Extraction and concentration of tanshinones in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge by task-specific non-ionic surfactant assistance

Water as Green Solvent: Methods of Solubilisation and Extraction of Natural Products-Past, Present and Future Solutions

Water is considered the greenest solvent. Nonetheless, the water solubility of natural products is still an incredibly challenging issue. Indeed, it is nearly impossible to solubilize or to extract many natural products properly using solely water due to their low solubility in this solvent. To address this issue, researchers have tried for decades to tune water properties to enhance its solvent potential in order to be able to solubilise or extract low-water solubility compounds. A few methods involving the use of solubilisers were described in the early 2000s. Since then, and particularly in recent years, additional methods have been described as useful to ensure the effective green extraction but also solubilisation of natural products using water as a solvent. Notably, combinations of these green methods unlock even higher extraction performances. This review aims to present, compare and analyse all promising methods and their relevant combinations to extract natural products from bioresources with water as solvent enhanced by green solubilisers and/or processes.

Salvia miltiorrhiza in thorax and abdomainal organ fibrosis: A review of its pharmacology

Organ fibrosis is a common pathological change that finally results in organ failure, which involves the destruction of parenchyma cells, the activation of mesenchymal cells and the imbalance of immunological cells. In recent years, although some breakthroughs have been made in understanding the pathogenesis and therapeutics of organ fibrosis, no registered drugs could directly target the fibrotic process, which constitutes a major biomedical challenge. Salvia miltiorrhiza (SM) is a well-known medicinal plant in China, which has been widely applied because of its pharmacological effects on anti-oxidative, anti-myocardial infarction, anti-fibrotic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-neoplastic properties. Accumulated evidence suggested that SM played critical roles against organ fibrosis in vivo and in vitro experiments by its multiple biological compounds. In this review, we discussed the recent advances on the phytochemistry and pharmacological mechanisms of SM and its active ingredients in liver, lung, kidney, and heart fibrosis, which might help to promote the treatment of fibrotic diseases in thorax and abdomainal viscera in clinic.

Stability, nutritional composition, and antioxidant properties of surfactant-assisted enzymatically extracted tiger nut milk

This study evaluated the effect of surfactant-assisted enzymatic extraction on the quality of tiger nut milk (TNM). TNM was extracted from tiger nuts using different concentrations of xylanase (0.010–0.100%) and Tween 20 (0.005–0.010%). The yield, stability, nutritional, antioxidant, and sensory properties of the samples were determined. The yield of TNM significantly increased, by 32.72–50.67%, following surfactant-assisted enzymatic extraction. Optimum yield and stability of TNM were obtained using 0.010% xylanase and Tween 20. Enzymatic extraction significantly increased total sugar and flavonoids, however, starch, dietary fibre, protein, carotenoids, lycopene, total phenolic content, and antioxidant properties reduced significantly. The incorporation of Tween 20 stabilised these parameters. There was no significant difference in panellists' preference for the control (sample extracted without enzyme and surfactant), enzymatically-extracted, and surfactant-assisted enzymatic extracted samples in mouthfeel and aroma, however, the surfactant-assisted enzymatic extracted sample was most preferred in colour, consistency, taste, and overall acceptability. Using surfactant-assisted enzymatic extraction could prove invaluable for the production of TNM.

Simultaneous capture of hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds from complex plants by biosurfactant-assisted mechanical amorphous dispersion extraction

A biosurfactant-assisted mechanical amorphous dispersion extraction (BA-MADE) procedure was established for the simultaneous capture of hydrophilic phenolic acids and hydrophobic tanshinones from Salvia miltiorrhiza. Single-factor experiments and the response surface methodology were used to optimize and analyze the crucial parameters for the method, such as the type and amount of amorphous-dispersion extractants, grinding time, extraction time and solid-to-liquid ratio. The optimized parameter values for the BA-MADE process were 407.02 mg of sodium chenodeoxycholate, a grinding time of 4.87 min, an extraction time of 4.92 min, and a solid-to-liquid ratio of 0.5:10 g/mL. The calibration curves of danshensu, rosmarinic acid, lithospermic acid, salvianolic acid B, salvianolic acid A, dihydrotanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I, and tanshinone II A exhibited good linearity in the range of 1-500 μg/mL (R² ≥ 0.9990). The limits of detection of nine analytes ranged from 5.46 to 130 ng/mL, the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of intraday and interday precision were less than 1.95 and 3.56%, respectively, and the recoveries of the real sample were in the range of 85-113%, with RSD% below 3.21%. The BA-MADE method was compared with previously reported methods, such as heating reflux extraction, ultrasonic extraction and microwave-assisted micellar extraction, and the results demonstrated that the developed method has significant advantages in the simultaneous extraction of hydrophilic and hydrophobic active components from Salvia miltiorrhiza.

Tanshinones, Critical Pharmacological Components in Salvia miltiorrhiza

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, a member of the Lamiaceae family, is valued in traditional Chinese Medicine. Its dried root (named Danshen) has been used for hundreds of years, primarily for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Tanshinones are the main active ingredients in S. miltiorrhiza and exhibit significant pharmacological activities, such as antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory activity, cardiovascular effects, and antitumor activity. Danshen dripping pill of Tianshili is an effective drug widely used in the clinical treatment of cardiovascular diseases. With the increasing demand for clinical drugs, the traditional method for extracting and separating tanshinones from medicinal plants is insufficient. Therefore, in combination with synthetic biological methods and strategies, it is necessary to analyze the biosynthetic pathway of tanshinones and construct high-yield functional bacteria to obtain tanshinones. Moreover, the biosynthesis of tanshinones has been studied for more than two decades but remains to be completely elucidated. This review will systematically present the composition, extraction and separation, pharmacological activities and biosynthesis of tanshinones from S. miltiorrhiza, with the intent to provide references for studies on other terpenoid bioactive components of traditional Chinese medicines and to provide new research strategies for the sustainable development of traditional Chinese medicine resources.

In vitro Evaluation of Biological Effects of Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) Extracts

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) of the Asteraceae family is known for its pharmacological effects and has been used in therapy for centuries. Currently extracts of all parts of this plant are used — root, leaves and flowers. The extracts are prepared using various extraction agents that may significantly affect the effectiveness and therapeutic spectrum of the extracts. The aim of this study was to use three different solvents for the preparation of the extracts from dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) leaves and flowers, namely triton X-100 (2 %), nonidet P-40 (2 %) and acetone (30 %). After extraction, the extractants were evaporated and the dried extracts were dissolved in water to obtain a series of solutions of the concentrations: 125, 250, 500 and 1000 µg.ml–1. The biological effects of the extracts were investigated by means of the MTT test of cell viability. Rabbit kidney epithelial cells (RK13) exposed to the extracts for 24 and 48 hours were used as a model cell line. We observed that the acetone extract of dandelion leaves and flowers at lower concentrations caused an increase in the viability of the treated cells in comparison with the control cells which were not exposed to the extracts (P < 0.05). At the same time, we observed a significant effect of the solvent used for the preparation of the dry extracts on the viability of the cells. The residues of the extractants caused a decrease in the cell viability almost to zero, which in fact means the death of the cells. The selection of the correct extractant for the preparation of the extracts is essential regarding the use of extracts in the pharmaceutical or cosmetic industries.

Optimization of ultrasound-assisted extraction of phenolic compounds from grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.) leaves via D-optimal design and artificial neural network design with categorical and quantitative variables

BACKGROUND

The extraction of phenolic compounds from grapefruit leaves assisted by ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) by means of D-optimal experimental design and artificial neural network (ANN). For this purpose, five numerical factors were selected: ethanol concentration (0-50%), extraction time (15-60 min), extraction temperature (25-50 °C), solid:liquid ratio (50-100 g L^-1 ) and calorimetric energy density of ultrasound (0.25-0.50 kW L^-1 ), whereas ultrasound probe horn diameter (13 or 19 mm) was chosen as categorical factor.

RESULTS

The optimized experimental conditions yielded by RSM were: 10.80% for ethanol concentration; 58.52 min for extraction time; 30.37 °C for extraction temperature; 52.33 g L^-1 for solid:liquid ratio; 0.457 kW L^-1 for ultrasonic power density, with thick probe type. Under these conditions total phenolics content was found to be 19.04 mg gallic acid equivalents g^-1 dried leaf.

CONCLUSION

The same dataset was used to train multilayer feed-forward networks using different approaches via MATLAB, with ANN exhibiting superior performance to RSM (differences included categorical factor in one model and higher regression coefficients), while close values were obtained for the extraction variables under study, except for ethanol concentration and extraction time. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

In vitro and in silico perspectives on estrogenicity of tanshinones from Salvia miltiorrhiza

This work aims to investigate the structure-activity relationship for binding and activation of human estrogen receptor α ligand binding domain (hERα-LBD) with tanshinones by a combination of in vitro and in silico approaches. The recombinant hERα-LBD was expressed in E. coli strain. The direct binding interactions of tanshinones with hERα-LBD and their ERα agonistic potency were investigated by fluorescence polarization (FP) and reporter gene assays, respectively. FP assay suggested that the tested tanshinones can bind to hERα-LBD as affinity ligands. Tanshinones acted as agonists of hERα as demonstrated by transactivation of estrogen response element (ERE) in transiently transfected MCF-7 cells and by molecular docking of these compounds into the hydrophobic binding pocket of hERα-LBD. Interestingly, comparison of the calculated binding energies versus Connolly solvent-excluded volume and experimental binding affinities showed a good correlation. This work may provide insight into chemical and pharmacological characterization of novel bioactive compounds from Salvia miltiorrhiza.

Chemical Analysis of the Herbal Medicine Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma (Danshen)

Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae et Rhizoma, known as Danshen in China, is one of the most popular traditional Chinese medicines. Recently, there has been increasing scientific attention on Danshen for its remarkable bioactivities, such as promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, and clearing away heat. This review summarized the advances in chemical analysis of Danshen and its preparations since 2009. Representative established methods were reviewed, including spectroscopy, thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography, liquid chromatography (LC), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), capillary electrophoresis, electrochemistry, and bioanalysis. Especially the analysis of polysaccharides in Danshen was discussed for the first time. Some proposals were also put forward to benefit quality control of Danshen.