Turmeric: An Overview of Potential Health Benefits

Indian herb Tinospora cordifolia and Tinospora species: Phytochemical and therapeutic application

Clinical investigations are increasingly focusing on natural materials with medical benefits because, in contrast to medicines, they have extremely few adverse effects. Tinospora species of the Menispermaceae family has many bioactive principles for plant nutraceuticals. A thorough assessment of the existing literature revealed that Indian Tinospora species are an important group of medicinal herbs used for a variety of pharmacological activities. While, Tinospora cordifolia is widely recognized as a significant herb in the Indian System of Medicines (ISM) due to its bioactive components and has been used in the treatment of diabetes, cancer, urinary problems, fever, jaundice, helminthiasis, leprosy, dysentery, skin diseases, and many more. Using the search phrases "phytochemistry," "traditional uses," and "pharmacological evaluation of Indian Tinospora species," appropriate articles were carefully extracted from the MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, and WOS databases. Around 180 articles, related to the India Tinospora species, were selected from a pool of 200 papers published between 1991 and 2023. T. cordifolia has received a lot of scientific attention because of its diverse therapeutic characteristics in treating various diseases. Our present study in this review encompasses 1.) Phytochemistry, traditional uses and pharmacological potential of T. cordifolia as well as other Indian Tinospora species. 2.) Safety and toxicity study and available marketed formulation of T. cordifolia for the treatment of various diseases. The chemical constitution and pharmacological characteristics of other Tinospora species must also be investigated, indicating a need for further scientific research.

Development and Optimization of Phytosome for Enhancement of Therapeutic Potential of Epiyangambin in Tinospora cordifolia Extract Identified by GC–MS and Docking Analysis

Background

To enhance the therapeutic potential of Tinospora cordifolia phytosomes, a chloroform extract was prepared.

Objectives

The goal of this study was to create and test the therapeutic potential of a phytosome containing T. cordifolia extract.

Materials and Methods

The extraction of nonpolar compounds was carried out using chloroform as solvent. The active constituent of the extract was subjected to phytochemical and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS) analyses. Docking studies against multiple targeted proteins confirmed the anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic properties of T. cordifolia extract. The phytosomes of T. cordifolia extract were prepared by solvent evaporation technique. The phytosomes were characterized for vesicle size, entrapment efficiency, surface morphology, FTIR, in vitro drug release and in vivo anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic activities.

Results

The highest concentration was found to be 16.58% for epiyangambin. The reported compound inhibits GLUT1 and COX2 with 9.25 and 8.34 kcal/mol binding scores. The optimized TCP4 exhibited 454.2 ± 8.1 nm of vesicle size, –43.1 ± 7.5 mV of zeta potential, and 0.33 of polydispersity index (PDI). The phytosomes exhibited a spherical shape confirmed by TEM analysis. The formulation TCP4 showed a significantly higher release (94.7% ± 1.7%) than pure extract. TCP4 exhibited potent therapeutic potential for anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic activity.

Conclusion

Chloroform extract loaded phytosomes with cholesterol as lipids exhibited significant therapeutic potential due to the presence of epiyangambin.

The chemical constituents and diverse pharmacological importance of Tinospora cordifolia

Tinospora cordifolia is a popular medicinal plant which is used in several traditional medicines to cure various diseases. The common names are Amrita and Guduchi and belong to the family of Menispermaceae. It is considered an essential herbal plant of Indian system of medicine (ISM) and has been used in the treatment of fever, urinary problem, dysentery, skin diseases leprosy, diabetes, and many more diseases. The plant reported containing chemical compound including Alkaloids, Terpenoids, Lignans, Steroids and others that establish the phytochemistry and pharmacological activity of Tinospora cordifolia. The present review highlights the pharmacological importance viz antioxidant activity, antimicrobial activity, antibacterial activity, antifungal activity, anti-diabetic activity, antistress activity, hypolipidaemic effect, hepatic disorder, anticancer anti HIV potential, antiosteoporotic effects, antitoxic effects, wound healing, anticomplementary activity, and immunomodulating activity, systemic infection and Parkinson's disease.