A new pentacyclic phenol and other constituents from the root bark of Bauhinia racemosa Lamk

Phytochemistry and pharmacological activities of five species of Bauhinia genus: A review

Genus Bauhinia has been widely used in the treatment of diabetes, malaria, cough, headache, fever, piles, dysentery, flatulence, diarrhoea, ulcer and cardiovascular problems. Among 600 species of this genus, Bauhinia variegata, B. purpurea, B. championii, B. racemosa, and B. forficata are commonly used in the traditional medicine and found to be throughly investigated for their medicinal properties. They possess diverse pharmacological activities such as anti-diabetic, anti-microbial, antioxidant, anti-arthritic, cardioprotective, hepatoprotective, nephroprotective, fibrinolytic, and wound healing properties and most of the biological activities are corelating with traditional knowledge. Phytochemical analysis indicated that steroids, terpenoids, and flavonoids are prominent in the selected species, whereas bauhiniastatins, bauhinoxepins, racemosols, roseosides, and bauhichamines are found unique to the genus. This review aims to decipher active molecules from the aforementioned species of Bauhinia covering comprehensive analysis of phytochemistry, pharmacological activities and traditional uses. The data has been carefully analyzed to find compounds or fractions with a translational value. In most of the cases, the pharmacological activities have been established, however, further studies are needed such as safety evaluations, target identification, bioavailability, metabolite identification, and pharmacokinetic properties. In conclusion, the pharmacological potential of Bauhinia plants show promise with various leads such as insulin-like protein, roseoside, bauhiniastatin, and melibiose binding lectin. However, further investigations are required to address existing gaps and advance them towards product development. This review will lay the groundwork for future research initiatives aimed at fully realizing the therapeutic potential of Bauhinia plants.

Fungal Phytotoxins with Potential Herbicidal Activity to Control Chenopodium album

This review deals with the isolation and chemical and biological characterization of phytotoxins produced by Ascochyta caulina and Phoma chenopodiicola proposed as mycoherbicides for the biological control of Chenopodium album, a worldwide spread weed which causes serious problems to some agrarian crops, including sugar beet and maize. Studies on the structure activity relationships and on the modes of actions of toxins isolated are also described, as well as the optimization of analytical methods focused on selection of the best fungal toxin producers. The attempts to scale up production of these phytotoxins aimed to obtain sufficient amounts for their application in greenhouse and field trials are also reported.

Chenopodolans A-C: phytotoxic furopyrans produced by Phoma chenopodiicola, a fungal pathogen of Chenopodium album

Three tetrasubstituted furopyrans, named chenopodolans A-C, were isolated together with the well known fungal metabolite (-)-(R)-6-hydroxymellein from the liquid culture of Phoma chenopodiicola, a fungal pathogen proposed for the biological control of Chenopodium album, a common worldwide weed of arable crops. The structures of chenopodolans A-C were established by spectroscopic and chemical methods as 2-(3-methoxy-2,6-dimethyl-7aH-furo[2,3-b]pyran-4-yl)-butane-2,3-diol, 1-(3-methoxy-2,6-dimethyl-7aH-furo[2,3-b]pyran-4-yl)ethanol and 3-methoxy-2,6-dimethyl-4-(1-methylpropenyl)-7aH-furo[2,3-b]pyran, respectively. The absolute configuration R to the hydroxylated secondary carbon (C-11) of the side chain at C-4 of chenopodolan A was determined by applying an advanced Mosher's method. Assayed by leaf puncture on host and non-host weeds chenopodolans A and B, and the 11-O-acetylchenopodolan A showed a strong phytotoxicity. These results showed that the nature of the side chain attached to C-4 is an important feature for the phytotoxicity. A weak zootoxic activity was only showed by chenopodolan B.