2-Methyl-l-erythritol glycosides from Gardenia jasminoides

Neuropharmacological insights into Gardenia jasminoides Ellis: Harnessing therapeutic potential for central nervous system disorders

BACKGROUND

In China, Gardenia jasminoides Ellis (GJE) has a longstanding history of application. The Ministry of Health has listed it as one of the first pharmaceutical or food resources. In ethnic, traditional, and folk medicine, GJE has been used to treat fever and cold and relieve nervous anxiety. Recent studies have confirmed the significant efficacy of GJE for treating central nervous system (CNS) disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and major depressive disorder; however, GJE has not been systematically evaluated.

PURPOSE

This research systematically summarizes global studies on the use of GJE for treating CNS disorders and explores the potential applications and underlying mechanisms via intestinal flora analysis and network pharmacology, aiming to establish a scientific basis for innovative CNS disorder treatment with GJE.

METHODS

The PRISMA guidelines were used, and electronic databases such as the Web of Science, PubMed, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched using the following search terms: "Gardenia jasminoides Ellis" with "central nervous system disease," "neuroprotection," "Alzheimer's disease," "Parkinson's disease," "ischemic stroke," "Epilepsy," and "major depressive disorder." The published literature up to September 2023 was searched to obtain relevant information on the application of GJE for treating CNS disorders.

RESULTS

There has been an increase in research on the material formulation and mechanisms of action of GJE for treating CNS disorders, with marked effects on CNS disorder treatment in different countries and regions. We summarized the research results related to the role of GJE in vitro and in vivo via multitargeted interventions in response to the complex mechanisms of action of CNS disorders.

CONCLUSION

We systematically reviewed the research progress on traditional treatment for GJE and preclinical mechanisms of CNS disorders and explored the potential of optimizing network pharmacology strategies and intestinal flora analysis to elucidate the mechanisms of action of GJE. The remarkable therapeutic efficacy of GJE, an important resource in traditional medicine, has been well documented in the literature, highlighting its significant medicinal potential.

A comprehensive review of ethnopharmacology, chemical constituents, pharmacological effects, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, and quality control of gardeniae fructus

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Gardeniae Fructus (GF), the desiccative mature fruitage of Gardenia jasminoides J. Ellis (G. jasminoides), belongs to the Rubiaceae family. It has abundant medicinal value, such as purging fire and eliminating annoyance, clearing heat and diuresis, cooling blood, and detoxifying. GF is usually used in combination with other drugs to treat diseases such as fever and jaundice in damp heat syndrome in traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) clinical practice.

THE AIM OF THE REVIEW

This review comprehensively summarizes the research progress in botany, traditional medical use, processing method, phytochemistry, pharmacological activity, quality control, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology, which aims to provide a scientific basis for the rational application and future research of GF.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

ScienceDirect, PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Embase, Scopus etc. databases were retrieved to gain the comprehensive information of GF.

RESULTS

At present, more than 215 compounds were isolated and identified from GF, including iridoids, diterpenes, triterpenoids, flavonoids, organic esters, and so on. The traditional application of GF mainly focused on clearing heat and detoxification. Pharmacological studies proved that GF had anti-inflammatory, antioxidation, antifatigue, antithrombotic, liver and gallbladder protection, and other pharmacological effects. In addition, many improved processing methods can alleviate the side effects and toxic reactions caused by long-term use of GF, so controlling its quality through multi-component content measurement has become an important means of research.

CONCLUSION

GF has a wide range of applications, the mechanisms by which some effective substances exert their pharmacological effects have not been clearly explained due to the complexity and diversity of its components. This review systematically elaborates on the traditional medical use, processing method, phytochemistry, pharmacological activity, quality control, and toxicology of GF, and it is expected to become a candidate drug for treating diseases, such as depression, pancreatitis, alcoholic or non-alcoholic fatty liver.

A metabolomic platform to identify and quantify polyphenols in coffee and related species using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry

INTRODUCTION

Products of plant secondary metabolism, such as phenolic compounds, flavonoids, alkaloids, and hormones, play an important role in plant growth, development, stress resistance. The plant family Rubiaceae is extremely diverse and abundant in Central America and contains several economically important genera, e.g. Coffea and other medicinal plants. These are known for the production of bioactive polyphenols (e.g. caffeine and quinine), which have had major impacts on human society. The overall goal of this study was to develop a high-throughput workflow to identify and quantify plant polyphenols.

METHODS

First, a method was optimized to extract over 40 families of phytochemicals. Then, a high-throughput metabolomic platform has been developed to identify and quantify 184 polyphenols in 15 min.

RESULTS

The current metabolomics study of secondary metabolites was conducted on leaves from one commercial coffee variety and two wild species that also belong to the Rubiaceae family. Global profiling was performed using liquid chromatography high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Features whose abundance was significantly different between coffee species were discriminated using statistical analysis and annotated using spectral databases. The identified features were validated by commercially available standards using our newly developed liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method.

DISCUSSION

Caffeine, trigonelline and theobromine were highly abundant in coffee leaves, as expected. Interestingly, wild Rubiaceae leaves had a higher diversity of phytochemicals in comparison to commercial coffee: defense-related molecules, such as phenylpropanoids (e.g., cinnamic acid), the terpenoid gibberellic acid, and the monolignol sinapaldehyde were found more abundantly in wild Rubiaceae leaves.

A review of the ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of Fructus Gardeniae (Zhi-zi)

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Fructus Gardeniae (FG) is the dried fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis (GjE), which belongs to the family Rubiaceae. FG has a long history of use as a herb, and was originally recorded in Sheng Nong's herbal classic. FG has also been widely used as both medicine and food.

AIM OF STUDY

This review aimed to provide a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the current research progress of FG in terms of ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicity, to provide new insights and extensive field of view for subsequent studies.

METHODS

Scientific databases, including CNKI, VIP (Chinese literature), PubMed, Science Direct, Elsevier and Google Scholar (English literatures) were searched to gather data about FG and its main active ingredients such as geniposide and genipin (only regarding toxicity).

RESULTS

Many chemical constituents have been identified from the fruit of GjE, including iridoids, terpenoids, flavonoids, organic acids, volatile oils and others. The constituents of different parts of FG and processed FG are different from those of whole FG. FG extract and its main active constituents have been reported to have pharmacological properties such as hepatoprotective, choleretic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, neuroprotective, anti-diabetic, anti-apoptotic and antitumor activities. However, an increasing number of studies have shown that FG induces multiple organ injury, especially causing hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, which could increase the risk during clinical use. The available literature shows that geniposide, a major active component of FG and a critical marker for its quality, is associated with the pharmacology and toxicity of FG.

CONCLUSION

Although a large number of studies examining FG have been published, issues remain. In the aspect of FG's pharmacology, the traditional efficacy and modern pharmacological effects of FG should be combined, which to broadens clinical application prospects. In addition, few studies have assessed the toxicity of FG. Toxicity assessment of FG should tackle various aspects, including compatibility, processing and the symptom-based prescription theory, in addition to over-dosage or long-term use, for a reasonable clinical use.

Gardenia jasminoides Ellis: Ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and pharmacological and industrial applications of an important traditional Chinese medicine

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Gardenia jasminoides Ellis is a popular shrub in the Rubiaceae family. The desiccative ripe fruits of this plant (called Zhizi in China) are well known and frequently used not only as an excellent natural colourant, but also as an important traditional medicine for the treatment of different diseases, such as reducing fire except vexed, clearing away heat evil, and cooling blood and eliminating stasis to activate blood circulation. It has also been declared as the first batch of dual-purpose plants used for food and medical functions in China.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This review aims to provide a critical and systematic summary of the traditional uses, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology, toxicity and industrial applications of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis and briefly proposes several suggestions for future application prospects.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The related information on Gardenia jasminoides Ellis was obtained from internationally recognized scientific databases through the Internet (PubMed, CNKI, Google Scholar, Baidu Scholar, Web of Science, Medline Plus, ACS, Elsevier and Flora of China) and libraries.

RESULTS

Approximately 162 chemical compounds have been isolated and identified from this herb. Among them, iridoid glycosides and yellow pigment are generally considered the main bioactive and characteristic ingredients. Various pharmacological properties, such as a beneficial effect on the nervous, cardiovascular and digestive systems, hepatoprotective activity, antidepressant activity, and anti-inflammatory activity, were also validated in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, geniposide and genipin are the most important iridoid compounds isolated from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, and genipin is the aglycone of geniposide. As the predominant active ingredient with a distinct pharmacological activity, genipin is also an outstanding biological crosslinking agent. Gardenia yellow pigment has also been widely used as an excellent natural dye-stuff. Hence, Gardenia jasminoides Ellis has been applied to many other fields, including the food industry, textile industry and chemical industry, in addition to its predominant medicinal uses.

CONCLUSIONS

According to this review, Gardenia jasminoides Ellis is outstanding traditional medical plant used in medicine and food. Pharmacological investigations support the traditional use of this herb and may validate the folk medicinal use of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis to treat different diseases. Iridoid glycosides are potential medicines. Gardenia yellow pigment has been the most important source of a natural colourant for food, cloth and paint for thousands of years. This herb has made great contributions to human survival and development. Moreover, it has also achieved outstanding progress in human life and even in art. Although Gardenia jasminoides Ellis has extremely high and comprehensive utilization values, it is still far from being completely explored. Therefore, the comprehensive development of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis deserves further analysis.

Phytochemical Content, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities of Sedum spurium

Sedum L. species are used for their hemostatic, antidiarrheal, antifungal, diuretic and wound healing properties, and there is growing interest in these species because of their usage in folk medicine. DPPH, SO, NO, and ABTS radical scavenging activities and protective effects against H2O2 induced cytotoxicity, as well as cytotoxic activities against the Hep-2 cell line of various extracts from Sedum spurium Bieb. were investigated. Besides, the total phenol, flavonoid, and flavonol contents of the extracts were determined to clarify their biological and phytochemical properties. Chromatographic studies on the most active extract led to the isolation of the major compound, identified as 2-methyl-erythritol by 1H and 13C NMR techniques. The EtOAc extract is found to be the most active extract in all tests. However, major compound of EtOAc extract did not possess tested activities. The EtOAC extract of S. spurium could be effective to improve antihemolytic defences of erythrocytes, and radical scavenging potential of the antioxidant mechanism. The extracts should be investigated in detail for their cytotoxic activities because of their possible pro-oxidant effects at high concentrations.

Secondary metabolites from Rubiaceae species

This study describes some characteristics of the Rubiaceae family pertaining to the occurrence and distribution of secondary metabolites in the main genera of this family. It reports the review of phytochemical studies addressing all species of Rubiaceae, published between 1990 and 2014. Iridoids, anthraquinones, triterpenes, indole alkaloids as well as other varying alkaloid subclasses, have shown to be the most common. These compounds have been mostly isolated from the genera Uncaria, Psychotria, Hedyotis, Ophiorrhiza and Morinda. The occurrence and distribution of iridoids, alkaloids and anthraquinones point out their chemotaxonomic correlation among tribes and subfamilies. From an evolutionary point of view, Rubioideae is the most ancient subfamily, followed by Ixoroideae and finally Cinchonoideae. The chemical biosynthetic pathway, which is not so specific in Rubioideae, can explain this and large amounts of both iridoids and indole alkaloids are produced. In Ixoroideae, the most active biosysthetic pathway is the one that produces iridoids; while in Cinchonoideae, it produces indole alkaloids together with other alkaloids. The chemical biosynthetic pathway now supports this botanical conclusion.

Primary and secondary organics in the tropical Amazonian rainforest aerosols: chiral analysis of 2-methyltetraols

This work presents the application of a new method to facilitate the distinction between biologically produced (primary) and atmospherically produced (secondary) organic compounds in ambient aerosols based on their chirality. The compounds chosen for this analysis were the stereomers of 2-methyltetraols, (2R,3S)- and (2S,3R)-methylerythritol, (l- and d-form, respectively), and (2S,3S)- and (2R,3R)-methylthreitol (l- and d-form), shown previously to display some enantiomeric excesses in atmospheric aerosols, thus to have at least a partial biological origin. In this work PM10 aerosol fractions were collected in a remote tropical rainforest environment near Manaus, Brazil, between June 2008 and June 2009 and analysed. Both 2-methylerythritol and 2-methylthreitol displayed a net excess of one enantiomer (either the l- or the d-form) in 60 to 72% of these samples. These net enantiomeric excesses corresponded to compounds entirely biological but accounted for only about 5% of the total 2-methyltetrol mass in all the samples. Further analysis showed that, in addition, a large mass of the racemic fractions (equal mixtures of d- and l-forms) was also biological. Estimating the contribution of secondary reactions from the isomeric ratios measured in the samples (=ratios 2-methylthreitol over 2-methylerythritol), the mass fraction of secondary methyltetrols in these samples was estimated to a maximum of 31% and their primary fraction to a minimum of 69%. Such large primary fractions could have been expected in PM10 aerosols, largely influenced by biological emissions, and would now need to be investigated in finer aerosols. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of chiral and isomeric analyses as the first direct tool to assess the primary and secondary fractions of organic aerosols.