Antioxidant, antimicrobial and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of xanthones isolated from Artocarpus obtusus F.M. Jarrett

Quercetin as a therapeutic agent for skin problems: a systematic review and meta-analysis on antioxidant effects, oxidative stress, inflammation, wound healing, hyperpigmentation, aging, and skin cancer

Quercetin is abundant in plants and has notable pharmacological properties for skin health. This review aims to comprehensively evaluate the effects of quercetin on skin-related issues, adhering to the PRISMA guidelines and analyzing studies from ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed. Of the 1,398 studies identified, 65 studies met the criteria for meta-analysis. The meta-analysis indicated that quercetin had powerful antioxidant properties, protecting against oxidative stress by significantly lowering levels of MDA (Z-score, 2.51), ROS (Z-score, 3.81), and LPO (Z-score, 4.46), and enhancing enzymes of GSH (Z-score, 5.46), CAT (Z-score, 5.20), and SOD (Z-score, 4.37). Quercetin acted as an anti-inflammatory by significantly suppressing protein regulators such as NF-κβ, AP-1, and MAPKs (ERK and JNK), cytokines of TNFα, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-8, and MCP-1, and enzymes of COX-2, iNOS, and MPO, while upregulating the cytokine IL-10. Additionally, quercetin significantly suppressed IL-4 (Z-score, 3.16) and IFNγ (Z-score, 3.76) cytokines involved in chronic inflammation of atopic dermatitis. Quercetin also supported wound healing by significantly decreasing inflammatory cells (Z-score, 5.60) and enhancing fibroblast distribution (Z-score, 5.98), epithelialization (Z-score, 8.57), collagen production (Z-score, 4.20), and angiogenesis factors of MVD (Z-score, 5.66) and VEGF (Z-score, 3.86). Furthermore, quercetin significantly inhibited tyrosinase activity (Z-score, 1.95), resulting in a significantly reduced melanin content (Z-score, 2.56). A significant reduction in DNA damage (Z-score, 3.27), melanoma cell viability (Z-score, 2.97), and tumor formation was also observed to ensure the promising activity of quercetin for skin issues. This review highlights quercetin's potential as a multifaceted agent in skin care and treatment.

Natural products as tyrosinase inhibitors

Tyrosinase is a crucial copper-containing enzyme involved in the production of melanin. Melasma, age spots, and freckles are examples of hyperpigmentation diseases caused by excess production of melanin. Inhibiting tyrosinase activity is a crucial method for treating these disorders along with various applications such as cosmetics, food technology, and medicine. Natural products have proven a rich source of tyrosinase inhibitors, with several molecules from plant, marine, and microbial sources showing potential inhibitory action. This chapter provides a complete overview of natural compounds that have been found as tyrosinase inhibitors, with emphasis on their structures, modes of action, and prospective applications.

Potent halogenated xanthone derivatives: synthesis, molecular docking and study on antityrosinase activity

Tyrosinase inhibitors can reduce melanin production for skin whitening, but some existing products may harm the skin. This study discovered six compounds that inhibit tyrosinase in the mushroom Agaricus bisporus by over 50%. Compound 11 displayed strong inhibition (92.2% and 86.7%) for L-tyrosine and L-DOPA substrates, while compound 13 showed high inhibition (96.0% and 62.0%) for both substrates. Molecular docking simulations revealed compounds 11 and 13 bind at the allosteric site of the enzyme. Xanthone derivatives, based on these findings, hold potential as safe skin whitening agents and for pigmentation-related diseases in the cosmetic industry.

Oxidative stress and metabolic syndrome in acne vulgaris: Pathogenetic connections and potential role of dietary supplements and phytochemicals

Acne vulgaris is a highly prevalent skin condition caused by androgen-induced elevated sebum secretion, abnormal keratinization, bacterial colonization, and inflammation. Current research indicates a link between acne vulgaris and the metabolic syndrome, a group of disorders that includes obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. This link is thought to be modulated by excessive concentrations of oxidative stress markers and chronic inflammation, which are included in the pathophysiological mechanisms shared by both conditions. Excessive generation of reactive oxygen species damages cellular components and initiates an inflammatory response, hence promoting the development of both disorders. The current narrative review focuses on the molecular implications of inflammatory, hormonal, and environmental factors in the acne-metabolic syndrome correlation. Furthermore, it outlines the current state of knowledge related to the phyto-therapeutic approach to these conditions as an adjuvant strategy to allopathic treatment, but future multicenter and larger-scale research studies are needed establish new algorithms to be included in the future management of patients with these conditions.

Variation in Yield, Chemical Composition and Biological Activities of Essential Oil of Three Curcuma Species: A Comparative Evaluation of Hydrodistillation and Solvent-Free Microwave Extraction Methods

The essential oils of three medicinally important Curcuma species (Curcuma alismatifolia, Curcuma aromatica and Curcuma xanthorrhiza) were extracted using conventional hydro-distillation (HD) and solvent free microwave extraction (SFME) methods. The volatile compounds from the rhizome essential oils were subsequently analysed by GC-MS. The isolation of essential oils of each species was carried out following the six principles of green extraction and comparison was made between their chemical composition, antioxidant, anti-tyrosinase and anticancer activities. SFME was found to be more efficient than HD in terms of energy savings, extraction time, oil yield, water consumption and waste production. Though the major compounds of essential oils of both the species were qualitatively similar, there was a significant difference in terms of quantity. The essential oils extracted through HD and SFME methods were dominated by hydrocarbon and oxygenated compounds, respectively. The essential oils of all Curcuma species exhibited strong antioxidant activity, where SFME was significantly better than HD with lower IC₅₀ values. The anti-tyrosinase and anticancer properties of SFME-extracted oils were relatively better than that of HD. Further, among the three Curcuma species, C. alismatifolia essential oil showed the highest rates of inhibition in DPPH and ABTS assay, significantly reduced the tyrosinase activity and exhibited significant selective cytotoxicity against MCF7 and PC3 cells. The current results suggested that the SFME method, being advanced, green and fast, could be a better alternative for production of essential oils with better antioxidant, anti-tyrosinase and anticancer activities for application in food, health and cosmetic industries.

Chemical Constituents from Streblus taxoides Wood with Their Antibacterial and Antityrosinase Activities Plus in Silico Study

Hyperpigmentation frequently occurs after inflammation from bacterial infection. Thus, the inhibition activity of tyrosinase, the key enzyme to catalyze the melanogenesis and/or inhibition of bacterial infection, could decrease melanin production. Hence, the potential inhibitors could be discovered from natural products. ω-Hydroxymoracin C (1), a new compound with two other 2-arylbenzofurans, i.e., moracin M (2) and moracin C (3), and two stilbenes, i.e., 3, 4, 3', 5'-tetrahydroxybibenzyl (4) and piceatannol (5), were isolated from the wood of Streblus taxoides. Compound 4 showed a strong inhibitory activity against tyrosinase enzyme with an IC₅₀ value of 35.65 µg/mL, followed by compound 2 with an IC₅₀ value of 47.34 µg/mL. Conversely, compound 1, 3 and 5 showed moderate activity, with IC₅₀ values of 109.64, 128.67 and 149.73 µg/mL, respectively. Moreover, compound 1 and 3 showed an antibacterial effect against some Staphylococcus spp. Thus, the isolated compounds exhibited potential antityrosine and antibacterial effects. Additionally, an in silico study was performed in order to predict theoretical molecular interactions between the obtained metabolites from S. taxoides and tyrosinase as an extended in vitro enzyme binding assay experiment.

New 3-O-substituted xanthone derivatives as promising acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

A new series of 3-O-substituted xanthone derivatives were synthesised and evaluated for their anti-cholinergic activities against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). The results indicated that the xanthone derivatives possessed good AChE inhibitory activity with eleven of them (5, 8, 11, 17, 19, 21-23, 26-28) exhibited significant effects with the IC₅₀ values ranged 0.88 to 1.28 µM. The AChE enzyme kinetic study of 3-(4-phenylbutoxy)-9H-xanthen-9-one (23) and ethyl 2-((9-oxo-9H-xanthen-3-yl)oxy)acetate (28) showed a mixed inhibition mechanism. Molecular docking study showed that 23 binds to the active site of AChE and interacts via extensive π–π stacking with the indole and phenol side chains of Trp86 and Tyr337, besides the hydrogen bonding with the hydration site and π–π interaction with the phenol side chain of Y72. This study revealed that 3-O-alkoxyl substituted xanthone derivatives are potential lead structures, especially 23 and 28 which can be further developed into potent AChE inhibitors.

Xanthones for melanogenesis inhibition: Molecular docking and QSAR studies to understand their anti-tyrosinase activity

The human skin is constantly exposed to external factors that affect its integrity, UV radiation being one of the main stress factors. The repeated exposure to this radiation leads to increased production of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) which activate a series of processes involved in photoaging. Excessive UV exposure also exacerbates melanin production leading to a variety of pigmentation disorders. Xanthones are reported to exhibit properties that prevent deleterious effects of UV exposure and high levels of ROS in the organism, so in this work a wide library of xanthones with different patterns of substitution was synthesized and tested for their inhibitory activity against the skin enzymes tyrosinase, elastase, collagenase and hyaluronidase, many of which were evaluated for the first time. Most of the compounds were tyrosinase inhibitors, with the best one (xanthone 27) presenting an IC₅₀ of 1.9 µM, which is approximately 6 times lower than the IC₅₀ of the positive control kojic acid. Concerning the other enzymes, only one compound presented IC₅₀ lower than 150 µM in elastase inhibition (xanthone 14 = 91.8 µM) and none in collagenase and hyaluronidase inhibition. A QSAR model for tyrosinase inhibitory activity was built using six molecular descriptors, with a partial negative surface area descriptor and the relative number of oxygen atoms being positively contributing to the tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Docking using AutoDock Vina shows that all the tested compounds have more affinity to mushroom tyrosinase than kojic acid. Docking results implied that the tyrosinase inhibitory mechanisms of xanthonic derivatives are attributed to an allosteric interaction. Taken together, these data suggest that xanthones might be useful scaffolds for the development of new and promising candidates for the treatment of pigmentation-related disorders and for skin whitening cosmetic products.

The Phytochemical Analysis and Synergistic Antifungal Effect of Etlingera elatior Jack. Flowers and Murraya koenigii Spreng. Leaves against Candida albican

Traditional medicinal plant possessed antimicrobial properties. Candidiasis is an infection of Candida albicans which has developed resistance towards antifungal drugs. The extracts of Murraya koenigii Spreng leaves and Etlingera elatior Jack flowers were used as antifungal agents individually and in combination against C. albicans. Both extracts were tested for the presence of phytochemicals (alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, glycosides and saponins). Individual extracts were examined for antifungal activity using Kirby-Bauer test. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) were evaluated using microdilution broth assay and checkerboard assay. The extracts of both plants were positive for the presence of phytochemicals flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, glycosides and saponins. The inhibition zone of M. koenigii leaf and E. elatior flower extracts were 8.33 mm and 8.17 mm respectively. The MIC of M. koenigii and E. elatior ranged from 200 mg/mL to 400 mg/mL and in combination, the extracts were indifferent towards C. albicans (FIC=1.0). MFC revealed there was no visible growth of C. albicans on SDA plate. M. koenigii and E. elatior have potential to be used individually or in combination as antifungal agents against C. albicans.

Efficacy, Stability, and Safety Evaluation of New Polyphenolic Xanthones Towards Identification of Bioactive Compounds to Fight Skin Photoaging

Antioxidants have long been used in the cosmetic industry to prevent skin photoaging, which is mediated by oxidative stress, making the search for new antioxidant compounds highly desirable in this field. Naturally occurring xanthones are polyphenolic compounds that can be found in microorganisms, fungi, lichens, and some higher plants. This class of polyphenols has a privileged scaffold that grants them several biological activities. We have previously identified simple oxygenated xanthones as promising antioxidants and disclosed as hit, 1,2-dihydroxyxanthone (1). Herein, we synthesized and studied the potential of xanthones with different polyoxygenated patterns as skin antiphotoaging ingredients. In the DPPH antioxidant assay, two newly synthesized derivatives showed IC₅₀ values in the same range as ascorbic acid. The synthesized xanthones were discovered to be excellent tyrosinase inhibitors and weak to moderate collagenase and elastase inhibitors but no activity was revealed against hyaluronidase. Their metal-chelating effect (FeCl₃ and CuCl₂) as well as their stability at different pH values were characterized to understand their potential to be used as future cosmetic active agents. Among the synthesized polyoxygenated xanthones, 1,2-dihydroxyxanthone (1) was reinforced as the most promising, exhibiting a dual ability to protect the skin against UV damage by combining antioxidant/metal-chelating properties with UV-filter capacity and revealed to be more stable in the pH range that is close to the pH of the skin. Lastly, the phototoxicity of 1,2-dihydroxyxanthone (1) was evaluated in a human keratinocyte cell line and no phototoxicity was observed in the concentration range tested.

Chemical Compositions and Tyrosinase Activity of the Essential Oils of Alpinia aquatica

The essential oils obtained from the fresh rhizome, leaf, and pseudostem of Alpinia aquatica Roscoe. were hydrodistillated and analyzed using capillary gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). β-Pinene (11.7%), α-humulene (8.9%), aromadendrene (8.7%), and sabinene (7.7%) were the major components in the rhizome oil. The most abundant components of the leaf oil were germacrene D (21.3%), β-pinene (15.6%) and sabinene (12.1%), while α-humulene (19.8%), germacrene D (15.2%) and β-caryophyllene (8.7%) were the main constituents in the pseudostem oil. Antityrosinase assay revealed that all the three essential oils exhibited weak tyrosinase inhibition activities. The rhizome oil showed the highest inhibition activity with the value of 9.5% for the L-DOPA oxidation.

Novel stilbenes from Artocarpus nanchuanensis

Four new stilbene derivatives, hypargystilbenes B-E (1-4), together with seven known compounds (5-11), were isolated from the stems of Artocarpus nanchuanensis S.S. Chang. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectral data. Hypargystilbene B, hypargystilbene D, and hypargystilbene E exhibited protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibitory effects with corresponding IC50 values of 3.23, 37.31, and 2.53 nM.

Flavonoids from Artocarpus anisophyllus and their Bioactivities

Two new prenylated flavonoids, 4′,5-dihydroxy-6,7-(2,2-dimethylpyrano)-2′-methoxy-8-γ,γ-dimethylallylflavone 1 and 3′-hydroxycycloartocarpin 2 along with six known flavonoids, 5,7-dihydroxy-4′-methoxy-8-prenylflavanone 3, isobavachalcone 4, pyranocycloartobiloxanthone A 5, artocarpin 6, chaplashin 7 and cycloartocarpin 8 were isolated for the first time from the leaves and the heartwoods of Artocarpus anisophyllus Miq. The structures of isolated flavonoids were elucidated spectroscopically using 1D and 2D NMR, FTIR, MS, UV and also by comparison with literature data. These flavonoids were screened for their antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory activities. The dichloromethane and ethyl acetate crude extracts together with 3′-hydroxycycloartocarpin 2, pyranocycloartobiloxanthone A 5 and artocarpin 6 showed DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity with SC50 values of 80.2, 40.0, 152.9, 20.2 and 140.0 μg/mL in 30 min, respectively. Pyranocycloartobiloxanthone A 5 exhibited significant tyrosinase inhibitory activity against tyrosinase from mushroom with IC50 values of 60.5 μg/mL.

Natural, semisynthetic and synthetic tyrosinase inhibitors

Tyrosinase plays a pivotal role in the synthesis of melanin pigment synthesis on skin utilizing tyrosine as a substrate. Melanin is responsible for the protection against harmful ultraviolet irradiation, which can cause significant pathological conditions, such as skin cancers. However, it can also create esthetic problems when accumulated as hyperpigmented spots. Various skin-whitening ingredients which inhibit tyrosinase activity have been identified. Some of them, especially ones with natural product origins, possess phenolic moiety and have been employed in cosmetic products. Semi-synthetic and synthetic inhibitors have also been developed under inspiration of the natural inhibitors yet some of which have no phenolic groups. In this review, tyrosinase inhibitors with natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic origins are listed up with their structures, activities and characteristics. Further, a recent report on the adverse effect of a natural melanin synthesis inhibitor which was included in skin-whitening cosmetics is also briefly discussed.

New antibacterial xanthone from the marine sponge-derived Micrococcus sp. EG45

Microluside A [4 (19-para-hydroxy benzoyloxy-O-β-D-cellobiosyl), 5 (30-para-hydroxy benzoyloxy-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl) xanthone (1)] is a unique O-glycosylated disubstituted xanthone isolated from the broth culture of Micrococcus sp. EG45 cultivated from the Red Sea sponge Spheciospongia vagabunda. The structure of microluside A was determined by 1D- and 2D-NMR techniques as well as high resolution tandem mass spectrometry. The antimicrobial activity evaluation showed that 1 exhibited antibacterial potential against Enterococcus faecalis JH212 and Staphylococcus aureus NCTC 8325 with MIC values of 10 and 13 μM, respectively.

A Huge PVDF Adsorption Difference Between Resveratrol and ε-Viniferin Allows to Quantitatively Purify Them and to Assess Their Anti-Tyrosinase Property

Repeated chromatographic analyses of polyphenolic vine stalks extracts allowed us to note a huge adsorption difference on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), between trans-resveratrol 1 and (+)-trans-ε-viniferin 2. We could optimize the conditions (solvent, saturation of the process), for this polymer to adsorb very selectively 2, with regard to the monomer 1 that remains in solution. Since membrane filters made of PVDF are quite often used for HPLC samples filtration, this observation prompted us to inform phytochemists studying plant stilbenoid contents. Based on this background information, we developed a straightforward and inexpensive enrichment process for either 1 and/or 2, from crude Vitis vinifera stalks extracts, allowing to get them in a pure form. Having at hand large amounts of these two pure compounds, they were tested and compared to a set of other relevant molecules for some biological properties: trans-ε-viniferin 2 was shown to be the most powerful tyrosinase inhibitor, among all samples tested.

Aporphine Alkaloids of Cinnamomum mollissimum and their Bioactivities

A chemical investigation of the crude extracts of Cinnamomum mollissimum bark resulted in the isolation of five aporphine alkaloids, namely N-methyl-1,2,10-trimethoxyaporphine, N-methylhernagine, N-methylhernovine, hernagine and hernovine. Their structures were elucidated by spectral analysis. The alkaloid crude extract demonstrated significant antibacterial and antioxidant activities.

Aporphine alkaloids from the leaves of Phoebe grandis (Nees) Mer. (Lauraceae) and their cytotoxic and antibacterial activities

The oxoaporphine alkaloid lysicamine (1), and three proaporphine alkaloids, litsericinone (2), 8,9,11,12-tetrahydromecambrine (3) and hexahydromecambrine A (4) were isolated from the leaves of Phoebe grandis (Nees) Merr. (Lauraceae). Compounds 2 and 3 were first time isolated as new naturally occurring compounds from plants. The NMR data for the compounds 2-4 have never been reported so far. Compounds 1 and 2 showed significant cytotoxic activity against a MCF7 (human estrogen receptor (ER+) positive breast cancer) cell line with IC₅₀ values of 26 and 60 µg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, in vitro cytotoxic activity against HepG2 (human liver cancer) cell line was evaluated for compounds 1-4 with IC₅₀ values of 27, 14, 81 and 20 µg/mL, respectively. Lysicamine (1) displayed strong antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis (B145), Staphylococcus aureus (S1434) and Staphylococus epidermidis (a clinically isolated strain) with inhibition zones of 15.50 ± 0.57, 13.33 ± 0.57 and 12.00 ± 0.00 mm, respectively. However, none of the tested pathogenic bacteria were susceptible towards compounds 2 and 3.

Pyranocycloartobiloxanthone A, a novel gastroprotective compound from Artocarpus obtusus Jarret, against ethanol-induced acute gastric ulcer in vivo

Pyranocycloartobiloxanthone A (PA), a xanthone derived from the Artocarpus obtusus Jarret, belongs to the Moraceae family which is native to the tropical forest of Malaysia. In this study, the efficacy of PA as a gastroprotective compound was examined against ethanol-induced ulcer model in rats. The rats were pretreated with PA and subsequently exposed to acute gastric lesions induced by absolute ethanol. The ulcer index, gastric juice acidity, mucus content, histological analysis, glutathione (GSH) levels, malondialdehyde level (MDA), nitric oxide (NO) and non-protein sulfhydryl group (NP-SH) contents were evaluated in vivo. The activities of PA as anti-Helicobacter pylori, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor and free radical scavenger were also investigated in vitro. The results showed that the oral administration of PA protects gastric mucosa from ethanol-induced gastric lesions. PA pretreatment significantly (p<0.05) restored the depleted GSH, NP-SH and NO levels in the gastric homogenate. Moreover, PA significantly (p<0.05) reduced the elevated MDA level due to ethanol administration. The gastroprotective effect of PA was associated with an over expression of HSP70 and suppression of Bax proteins in the ulcerated tissue. In addition, PA exhibited a potent FRAP value and significant COX-2 inhibition. It also showed a significant minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against H. pylori bacterium. The efficacy of PA was accomplished safely without the presence of any toxicological parameters. The results of the present study indicate that the gastroprotective effect of PA might contribute to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties as well as the anti-apoptotic mechanism and antibacterial action against Helicobacter pylori.

3-O-demethylswertipunicoside inhibits MPP⁺-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in PC12 cells

The 3-O-demethylswertipunicoside (3-ODS) is extracted from Swertia punicea. Recent study from our laboratory has demonstrated that the 3-ODS protects against oxidative toxicity and apoptosis in PC12 cells (Zhang, S.P., Du, X.G., Pu, X.P., 2010. Biol. Pharm. Bull. 33, 1529-1533). The aim of our study is to further investigate the neuroprotective mechanisms of 3-ODS in 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP(+))-induced neurotoxicity in PC12 cells. The results indicated that pre-treatment with 3-ODS significantly increased the cell viability compared with MPP(+) treatment. It also alleviated the oxidative stress by increasing superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and decreasing malondialdehyde (MDA) level and reactive oxygen specise (ROS) production. Moreover, 3-ODS also attenuated MPP(+)-induced apoptosis by inhibiting Bax and Bcl-2 expressions, activating caspase-9, caspase-3, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) cleavage, apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) translocation and α-synuclein expression. These results suggest that 3-ODS might has applications as a complementary medicine for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) or other neurodegenerative diseases.