Traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and formulation aspects of Glycosmis species: A systematic review

Glycosparvine A, a new indole alkaloid from the leaves of Glycosmis parviflora

In the course of our ongoing search for biologically active compounds from medicinal plant, the ethyl acetate extract from the leaves of Glycosmis parviflora (Rutaceae) was investigated. Six compounds including a new indole alkaloid, glycosparvine A (1), and five previously known metabolites (2-6) were identified. The structure of the new compound (1) was unambiguously elucidated by spectroscopic analyses, including 1D/2D NMR spectroscopy and HRESIMS. The absolute configuration of 1 was assigned by comparing its experimental ECD spectra with those reported for similar compound in the literature. Compounds 3 and 6 exhibited moderate inhibitory effects against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) with IC50 values of 35.1 and 2.8 mM, respectively.

Bioactive sulfur-containing amides from the leaves of Glycosmis lucida

Two new sulphur-containing amides, glylucidamides C-D (1-2), along with twelve known analogues (3-14) were isolated and characterised from the leaves of Glycosmis lucida. The chemical structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic methods and the known compounds were identified by comparisons their data with those reported in the literatures. All new compounds were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory activities via examining the inhibitory activity on nitric oxide (NO) production induced by lipopolysaccharide in mouse macrophage RAW 264.7 cells in vitro.

Isolation and characterization of bioactive alkaloids and GC-MS based identification of volatile oil metabolites from fruits of Glycosmis pentaphylla and evaluation of their cytotoxic activity

Glycosmis pentaphylla, a member of the Rutaceae family, has been extensively studied for its pharmacological activities, focusing mainly on the cytotoxic properties of its roots and stems. Conversely, limited researched has been done in terms of the phytochemical composition of the fruits. The objective of this study is to isolate and identify the bioactive compounds found in the fruits of G. pentaphylla and then evaluate their potential for anti-cancer activity in oral cancer CAL 27 cell lines. The extraction of bioactive compounds from fruits was done by maceration, and the isolation of alkaloids and volatile oil fractions (F1-F5) was performed by column chromatography. The alkaloids, such as 3-O-methoxyglycocitrine II, noracronycine, 1-hydroxy-3-methoxy-10-methyl-9-acridone and kokusaginine, were first isolated from the fruits of G. pentaphylla. Additionally, GC-MS analysis identified 78 metabolites. The isolated compounds and identified volatile oil fractions were explored for their anti-cancer activity by cell viability assay. Results demonstrated that isolated compounds were found inactive, while the volatile fraction F1 was found active in CAL 27 cell line. Fraction F1 impeded wound healing in CAL 27 cells by scratch assay, and significantly inhibited colony formation in colony formation assay. In cell cycle analysis, treatment with fraction F1 redistributed cells to the S and G2 phases of the cell cycle. α-elemol (2) is the major metabolite identified from the F1 fraction by GC-MS, which could be responsible for the anti-cancer activity. There is potential for future work to further isolate volatile oil metabolites and evaluate their anti-cancer activity through in-vivo techniques.

A Review of the Ethnobotany, Biological Activity, and Phytochemistry of the Plants in the Gundelia Genus

A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Scopus, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) catalog, and Google Scholar from January 1980 up until October 2023 on plants in the Gundelia genus. Gundelia L. (Asteraceae) has been treated as a monospecific genus with Gundelia tournefortii L. (1753: 814) in most recent floras with wide variation in corolla color, but nowadays, the genus consists of 17 species. The unripe inflorescences of these species, especially G. tournefortii L., are consumed in many ways. 'Akkoub' or 'akko' in Arabic, "Kangar" in Persian, and "Silifa" in Greek are the common names of G. tournefortii L., also known as tumble thistle in English. They have been used in traditional medicine to treat bronchitis, kidney stones, diarrhea, stomach pain, inflammation, liver and blood diseases, bacterial and fungal infections, and mumps. Based on recent studies, their extracts have exhibited hepatoprotective, hypolipidemic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial effects. Moreover, a variety of phytochemicals, including terpenoids, sterols, and fatty acids, as well as vitamins and minerals, have been identified in this genus. This study reviewed the ethnobotany, phytochemicals, and biological activities of the plants in the Gundelia genus as functional foods and herbal remedies.

Isolation, Characterization of Undescribed Alkaloids, and Semisynthetic Modifications of Cytotoxic Pyranoacridone Alkaloids from Glycosmis pentaphylla

Two undescribed alkaloids (10 and 11), along with nine known alkaloids (1-9), have been isolated from the stem and root bark of Glycosmis pentaphylla. Among them are carbocristine (11), a carbazole alkaloid first time isolated from a natural source, and acridocristine (10), a pyranoacridone alkaloid first time isolated from the genus "Glycosmis". In vitro cytotoxicity of isolated compounds has been analyzed on breast cancer (MCF-7), lung cancer (CALU-3), and squamous cell carcinoma cell lines (SCC-25). The results demonstrated that compounds are moderately active. In order to study the structural activity relationship of majorly isolated compounds, semisynthetic modifications have been done on majorly isolated compounds such as des-N-methylacronycine (4) and noracronycine (1) to synthesize 11 semisynthetic derivatives (12-22) on functionalizable -NH and -OH groups of the pyranoacridone scaffold at 12th and 6th positions. Semisynthetic derivatives are explored on the same cell lines as isolated compounds, and the results exhibit that semisynthetic compounds showed potent cytotoxic activity compared with naturally isolated compounds. In the case of CALU-3, the dimer at -OH position of noracronycine (1), i.e., compound 22, showed 24-fold better activity with an IC₅₀ of 4.49 μM compared with noracronycine (1) with IC₅₀ 97.5 μM. In MCF-7, the dimer at -OH position of noracronycine (1), i.e., compound 22, showed 14-fold better activity with an IC₅₀ of 13.2 μM compared with noracronycine (1) with IC₅₀ 187 μM.

Structurally diverse sulphur-containing amides from Glycosmis craibii with their potential antiproliferative activities

Fourteen new sulphur-containing amides, glycocramides A-N (1-14), as well as nine known analogues (15-23) were isolated and characterized from Glycosmis craibii Tanaka. The chemical structures of new sulphur-containing amides 1-14 were ambiguously elucidated by extensive spectroscopic methods, while the known compounds 15-23 were identified by the comparison of their experimental spectral data with those described data in the literatures. The antiproliferative effects of all isolated sulphur-containing amides were evaluated in vitro. As a result, part of sulphur-containing amides showed remarkable inhibitory effects against MGC-803 cell line with IC₅₀ values ranging from 13.12 ± 0.10 to 20.03 ± 0.13 μM. These research results suggest that the sulphur-containing amides are potentially to be developed as a new natural anti-tumor drugs.

Isolation and Characterization of One New Natural Compound with Other Potential Bioactive Secondary Metabolites from Glycosmis cyanocarpa (Blume) Spreng. (Family: Rutaceae)

Glycosmis cyanocarpa (Blume) Spreng is a plant in the Rutaceae family and a species in the Glycosmis genus that has received little attention. Therefore, this research aimed to report the chemical and biological analysis of Glycosmis cyanocarpa (Blume) Spreng. The chemical analysis involved the isolation and characterization of secondary metabolites through an extensive chromatographic study, and the structures of these metabolites were elucidated on the basis of a detailed analysis of NMR and HRESIMS spectroscopic data and by comparison with those of related compounds reported in the literature. Different partitions of the crude ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract were evaluated for antioxidant, cytotoxic, and thrombolytic potentials. In chemical analysis, one new phenyl acetate derivative, namely 3,7,11,15-tetramethylhexadec-2-en-1-yl 2-phenylacetate (1), along with four known compounds N-methyl-3-(methylthio)-N-(2-phenylacetyl) acrylamide (2), penangin (3), β-Caryophyllene oxide (4), and acyclic diterpene-phytol (5) were isolated for the first time from the stem and leaf of the plant. The ethyl acetate fraction showed significant free radical scavenging activity with an IC₅₀ value of 11.536 µg/mL compared to standard ascorbic acid (4.816 µg/mL). In the thrombolytic assay, the dichloromethane fraction showed the maximum thrombolytic activity of 16.42% but was still insignificant compared to the standard streptokinase (65.98%). Finally, in a brine shrimp lethality bioassay, the LC₅₀ values of dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and aqueous fractions were found to be 0.687 µg/mL, 0.805 µg/mL, and 0.982 µg/mL which are significant compared to the standard vincristine sulfate of 0.272 µg/mL.

Metabolite profiling, in vitro and in silico assessment of antibacterial and anticancer activities of Alternaria alternata endophytic in Jatropha heynei

Fungal endophytes produce a range of structurally diverse metabolites with bioactive principles. In this study, an endophytic fungus Alternaria alternata was isolated from Jatropha heynei and cultured in potato dextrose liquid broth. Culture filtrate of A. alternata was extracted in ethyl acetate and metabolites were characterized by QTOF-HRLCMS. Among compounds detected, spectral compounds such as kigelinone, and levofuraltadone were reported with antibacterial property, while 2-hydroxychrasophanol, isoathyriol, glycophymoline, columbianetin and kaempferol 3-O-β-D- galactoside were reported with cytotoxic properties. Partially purified metabolites of A. alternata showed significant antibacterial activity against tested clinical bacterial strains by agar well diffusion method. High zone of inhibition was recorded against Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas syringae and Klebsiella pneumoniae. In vitro anticancer activity of fungal extract by MTT assay displayed high cytotoxic effect on human lung carcinoma cancer cell line (A549) with IC₅₀ value of 393.52 µg ml^-1, and without any significant cytotoxic effect on human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Further, antibacterial and anticancer spectral compounds of A. alternata were subjected to molecular docking analysis with antibacterial target proteins such as tellurite resistance protein (2JXU), indole-3-acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (5IUU) and alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (5Y63), and anticancer target human apoptotic regulator protein (1G5M). The results of the study indicated that kigelinone, levofuraltadone, 2-hydroxychrasophanol and isoathyriol in the fungal extract have significant binding modes, with best binding energy scores with their respective antibacterial and anticancer target proteins. Alternaria alternata resident in J. heynei offers a promising source of broad-spectrum antibacterial and anticancer compounds.

Cytotoxic constituents of Glycosmis ovoidea collected in Vietnam

Compounds derived from natural sources have been major contributors to the area of cancer chemotherapy for decades. As part of an ongoing effort to discover anticancer drug leads from tropical plants, a large-scale collection of Glycosmis ovoidea Pierre (Rutaceae), was made at Nui Chua National Park, Vietnam. Activity-guided fractionation of the chloroform-soluble fractions led to the isolation of nine coumarins, including the new compound, 1-(7-methoxy-2-oxo-2H-chromen-8-yl)-3-methyl-1-oxobut-2-en-2-yl (S)-2-methylbutanoate (1). An close analogue of 1, namely, kincuongin (2), was deemed as non-cytotoxic (IC50 > 10 μM) against five different cancer cell lines. However, co-administration of kimcuongin (2) showed an approximately 100 times potentiation of the MCF-7 breast cancer cell cytotoxicity of the previously reported flavonoid, 5,3'-dihydroxy-3,6,7,8,4'-pentamethoxyflavone (10). To provide a mechanistic basis for the cancer cell line inhibition enhancement observed, an initial in silico study on compound 10 indicated that it interacts with isoforms of the NF-κB complex. In a confirmatory western blot experiment conducted, kimcuongin (2) was found to potentiate the effects of flavone 10 in inhibiting both NF-κB and PARP-1. In vivo investigations using a zebrafish (Danio rerio) model showed that compounds 2, 3, 5, and 6 did not exhibit any discernible toxicity at concentrations up to 50 μM.

Chloroplast genome structure and phylogenetic analysis of Glycosmis parviflora (Sims) Little 1948, a folk medicinal plant featured in Lingnan Region, China

Glycosmis parviflora is the most widely spread and the most morphologically varied species of Chinese Glycosmis, and its roots and leaves serve as folk medicines. We sequenced the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of G. parviflora. The cp genome obtained was a circular DNA molecule of 159,825 bp in length, containing one large and one small single copy region (LSC and SSC) of 87,517 and 18,352 bp separated by a pair of 26,978 bp inverted repeat regions (IRs). The overall GC content of the cp genome was 38.40%. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that Glycosmis was strongly supported as a monophyletic group belonging to Clauseneae, and G. parviflora was closely related to G. pentaphylla. The results will provide the basis for the further study of molecular markers and phylogeny of G. parviflora.

The radical scavenging activity of glycozolidol in physiological environments: a quantum chemical study

Glycozolidol (GLD), derived from Glycosmis pentaphylla, is predicted to be a good radical scavenger in physiological environments.