Pharmacological Properties and Traditional Therapeutic Uses of Important Indian Spices: A Review

Brassicaceae Mustards: Phytochemical Constituents, Pharmacological Effects, and Mechanisms of Action against Human Disease

The Brassicaceae genus consists of many economically important mustards of value for food and medicinal purposes, namely Asian mustard (Brassica juncea), ball mustard (Neslia paniculata), black mustard (B. nigra), garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale), Asian hedge mustard (S. orientale), oilseed rape (B. napus), rapeseed (B. rapa), treacle mustard (Erysimum repandum), smooth mustard (S. erysimoides), white ball mustard (Calepina irregularis), white mustard (Sinapis alba), and Canola. Some of these are commercially cultivated as oilseeds to meet the global demand for a healthy plant-derived oil, high in polyunsaturated fats, i.e., B. napus and B. juncea. Other species are foraged from the wild where they grow on roadsides and as a weed of arable land, i.e., E. repandum and S. erysimoides, and harvested for medicinal uses. These plants contain a diverse range of bioactive natural products including sulfur-containing glucosinolates and other potentially valuable compounds, namely omega-3-fatty acids, terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, tannins, S-methyl cysteine sulfoxide, and trace-elements. Various parts of these plants and many of the molecules that are produced throughout the plant have been used in traditional medicines and more recently in the mainstream pharmaceutical and food industries. This study relates the uses of mustards in traditional medicines with their bioactive molecules and possible mechanisms of action and provides an overview of the current knowledge of Brassicaceae oilseeds and mustards, their phytochemicals, and their biological activities.

Evaluation of Aloe Vera Gel Combined with Cinnamon Oil with Antibacterial Activity for Wound Healing Application

Treatment of chronic wounds has been shifted to traditional approaches due to surge in antibiotic resistance. Wounds that fail to heal satisfactorily may result in the amputation of the organ. In this research work, cinnamon oil (CO) and aloe vera (AV) that have been traditionally used as antibacterial agents are combined in a unique gel (COVA) and its antibacterial activity has been evaluated through in vitro and in vivo studies. Antibacterial activity was measured through disk diffusion and agar dilution method against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. To check antibacterial and wound healing activity, diabetic excision wound healing rat model was used. Wound closure, wound contraction, tissue hydroxyproline content, antioxidant capacity (TAC), and malondialdehyde (MDA) level were monitored. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of CO + AV for bacterium P. aeruginosa and S. aureus were 100 and 200 µg/ml, respectively. After 14 days, the wounds covered with COVA therapy reached to nearly full wound closure (79% wound contraction) compared to control. The collagen content and level of TAC increased significantly (P < 0.05) in treated groups; therefore, 25% fast healing was observed in wounds treated with CO and AV gel combined. Reduced levels of tissue MDA were observed in all treated groups and specially wound covered with COVA (0.43 mM/mg in control vs 0.25 mM/mg in COVA). Histopathological examination also supported the outcomes. Significantly elevated increase in the level of hydroxyproline was found in rats of COVA treatment group (37.1 ± 0.44). Combination of CO and AV can be potentially used to prevent infection in wound; as these herbal agents not only inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria but also accelerate tissue repair.

Improved antioxidant activities of spice require enrichment of distinct yet closely-related metabolic pathways

Improved biosynthesis of commercially and pharmacologically relevant phytometabolites through genetic and metabolic engineering is a lucrative strategy for crop improvement. However, identifying appropriate biosynthetic pathways pertaining to specific bioactivities has been challenging since the major metabolic pathways remain closely interconnected. Here we propose a reverse association strategy in which, based on the phytochemical profile, putative target metabolic pathways could be identified for increased production of phytochemicals. Dried seed fruits of Coriandrum sativum, Trachyspermum ammi, Cuminum cyminum, and Foeniculum vulgare (family Apiaceae) were subjected to untargeted gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-based phytochemical profiling followed by evaluation of the overall antioxidant profile using multiple antioxidant assays. Using bioinformatics approaches, specific phytochemical classes and the enrichment of their respective biosynthetic pathways were identified. Collectively, the data suggest enrichment of isoprenoids and fatty acids biosynthetic pathways. The close association of metabolic pathways with antioxidant capacities indicated a need for enrichment of specific yet closely-related metabolic pathways to achieve an improved quality of spices for better antioxidant effects.

A Review on Antifungal Green Preservatives: An Aspect of Food Industry

Many studies have been conducted on the harmful effect of mycotoxins on human and animal health. However, other chemicals can also contribute to the toxicity of ingested foods, directly or indirectly (via animal products). Many synthetic chemicals that are used for field treatments of cereals, or applied during storage time to prolong the storage time and to insure the absence of fungal contamination, are proven to be harmful to human and animal health. In order to reduce the usage of such chemicals and to improve the already deteriorated ecosystems, scholars are dedicated to optimizing and commercializing a “greener” option not only for agronomic applications, but also for the food industry. Recent advances in the effectiveness of green preservatives aiming at the food industry will be described in this paper. The intention is to preserve not only the health-related aspects of food by applying green preservatives, but also to maintain the ecological aspect regarding the environment as much as possible.

Preparation of Spice Extracts: Evaluation of Their Phytochemical, Antioxidant, Antityrosinase, and Anti-α-Glucosidase Properties Exploring Their Mechanism of Enzyme Inhibition with Antibrowning and Antidiabetic Studies In Vivo

Tyrosinase and α-glucosidase enzymes are known as promising target candidates for inhibitors to control unwanted pigmentation and type II diabetics mellitus. Therefore, twenty extracts as enzyme inhibitors were prepared from edible spices: nutmeg, mace, star anise, fenugreek, and coriander aiming to explore their antioxidant, antibrowning, and antidiabetic potential. Results confirmed that all extracts showed potent antioxidant activity ranging from IC₅₀ = 0.14 ± 0.03 to 3.69 ± 0.37 μg/mL. In addition, all extracts exhibited excellent antityrosinase (IC₅₀ = 1.16 ± 0.06 to 71.32 ± 4.63 μg/mL) and anti-α-glucosidase (IC₅₀4.76 ± 0.71 to 42.57 ± 2.13 μg/mL) activities outperforming the corresponding standards, hydroquinone, and acarbose, respectively. Among all extracts, star anise ethyl acetate (Star anise ETAC) was found most potent inhibitor for both tyrosinase and α-glucosidase enzymes and was further studied to explore the mechanism of enzyme inhibition. Kinetic analysis revealed its irreversible but mixed-type tyrosinase inhibition with preferentially competitive mode of action. However, it binds reversibly with α-glucosidase through competitive mode of action. Further, star anise ETAC extract showed concentration dependent and posttreatment time-dependent antibrowning effect on potato slices and antidiabetic effect on diabetic rabbits in vivo proposing it promising candidate for tyrosinase-rooted antibrowning and α-glucosidase-associated diabetes management for future studies.

Chemically characterized nanoencapsulated Homalomena aromatica Schott. essential oil as green preservative against fungal and aflatoxin B1 contamination of stored spices based on in vitro and in situ efficacy and favorable safety profile on mice

Present study deals with the efficacy of nanoencapsulated Homalomena aromatica essential oil (HAEO) as a potent green preservative against toxigenic Aspergillus flavus strain (AF-LHP-NS 7), storage fungi, AFB1, and free radical-mediated deterioration of stored spices. GC-MS analysis revealed linalool (68.51%) as the major component of HAEO. HAEO was encapsulated into chitosan nanomatrix (CS-HAEO-Ne) and characterized through SEM, FTIR, and XRD. CS-HAEO-Ne completely inhibited A. flavus growth and AFB1 biosynthesis at 1.25 μL/mL and 1.0 μL/mL, respectively in comparison to unencapsulated HAEO (1.75 μL/mL and 1.25 μL/mL, respectively). CS-HAEO-Ne caused significant reduction in ergosterol content in treated A. flavus and provoked leakage of cellular ions (Ca+2, Mg+2, and K+) as well as 260 nm and 280 nm absorbing materials. Depletion of methylglyoxal level in treated A. flavus cells illustrated the novel antiaflatoxigenic efficacy of CS-HAEO-Ne. CS-HAEO-Ne exhibited superior antioxidant efficacy (IC50 (DPPH) = 4.5 μL/mL) over unencapsulated HAEO (IC50 (DPPH) = 15.9 μL/mL) and phenolic content. CS-HAEO-Ne depicted excellent in situ efficacy by inhibiting fungal infestation, AFB1 contamination, lipid peroxidation, and mineral loss with acceptable sensorial profile. Moreover, broad safety paradigm (LD50 value = 7150.11 mg/kg) of CS-HAEO-Ne also suggests its application as novel green preservative to enhance shelf life of stored spices.

LC-MS/MS-QTOF Screening and Identification of Phenolic Compounds from Australian Grown Herbs and Their Antioxidant Potential

Culinary spices and herbs have been used to impart a characteristic flavour and aroma in food due to their appealing fragrance. Recently, bioactive compounds from herbs, especially phenolics, have gained much attention due to their potential health outcomes. The aim of this study was to characterize and quantify the phenolic compounds from 10 widely used Australian-grown herbs (oregano, rosemary, bay, basil, sage, fenugreek, dill, parsley, mint and thyme). For this purpose, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used for the complete profiling of polyphenolic compounds and quantification of abundant phenolic compounds was completed with high-performance liquid chromatography—photodiode array detection (HPLC-PDA). Polyphenols from Australian-grown herbs were estimated through total phenolic content (TP), total flavonoids (TF) and total tannins (TT) along with their in-vitro antioxidant activities. Oregano and mint were estimated with the highest value of TP (140.59 ± 9.52 and 103.28 ± 8.08 mg GAE/g, milligram gallic acid equivalent/gram) while rosemary and mint had the highest TF (8.19 ± 0.74 and 7.05 ± 0.43 mg QE (quercetin equivalent)/g). In this study, eighty-four (84) phenolic compounds were screened and confirmed through LC-MS/MS by comparing their masses and fragmentation pattern with published libraries. The results of this study validate the use of these herbs as bioactives and their positive impact on human health.

Comprehensive Profiling of Most Widely Used Spices for Their Phenolic Compounds through LC-ESI-QTOF-MS2 and Their Antioxidant Potential

Spices have long been used to improve food flavor, due to their appealing fragrance and sensory attributes. Nowadays, spices-based bioactives, particularly phenolic compounds, have gained attention due to their wide range of significant effects in biological systems. The present study was conducted to characterize the 12 widely used spices (allspice, black cardamom, black cumin, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, cumin, fennel, nutmeg, star-anise, and turmeric) for their phenolics with the liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-QTOF-MS2), polyphenols estimation, and their antioxidant potential. Total phenolics, total flavonoids, and total tannin content and their antioxidant activities were estimated in all spices. Clove and allspice had the highest value of total polyphenol content (215.14 and 40.49 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) per g of sample), while clove and turmeric had the highest total flavonoids (5.59 mg quercetin equivalent (QE) per g of sample) and total tannin contents (23.58 mg catechin equivalent (CE) per g of sample), respectively. On the other hand, black cumin and black pepper had the highest phosphomolybdate activity (15.61 and 15.43 mg ascorbic acid equivalent (AAE) per g of sample), while clove was almost identified with highest free radical scavenging capacity. A positive correlation was observed among phenolic compounds and antioxidant activities. In this quest, a total of 79 phenolic compounds were tentatively characterized by using LC-ESI-QTOF-MS2 including 26 phenolic acids, 33 flavonoids, 16 other polyphenols, and 4 lignans. The high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA) quantification of phenolic compounds exhibited higher phenolic acids. These results provided us some valuable information that spices have powerful antioxidant potential that can be further used in human food and animal feed as a supplement for different health promoting applications.

Modelling studies reveal the importance of the C-terminal inter motif loop of NSP1 as a promising target site for drug discovery and screening of potential phytochemicals to combat SARS-CoV-2

COVID-19 pandemic causative SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is still rapid in progression and transmission even after a year. Understanding the viral transmission and impeding the replication process within human cells are considered as the vital point to control and overcome COVID-19 infection. Non-structural Protein 1, one among the proteins initially produced upon viral entry into human cells, instantly binds with the human ribosome and inhibit the host translation process by preventing the mRNA attachment. However, the formation of NSP1 bound Ribosome complex does not affect the viral replication process. NSP1 plays an indispensable role in modulating the host gene expression and completely steals the host cellular machinery. The full-length structure of NSP1 is essential for the activity in the host cell and importantly the loop connecting N and C-terminal domains are reported to play a role in ribosome binding. Due to the unavailability of the experimentally determined full-length structure of NSP1, we have modelled the complete structure using comparative modelling and the stability and conformational behaviour of the modelled structure was evaluated through molecular dynamics simulation. Interestingly, the present study reveals the significance of the inter motif loop to serves as a potential binding site for drug discovery experiments. Further, we have screened the phytochemicals from medicinal plant sources since they were used for several hundred years that minimizes the traditional drug development time. Among the 5638 phytochemicals screened against the functionally associated binding site of NSP1, the best five phytochemicals shown high docking score of −9.63 to −8.75 kcal/mol were further evaluated through molecular dynamics simulations to understand the binding affinity and stability of the complex. Prime MM-GBSA analysis gave the relative binding free energies for the top five compounds (dihydromyricetin, 10-demethylcephaeline, dihydroquercetin, pseudolycorine and tricetin) in the range of −45.17 kcal/mol to −37.23 kcal/mol, indicating its binding efficacy in the predicted binding site of NSP1. The density functional theory calculations were performed for the selected five phytochemicals to determine the complex stability and chemical reactivity. Thus, the identified phytochemicals could further be used as effective anti-viral agents to overcome COVID-19 and as well as several other viral infections.

Ethnomedicinal uses, biological activities, phytochemistry and conservation of African ginger (Siphonochilus aethiopicus): A commercially important and endangered medicinal plant

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

In sub-Saharan Africa, African ginger (Siphonochilus aethiopicus) is used for treating common illnesses including colds, coughs, inflammation and related symptoms. The available literature survey on this plant provided scarce anecdotal information, particularly in western and eastern Africa, with a few reports on its bioactivity. In addition, the indigenous knowledge and conservation strategies of this economically important and critically endangered species are currently fragmented.

AIM OF THE REVIEW

This review entails a critical appraisal of existing literature on the ethnomedicinal uses, biological activities, phytochemicals, research opportunities and prospects for the sustainable use of S. aethiopicus.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This review was conducted using a comprehensive literature search on the ethnomedicinal uses, biological activities and phytochemistry of S. aethiopicus throughout its distributional range. The conservation status and associated bio-economy potential of African ginger were also assessed. We searched different online databases (e.g. Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, PubMed and Scopus) for peer-reviewed journals, conference outputs, international, regional and national organizational reports, published books and theses.

RESULTS

We established that S. aethiopicus is used to treat a wide variety of ailments such as respiratory problems (including cough, influenza), pain, inflammation and malaria. Extracts of African ginger are used as an ingredient in some commercialised products for nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical purposes. The rhizome extract demonstrated anti-asthmatic, anti-inflammatory, and antiplasmodial activities, which led to the development of a patented novel extract for treating asthma and allergies. Phytochemical analysis of leaf, root and rhizome extracts of African ginger revealed the presence of flavonoids, phenolic acids, volatile and essential oils as the major constituents. These phytochemicals are known to possess bioactivities such as antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities. Particularly, the bioactive compounds, siphonochilone and eucalyptol, found in the roots and rhizomes have demonstrated potential to be used in remedies for treating asthma and allergic reactions. Furthermore, extracts of S. aethiopicus contained natural anti-inflammatory mediators with potential to combat and manage chronic inflammation. This plant is classified on the Red List of South African Plants as a critically endangered plant. Its high risk of extinction due to its unsustainable harvesting and exploitation necessitates its rapid propagation and cultivation to meet its increasing demand.

CONCLUSIONS

The review highlights the therapeutic potential of S. aethiopicus and rational prioritization of this plant species with the potential for isolating new bioactive compounds. In the light of the use of this plant extract in traditional medicine and many commercial products, there is a heightened need to explore the mechanism(s) of action of the identified extracts and bioactive compounds in order to fully understand their pharmacokinetics and probably elucidate the pathways of their activities.

In Silico, Molecular Docking and In Vitro Antimicrobial Activity of the Major Rapeseed Seed Storage Proteins

BACKGROUND

In addition to their use as an edible oil and condiment crop, mustard and rapeseed (Brassica napus L., B. juncea (L.) Czern., B. nigra (L.) W.D.J.Koch, B. rapa L. and Sinapis alba L.) have been commonly used in traditional medicine for relieving pain, coughs and treating infections. The seeds contain high amounts of oil, while the remaining by-product meal after oil extraction, about 40% of seed dry weight, has a low value despite its high protein-content (~85%). The seed storage proteins (SSP) 2S albumin-type napin and 12S globulin-type cruciferin are the two predominant proteins in the seeds and show potential for value adding to the waste stream; however, information on their biological activities is scarce. In this study, purified napin and cruciferin were tested using in silico, molecular docking, and in vitro approaches for their bioactivity as antimicrobial peptides.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The 3D-structure of 2S albumin and 12S globulin storage proteins from B. napus were investigated to predict antimicrobial activity employing an antimicrobial peptide database survey. To gain deeper insights into the potential antimicrobial activity of these SSP, in silico molecular docking was performed. The purified B. napus cruciferin and napin were then tested against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria for in vitro antimicrobial activity by disc diffusion and microdilution antimicrobial susceptibility testing.

RESULTS

In silico analysis demonstrated both SSP share similar 3D-structure with other well studied antimicrobial proteins. Molecular docking revealed that the proteins exhibited high binding energy to bacterial enzymes. Cruciferin and napin proteins appeared as a double triplet and a single doublet, respectively, following SDS-PAGE. SDS-PAGE and Western blotting also confirmed the purity of the protein samples used for assessment of antimicrobial activity. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing provided strong evidence for antimicrobial activity for the purified napin protein; however, cruciferin showed no antimicrobial activity, even at the highest dose applied.

DISCUSSION

In silico and molecular docking results presented evidence for the potential antimicrobial activity of rapeseed cruciferin and napin SSP. However, only the in vitro antimicrobial activity of napin was confirmed. These findings warrant further investigation of this SSP protein as a potential new agent against infectious disease.

Chemical composition and biological activities of two chemotype-oils from Cinnamomum verum J. Presl growing in North Brazil

Chemical composition and antioxidant and antifungal action of the oils from leaves and wood bark of two chemotypes of Cinnamomum verum J. Presl were evaluated. Plants were sampled in the cities of São Luís and Santa Inês, state of Maranhão, Brazil. GC-MS and GC-FID, DPPH radical scavenging, and in vitro test against the phytopathogenic fungus Colletotrichum musae were used to perform these analyses. Cinnamomum verum is worldwide known as Cinnamon, highlighted for its extensive use in the cooking of diverse cultures of the world, and as a medicinal plant to treat environmental viral diseases. In the leaf oil of São Luís chemotype, eugenol (93.6%) was the main constituent, while in Santa Inês chemotype, it was benzyl benzoate (95.3%). In the bark wood oil of São Luís chemotype, (E)-cinnamaldehyde (89.3%) was the main constituent, while in Santa Inês chemotype, they were benzyl benzoate (23.3%), linalool (14.0%), (E)-caryophyllene (9.1%), caryolan-8-ol (7.2%) and borneol (4.7%). Leaf oils from both chemotypes showed strong to moderate antifungal activity, reaching 100% efficacy in eugenol-containing oils and above 70% in benzyl benzoate oils. In the antioxidant evaluation, the chemotype with a high eugenol content presented an inhibitory concentration higher than 80%, compared to Trolox. The leaf oils of the two C. verum chemotypes showed significant antifungal and antioxidant potential, considering their economic use as a functional and nutraceutical food supplement.

Gastrointestinal Disorders and Metabolic Syndrome: Dysbiosis as a Key Link and Common Bioactive Dietary Components Useful for their Treatment

Gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, which include gastrointestinal reflux disease, gastric ulceration, inflammatory bowel disease, and other functional GI disorders, have become prevalent in a large part of the world population. Metabolic syndrome (MS) is cluster of disorders including obesity, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension, and is associated with high rate of morbidity and mortality. Gut dysbiosis is one of the contributing factors to the pathogenesis of both GI disorder and MS, and restoration of normal flora can provide a potential protective approach in both these conditions. Bioactive dietary components are known to play a significant role in the maintenance of health and wellness, as they have the potential to modify risk factors for a large number of serious disorders. Different classes of functional dietary components, such as dietary fibers, probiotics, prebiotics, polyunsaturated fatty acids, polyphenols, and spices, possess positive impacts on human health and can be useful as alternative treatments for GI disorders and metabolic dysregulation, as they can modify the risk factors associated with these pathologies. Their regular intake in sufficient amounts also aids in the restoration of normal intestinal flora, resulting in positive regulation of insulin signaling, metabolic pathways and immune responses, and reduction of low-grade chronic inflammation. This review is designed to focus on the health benefits of bioactive dietary components, with the aim of preventing the development or halting the progression of GI disorders and MS through an improvement of the most important risk factors including gut dysbiosis.

Biosynthetic pathways and metabolic engineering of spice flavors

Historically, spices have played an important economic role, due to their large applications and unique flavor. The supply and cost of spice materials and their corresponding natural products are often affected by environmental, geopolitical and climatic conditions. Secondary metabolite composition, including certain flavor compounds in spice plants, is recognized and considered closely related to plant classification. Both genes and enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of spice flavors are constantly identified, which provides insight into metabolic engineering of flavor compounds (i.e. aroma and pungent compounds) from spice plants. In this review, a systematic meta-analysis was carried out based on a comprehensive literature survey of the flavor profiles of 36 spice plants from nine families. We also reviewed typical biosynthetic pathways and metabolic engineering of most representative aroma and pungent compounds that may assist in the future study of spice plants as biosynthetic factories facing a new challenge in creating spice products.

Identification, characterization and epitope mapping of proteins encoded by putative allergenic napin genes from Brassica rapa

BACKGROUND

Brassica rapeseed crops contain high concentrations of oil in the seed. The remaining meal, following oil extraction, has a high protein content, but is of low value due to the presence of high amounts of napin seed storage proteins. These 2S albumin-like proteins are difficult to digest and have been identified as major allergens in humans.

OBJECTIVE

To comprehensively characterize the napin gene (NG) family in Brassica rapa and to gain an understanding of the structural basis of allergenicity of the expressed proteins.

METHODS

To identify candidate napin genes in B rapa, 2S albumin-like napin genes of Arabidopsis thaliana were used as query sequences to search for similarity against the B rapa var. pekinensis Chiifu-401 v2 and the var. trilocularis R-o-18 v1.5 genomes. Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) and epitope modelling was carried out to determine structural and evolutionary relationships of NGs and their potential allergenicity.

RESULTS

Four candidate napin genes in R-o-18 and ten in Chiifu-401 were identified with high sequence similarity to A thaliana napin genes. Multiple sequence alignment revealed strong conservation among the candidate genes. An epitope survey indicated high conservation of allergenic epitope motifs with known 2S albumin-like allergens.

CONCLUSION

Napin is thought to be responsible for a  high prevalence of food allergies. Characterization of the napin gene family in B rapa will give important insight into the protein structure, and epitope modelling will help to advance studies into allergenicity including the development of precise diagnostic screenings and therapies for this potential food allergy as well as the possible manipulation of napin levels in the seed by gene editing technology.

Honokiol: A Review of Its Anticancer Potential and Mechanisms

Cancer is characterised by uncontrolled cell division and abnormal cell growth, which is largely caused by a variety of gene mutations. There are continuous efforts being made to develop effective cancer treatments as resistance to current anticancer drugs has been on the rise. Natural products represent a promising source in the search for anticancer treatments as they possess unique chemical structures and combinations of compounds that may be effective against cancer with a minimal toxicity profile or few side effects compared to standard anticancer therapy. Extensive research on natural products has shown that bioactive natural compounds target multiple cellular processes and pathways involved in cancer progression. In this review, we discuss honokiol, a plant bioactive compound that originates mainly from the Magnolia species. Various studies have proven that honokiol exerts broad-range anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo by regulating numerous signalling pathways. These include induction of G0/G1 and G2/M cell cycle arrest (via the regulation of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) and cyclin proteins), epithelial-mesenchymal transition inhibition via the downregulation of mesenchymal markers and upregulation of epithelial markers. Additionally, honokiol possesses the capability to supress cell migration and invasion via the downregulation of several matrix-metalloproteinases (activation of 5' AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and KISS1/KISS1R signalling), inhibiting cell migration, invasion, and metastasis, as well as inducing anti-angiogenesis activity (via the down-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGFR) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)). Combining these studies provides significant insights for the potential of honokiol to be a promising candidate natural compound for chemoprevention and treatment.

GC-MS Analysis of the Composition of the Extracts and Essential Oil from Myristica fragrans Seeds Using Magnesium Aluminometasilicate as Excipient

Myristica fragrans (f. Myristicaceae) seeds are better known as a spice, but their chemical compounds may have a pharmacological effect. The yield of their composition of extracts and essential oils differs due to different methodologies. The aim of this study was to evaluate an excipient material-magnesium aluminometasilicate-and to determine its influence on the qualitative composition of nutmeg extracts and essential oils. Furthermore, we wanted to compare the yield of essential oil. The extracts were prepared by maceration (M) and ultrasound bath-assisted extraction (UAE), and the essential oil-by hydrodistillation (HD). Conventional methods (UAE, HD) were modified with magnesium aluminometasilicate. The samples were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. From 16 to 19 chemical compounds were obtained using UAE with magnesium aluminometasilicate, while only 8 to 13 compounds were obtained using UAE without an excipient. Using our conditions and plant material, for the first time eight new chemical compounds in nutmeg essential oil were identified. Two of these compounds (γ-amorphene and cis-α-bergamotene) were obtained with the use of excipient, the other six (β-copaene, bergamotene, citronellyl decanoate, cubebol, cubenene, orthodene) by conventional hydrodistillation. Magnesium aluminometasilicate significantly increased the quantity of sabinene (from 6.53% to 61.42%) and limonene (from 0% to 5.62%) in essential oil. The yield of the essential oil from nutmeg seeds was significantly higher using magnesium aluminometasilicate; it increased from 5.25 ± 0.04% to 10.43 ± 0.09%.

Dehydrated foods: Are they microbiologically safe?

Dried foods are low water activity foods with water activity ranging from 0.03 to 0.7. They are commonly misconstrued to be inherently safe from food borne pathogenic bacteria. However, there are many reported cases where many food borne illnesses were caused by the consumption of dried foods contaminated with Salmonella spp., Cronobacter spp., Staphylococcus spp. and E. coli. In this work, we have systematically reviewed the literature dealing with the effect of drying/dehydration on the survival of pathogenic microorganisms with special focus on Salmonella spp. We have also reviewed and synthesized the literature dealing with the effect of drying process on microorganisms in dried vegetables, meat, fish, spices, mushroom and powdered foods. This review concludes that dried foods are not inherently safe microbiologically and required other hurdles to achieve microbial safety.

K. Safety assessment of a standardized polyphenolic extract of clove buds: Subchronic toxicity and mutagenicity studies

Despite the various reports on the toxicity of clove oil and its major component eugenol, systematic evaluations on the safety of polyphenolic extracts of clove buds have not been reported. Considering the health beneficial pharmacological effects and recent use of clove polyphenols as dietary supplements, the present study investigated the safety of a standardized polyphenolic extract of clove buds (Clovinol), as assessed by oral acute (5 g/kg b.wt. for 14 days) and subchronic (0.25, 0.5 and 1 g/kg b.wt. for 90 days) toxicity studies on Wistar rats and mutagenicity studies employing Salmonella typhimurium strains. Administration of Clovinol did not result in any toxicologically significant changes in clinical/behavioural observations, ophthalmic examinations, body weights, organ weights, feed consumption, urinalysis, hematology and clinical biochemistry parameters when compared to the untreated control group of animals, indicating the no observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) as 1000 mg/kg b.wt./day; the highest dose tested. Terminal necropsy did not reveal any treatment-related histopathology changes. Clovinol did not show genotoxicity when tested on TA-98, TA-100 and TA-102 with or without metabolic activation; rather exhibited significant antimutagenic potential against the known mutagens, sodium azide, NPD and tobacco as well as against 2-acetamidoflourene, which needed metabolic activation for mutagenicity.