Overview of the Justicia Genus: Insights into Its Chemical Diversity and Biological Potential

The genus Justicia has more than 600 species distributed in both hemispheres, in the tropics and temperate regions, and it is used in the treatment of numerous pathologies. This study presents a review of the biological activities of plant extracts and isolated chemical constituents of Justicia (ACANTHACEAE), identified in the period from May 2011 to August 2022. We analyzed over 176 articles with various biological activities and chemical compound descriptions present in the 29 species of Justicia. These have a variety of applications, such as antioxidant and antimicrobial, with alkaloids and flavonoids (e.g., naringenin) the most frequently identified secondary metabolites. The most observed species were Justicia gendarussa Burm., Justicia procumbens L., Justicia adhatoda L., Justicia spicigera Schltdl, and Justicia pectoralis Jacq. The frontier molecular orbitals carried out using density functional theory (M062X and basis set 6-311++G(d,p) indicate reactive sites for naringenin compound and a chemical reaction on phytomedicine activity. The energy gap (206.99 kcal/mol) and dimer solid state packing point to chemical stability. Due to the wide variety of pharmacological uses of these species, this review points toward the development of new phytomedicines.

Chemical Constituents and Bioactivities of Several Indonesian Plants Typically Used in Jamu

This article reviews the chemical constituents and bioactivities of several Indonesian plants typically used in Jamu prescriptions in Indonesia. Jamu is Indonesia traditional medicine: it consists of either a single ingredient or a mixture of several medicinal plants. One plant family always used in Jamu is Zingiberaceae (ginger), such as Curcuma domestica/C. longa, C. xanthorrhizae, C. heyneana, C. zedoaria, C. aeruginosa, Zingiber aromaticum, Alpinia galanga. We also report other commonly used plant families such as Justicia gendarussa and Cassia siamea, whose activities have been extensively explored by our department.

EFFECT OF FREE ALKALOID AND NON-FREE ALKALOID ETHANOL 70% EXTRACT OF JUSTICIA GENDARUSSA BURM F. LEAVES AGAINST REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE HIV ENZYME IN VITRO AND CHEMICAL COMPOUND ANALYSIS

HIV-AIDS is a global problem and the deadliest disease in the world. One of HIV and AIDS prevention strategy can be done with traditional medicine research program from natural resource that has anti-HIV AIDS activity. It has been found that 70% ethanol extract of Justicia gendarussa Burm.f leaves, alkaloid free and alkaloid non-free, has a strong inhibitory activity against HIV reverse transcriptase enzyme, as an effort to find a solution in the face of HIV AIDS prevalence that is still high with problem of HIV-AIDS treatment such as side effects and resistances. Justicia gendarussa had already known for having an effect anti-HIV and therefore we were looking at the mechanism of inhibition of HIV Reverse Transcriptase enzyme. Both types of extracts were tested in vitro using ELISA technique and analysed chemical content of Gendarusin A as anti-HIV using high performance liquid chromatography. ELISA test results obtained percent inhibition, respectively for 254.2, 254.2, 235.6, and 279.7 for the concentration of 5 ppm, 10 ppm, 15 ppm and 20 ppm of free alkaloid extract and 169.0, 164.0, 130.5 and 369.5 for the concentration of 5 ppm, 10 ppm, 15 ppm and 20 ppm of non-free-alkaloid extract. The results of high performance liquid chromatography obtained Gendarusin A in the free-alkaloid extract at retention time 8.402 minutes and non-free alkaloid extract at retention time 8.381. Therefore, these results concluded that the Justicia gendarussa Burm.f can be a useful resource for the isolation and development of new anti-HIV.