extracts was assessed by antiproliferation assay on two tumour cell lines, whereas for investigation of type of cell death or cell cycle arrest a flow cytometric analysis was applied. In addition, a detection of compounds with DNA/RNA-bindingaffinity in extracts was investigated by UV/Vis and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Grape pomace extract in NADES showed to be the best of all extracts tested, with regard to extraction of total polyphenolic compounds (p < 0.05) and related biological activities such as antioxidant and antiproliferative activity. Prepared polyphenolic extracts in NADES could be considered as ready-to-use in food and pharmaceutical industry without demanding and expensive downstream purification steps.

Use of Plant Extracts in Alternative Medicine

Plants provide the oxygen required for maintenance of human life. They are essential for human life in terms of food and health. Thousands of years ago, humans explored the therapeutic power of plants and preferred to benefit from them to live healthily. According to the data of the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of plants used for therapeutic purposes is around 20,000. Since the beginning of using plants for human health, the bioactivity characteristics of the plants have been studied in laboratories. There are various bioactive components in plants, the most important of which are secondary metabolites. It is very important how and by which methods the secondary metabolites of plants are characterized as well as their isolation, proper and effective performance of their extraction process and identification of their various biological activities that might be used in alternative medicine. This review examines the usability of supplementary medical support products after the identification of bioactive characteristics of plants by means of various biochemical and molecular biological methods.

Biological Activity of Flavonoids and Rare Sesquiterpene Lactones Isolated From Centaurea ragusina L

The endemic Croatian species Centaurea ragusina L., like other species from the genus Centaurea, has been traditionally used in Croatia as an antibacterial agent and for the treatment of gastrointestinal and urogenital disorders. In several chromatographic steps, three flavonoids and three sesquiterpene lactones (STLs) were isolated and identified from the most active fractions of the ethanol extract. Two STLs, one for which we created the trivial name ragusinin, and hemistepsin A are here reported for the first time as constituents of the genus Centaurea. All six compounds were screened for their effect on several tumor and one normal cell lines. Among them, ragusinin showed the best bioactivity and high specificity to affect tumor murine SCCVII, human HeLa and Caco-2 cell lines, but not the viability of normal V79 fibroblasts. Due to these characteristics the action of ragusinin was investigated in more detail. Since DNA is the primary target for many drugs with antibacterial and anticancer activity, we studied its interaction with ragusinin. Rather moderate binding affinity to DNA excluded it as the primary target of ragusinin. Due to the possibility of STL interaction with glutathione (GSH), the ubiquitous peptide that traps reactive compounds and other xenobiotics to prevent damage to vital proteins and nucleic acids, its role in deactivation of ragusinin was evaluated. Addition of the GSH precursor N-acetyl-cysteine potentiated the viability of HeLa cells, while the addition of GSH inhibitor L-buthionine sulfoximine decreased it. Moreover, pre-treatment of HeLa cells with the inhibitor of glutathione-S-transferase decreased their viability indicating the detoxifying role of GSH in ragusinin treated cells. Cell death, derived by an accumulation of cells in a G2 phase of the cell cylce, was shown to be independent of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase and caspase-3 cleavage pointing toward an alternative cell death pathway.