Lonimacranaldes A–C, three iridoids with novel skeletons from Lonicera macranthoides

The comparative analysis of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos and Lonicerae Flos: A systematical review

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Lonicerae Japonicae Flos (LJF) and Lonicerae Flos (LF) were once used as the same herb in China, but they were distinguished by Chinese Pharmacopoeia in 2005 in terms of their medicinal history, plant morphology, medicinal properties and chemical constituents. However, their functions, flavor, and meridian tropism are the same according to the Chinese pharmacopoeia 2020 edition, making researchers and customers confused.

AIM OF THE REVIEW

This review aimed to provide a comparative analysis of LJF and LF in order to provide a rational application in future research.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The information was gathered from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), SciFinder, Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, and Chinese Masters and Doctoral Dissertations (all chosen articles were reviewed attentively from 1980.1 to 2023.8).

RESULTS

Till now, 507 chemical compounds have been isolated and identified in LJF, while 223 ones (79 overlapped compounds) are found in LF, including organic acids and derivatives, flavonoids, triterpenoids, iridoids, and essential oil components, etc. In addition, the pharmacological activities of LJF and LF, especially for their anti-influenza efficacy and mechanism, and their difference in terms of pharmacokinetic parameters, toxicology, and clinical applications were also summarized.

CONCLUSION

The current work offers comparative information between LJF and LF in terms of botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, ethnopharmacology, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, and pharmacology, especially their anti-influenza activities. Despite the same clinical applications and similar chemical components in LJF and LF, differentiated components were still existed, resulting in differentiated pharmacological activities and pharmacokinetics parameters. Moreover, the research about anti-influenza mechanism and functional substances of LJF and LF is dramatically limited, restricting their clinical applications. In addition, few studies have investigated the metabolism feature of LF in vivo, which is one of the important bases for revealing the pharmacological mechanism of LF. At the same time, the toxicity of LJF and LF is not fully studied, and the toxic compounds of LJF and LF need to be screened out in order to standardize the drug use and improve their rational applications.

Genus Lonicera: New drug discovery from traditional usage to modern chemical and pharmacological research

BACKGROUND

Lonicera Linn. belonging to the family Caprifoliaceae, the largest genus in the plant family, includes about more than 200 species, which are mainly distributed in northern Africa, North America, Europe and Asia. Some species of this genus have been usually used in traditional Chinese medicine as well as functional foods, cosmetics and other applications, such as L. japonica Thunb. Bioactive components and pharmacological activities of the genus Lonicera plants have received an increasing interest from the scientific community. Thus, a comprehensive and systematic review on their traditional usage in China, chemical components, and their pharmacological properties of their whole plants, bioactive extracts, and bioactive isolates including partial structure-activity relationships from the genus is indispensable.

METHODS

Information on genus Lonicera of this systematic electronic literature search was gathered via the published articles, patents, clinical trials website (https://clinicaltrials.gov/) and several online bibliographic databases (PubMed, Sci Finder, Research Gate, Science Direct, CNKI, Web of Science and Google Scholar). The following keywords were used for the online search: Lonicera, phytochemical composition, Lonicerae japonica, Lonicera review articles, bioactivities of Lonicera, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antimicrobial, anticancer, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, neuroprotective, anti-diabetic, and clinical trials. This review paper consists of a total of 225 papers covering the Lonicera genus from 1800 to 2021, including research articles, reviews, patents, and book chapters.

RESULTS

In this review (1800s-2021), about 420 components from the genus of Lonicera Linn. including 87 flavonoids, 222 terpenoids, 51 organic acids, and other compounds, together with their pharmacological activities including anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antimicrobial, anticancer, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, neuroprotective, antidiabetic, anti-allergic, immunomodulatory effects, and toxicity were summarized.

CONCLUSION

The relationship is discussed among their traditional usage, their pharmacological properties, and their chemical components, which indicate the genus Lonicera have a large prospect in terms of new drug exploitation, especially in COVID-19 treatment.

Survey of natural products reported by Asian research groups in 2019

The new natural products reported in 2019 in peer-reviewed articles in journals with good reputations were reviewed and analyzed. The advances made by Asian research groups in the field of natural products chemistry in 2019 were summarized. Compounds with unique structural features and/or promising bioactivities originating from Asian natural sources were discussed based on their structural classification.

A new nitrogen-containing iridoid glycoside from lonicera macranthoides

A new nitrogen-containing iridoid glycoside, named (7 R,3'R)-lonijapospiroside A (1), together with thirteen known iridoid glycosides, were isolated from the flower buds of Lonicera macranthoides. The structures of these compounds were established on the basis of spectroscopic analyses. Among them, compounds 1-4 are four diastereoisomers, and their absolute configurations were accurately established by the NOE spectra as well as comparison of their experimental and calculated ECD spectra. The anti-inflammatory activities of all isolates were evaluated by measuring their inhibitory effects on NO, IL-6, and TNF-α production in LPS stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Compound 14 exhibited anti-inflammatory activities by inhibiting IL-6 with an IC₅₀ value of 54.70 μM, comparable to that of the positive control (hydrocortisone, IC₅₀: 62.6 ± 1.7 μM).

Hot off the press

A personal selection of 32 recent papers is presented covering various aspects of current developments in bioorganic chemistry and novel natural products such as phlegmadine A from Phlegmariurus phlegmaria.