Simultaneous quantitation of six major quassinoids in Tongkat Ali dietary supplements by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

A Multifaceted Review of Eurycoma longifolia Nutraceutical Bioactives: Production, Extraction, and Analysis in Drugs and Biofluids

Eurycoma longifolia Jack (known as Tongkat Ali) is a popular traditional herbal medicine, native to southeast Asia, that is well-known for its aphrodisiac as well as several other effects. Mostly, the root extract of E. longifolia is used as a folk medicine for sexual dysfunction, aging, anxiety, exercise recovery, fever, increased energy, and osteoporosis. These health effects led to the inclusion of E. longifolia in dietary supplements, particularly for bodybuilding purposes. These effects are mediated by a myriad of bioactive compounds belonging to quassinoids, canthin-6-one alkaloids, tirucallane triterpenes, squalene derivatives, and bioactive steroids. Among these phytoconstituents, quassinoids account for a large portion of E. longifolia root phytochemicals. Of these ingredients, eurycomanone, the major quassinoid in E. longifolia extract, accounts to a large extent for its health effects. This review capitalizes on the novel trends toward the production of E. longifolia bioactives using biotechnology and extraction optimization for best yields and recovery. Alongside, novel extraction methods, i.e., green techniques, of E. longifolia bioactives are described. Further, an overview of the different analytical approaches for the quality control assessment of E. longifolia plant material and nutraceuticals is presented alongside studies in body fluids to determine its pharmacokinetics and efficacy level. Such a compilation of analytical methods will help ensure safety and efficacy of that major drug.

Eurycoma longifolia (Jack) Improves Serum Total Testosterone in Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials

Background and Objectives: Male hypogonadism is a clinical disorder characterized by reduced serum testosterone in men. Although treatment using herbal medicines, including Eurycoma longifolia, has been investigated, the benefits remain unclear. This study aims to investigate the efficacy of E. longifolia as a sole intervention to increase testosterone levels in males. Materials and Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) according to the PRISMA guidelines. Relevant articles were retrieved from the databases PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane, Ovid/Embase, and Google Scholar. Results: After literature screening, a total of nine studies was included in the systematic review. Five RCTs were included in the meta-analysis. A significant improvement in total testosterone levels after E. longifolia treatment was mostly reported in both healthy volunteers and hypogonadal men. The random model effect revealed a significant increase (SMD = 1.352, 95% CI 0.565 to 2.138, p = 0.001) in the total testosterone levels in men receiving E. longifolia supplementation, which was confirmed in the hypogonadism subgroup. Conclusions: This systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature supports the possible use of E. longifolia supplementation for enhancing testosterone production. Although more research is required before its use in clinical practice, this may represent a safe and promising therapeutic option, particularly in hypogonadal men.

Comparison of apoptotic responses in Blastocystis sp. upon treatment with Tongkat Ali and Metronidazole

Blastocystis sp. infection, although many remain asymptomatic, there is growing data in recent studies that suggests it is a frequent cause of gastrointestinal symptoms in children and adults. This proposes that treatment against this infection is necessary however metronidazole (MTZ), which is the current choice of treatment, has expressed non-uniformity in its efficacy in combating this infection which has led to the study of alternative treatment. In our previous study, it was established that Tongkat Ali fractions exhibited promising anti-protozoal properties which leads to the current aim of the study, to further narrow down the purification process in order to identify the specific active compound promoting the anti-protozoal effect through HPLC analysis. Based on the data analysis and in-vitro susceptibility assay, the collected Tongkat Ali fraction that demonstrated anti-blastocystis property was shown to contain eurycomanone. Previous studies have suggested that there is a mechanism in Blastocystis sp. that regulates the apoptotic process to produce higher number of viable cells when treated. In reference to this, our current study also aims to investigate the apoptotic response of Tongkat Ali extract and eurycomanone across different subtype groups with comparison to MTZ. Based on our investigation, both Tongkat Ali extract and eurycomanone induced the high apoptotic rate however exhibited a reduction in viable cell count (p < 0.05) when compared to MTZ. This study suggests that there is potential in developing a standardized treatment regardless of subtype variations which makes Tongkat Ali extract a promising anti-protozoal treatment against all Blastocystis sp. subtype groups.

Bioavailability of Eurycomanone in Its Pure Form and in a Standardised Eurycoma longifolia Water Extract

Eurycoma longifolia is one of the commonly consumed herbal preparations and its major chemical compound, eurycomanone, has been described to have antimalarial, antipyretic, aphrodisiac, and cytotoxic activities. Today, the consumption of E. longifolia is popular through the incorporation of its extract in food items, most frequently in drinks such as tea and coffee. In the current study, the characterisation of the physicochemical and pharmacokinetic (PK) attributes of eurycomanone were conducted via a series of in vitro and in vivo studies in rats and mice. The solubility and chemical stability of eurycomanone under the conditions of the gastrointestinal tract environment were determined. The permeability of eurycomanone was investigated by determining its distribution coefficient in aqueous and organic environments and its permeability using the parallel artificial membrane permeability assay system and Caco-2 cultured cells. Eurycomanone’s stability in plasma and its protein-binding ability were measured by using an equilibrium dialysis method. Its stability in liver microsomes across species (mice, rat, dog, monkey, and human) and rat liver hepatocytes was also investigated. Along with the PK evaluations of eurycomanone in mice and rats, the PK parameters for the Malaysian Standard (MS: 2409:201) standardised water extract of E. longifolia were also evaluated in rats. Both rodent models showed that eurycomanone in both the compound form and extract form had a half-life of 0.30 h. The differences in the bioavailability of eurycomanone in the compound form between the rats (11.8%) and mice (54.9%) suggests that the PK parameters cannot be directly extrapolated to humans. The results also suggest that eurycomanone is not readily absorbed across biological membranes. However, once absorbed, the compound is not easily metabolised (is stable), hence retaining its bioactive properties, which may be responsible for the various reported biological activities.

Review: DNA Barcoding and Chromatography Fingerprints for the Authentication of Botanicals in Herbal Medicinal Products

In the last two decades, there has been a tremendous increase in the global use of herbal medicinal products (HMPs) due to their claimed health benefits. This has led to increase in their demand and consequently, also, resulted in massive adulteration. This is due to the fact that most of the traditional methods cannot identify closely related species in a process product form. Therefore the urgent need for simple and rapid identification methods resulted in the discovery of a novel technique. DNA barcoding is a process that uses short DNA sequence from the standard genome for species identification. This technique is reliable and is not affected by external factors such as climates, age, or plant part. The difficulties in isolation of DNA of high quality in addition to other factors are among the challenges encountered using the DNA barcoding in the authentication of HMP. These limitations indicated that using DNA barcoding alone may ineffectively authenticate the HMP. Therefore, the combination of DNA barcoding with chromatographic fingerprint, a popular and generally accepted technique for the assessment and quality control of HMP, will offer an efficient solution to effectively evaluate the authenticity and quality consistency of HMP. Detailed and quality information about the main composition of the HMPs will help to ascertain their efficacy and safety as these are very important for quality control.

Determination of eurycomanone in rat plasma using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for pharmacokinetic study

In this study, a rapid, sensitive, and reliable hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS/MS) method for the determination of eurycomanone in rat plasma was developed and validated. Plasma samples were pretreated with a protein precipitation method and quercitrin was used as an internal standard (IS). A HILIC silica column (2.1 × 100 mm, 3 μm) was used for hydrophilic-based chromatographic separation, using the mobile phase of 0.1% formic acid with acetonitrile in gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min. Precursor-product ion pairs for multiple-reaction monitoring were m/z 409.1 → 391.0 for eurycomanone and m/z 449.1 → 303.0 for IS. The linear range was 2-120 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day accuracies were between 95.5 and 103.4% with a precision of <4.2%. The developed method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic analysis of eurycomanone in rat plasma after oral dosing with pure compound and E. longifolia extract. The C_max and AUC_0-t , respectively, were 40.43 ± 16.08 ng/mL and 161.09 ± 37.63 ng h/mL for 10 mg/kg eurycomanone, and 9.90 ± 3.97 ng/mL and 37.15 ± 6.80 ng h/mL for E. longifolia extract (2 mg/kg as eurycomanone). The pharmacokinetic results were comparable with each other, based on the dose as eurycomanone.

Review on a Traditional Herbal Medicine, Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Tongkat Ali): Its Traditional Uses, Chemistry, Evidence-Based Pharmacology and Toxicology

Eurycoma longifolia Jack (known as tongkat ali), a popular traditional herbal medicine, is a flowering plant of the family Simaroubaceae, native to Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and also Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. E. longifolia, is one of the well-known folk medicines for aphrodisiac effects as well as intermittent fever (malaria) in Asia. Decoctions of E. longifolia leaves are used for washing itches, while its fruits are used in curing dysentery. Its bark is mostly used as a vermifuge, while the taproots are used to treat high blood pressure, and the root bark is used for the treatment of diarrhea and fever. Mostly, the roots extract of E. longifolia are used as folk medicine for sexual dysfunction, aging, malaria, cancer, diabetes, anxiety, aches, constipation, exercise recovery, fever, increased energy, increased strength, leukemia, osteoporosis, stress, syphilis and glandular swelling. The roots are also used as an aphrodisiac, antibiotic, appetite stimulant and health supplement. The plant is reported to be rich in various classes of bioactive compounds such as quassinoids, canthin-6-one alkaloids, β-carboline alkaloids, triterpene tirucallane type, squalene derivatives and biphenyl neolignan, eurycolactone, laurycolactone, and eurycomalactone, and bioactive steroids. Among these phytoconstituents, quassinoids account for a major portion of the E. longifolia root phytochemicals. An acute toxicity study has found that the oral Lethal Dose 50 (LD50) of the alcoholic extract of E. longifolia in mice is between 1500-2000 mg/kg, while the oral LD50 of the aqueous extract form is more than 3000 mg/kg. Liver and renal function tests showed no adverse changes at normal daily dose and chronic use of E. longifolia. Based on established literature on health benefits of E. longifolia, it is important to focus attention on its more active constituents and the constituents' identification, determination, further development and most importantly, the standardization. Besides the available data, more evidence is required regarding its therapeutic efficacy and safety, so it can be considered a rich herbal source of new drug candidates. It is very important to conserve this valuable medicinal plant for the health benefit of future generations.

Antiinflammatory and analgesic effects of Eurycoma longifolia extracts

Eurycoma longifolia is one of the most popular herbal medicines in Southeast Asia. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of the methanolic extract of E. longifolia roots (TA) in vivo and to investigate the underlying mechanisms. TA was tested for analgesic activity by the hot plate test and acetic acid test in mice. The anti-inflammatory effect of TA was observed in carrageenan-induced paw edema in mice. The in vitro molecular study using macrophage cells was performed to elucidate the relevant mechanism. The analgesic activity of 400 mg/kg TA was higher than that of aspirin in the hot plate test. TA also showed analgesic effects in the acetic acid test in a dose-dependent manner. In carrageenan-induced edema in mice, TA showed an anti-inflammatory effect comparable to that of diclofenac. Further in vitro molecular study using macrophage cells revealed that TA suppressed NF-κB translocation to the nucleus, leading to inactivation of the NF-κB signaling pathway and reduction in the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase. These results exhibited the beneficial effects of TA for alleviating pain and inflammation, which were exerted through inactivation of the NF-κB signaling pathway.

In Vitro Evaluation of the Effects of Eurycoma longifolia Extract on CYP-Mediated Drug Metabolism

Eurycoma longifolia (Simaroubaceae) is a popular folk medicine that has traditionally been used in Southeast Asia as an antimalarial, aphrodisiac, antidiabetic, and antimicrobial and in antipyretic remedies. This study evaluates the effects of Eurycoma longifolia extract on cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme-mediated drug metabolism to predict the potential for herb-drug interactions. Methanolic extract of E. longifolia root was tested at concentrations of 1, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300, and 1000 µg/mL in human liver microsomes or individual recombinant CYP isozymes. The CYP inhibitory activity was measured using the cocktail probe assay based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. E. longifolia showed weak, concentration-dependent inhibition of CYP1A2, CYP2A6, and CYP2C19. The inhibitory effects on these CYP isozymes were further tested using individual recombinant CYP isozymes, showing IC50 values of 324.9, 797.1, and 562.9 μg/mL, respectively. In conclusion, E. longifolia slightly inhibited the metabolic activities of CYP1A2, CYP2A6, and CYP2C19 but this issue requires careful attention in taking herbal medicines or dietary supplements containing E. longifolia extracts.