Isolation and Characterisation of Quercitrin as a Potent Anti-Sickle Cell Anaemia Agent from Alchornea cordifolia

Ferroptosis as an emerging target in sickle cell disease

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited hemoglobin disorder marked by red blood cell sickling, resulting in severe anemia, painful episodes, extensive organ damage, and shortened life expectancy. In SCD, increased iron levels can trigger ferroptosis, a specific type of cell death characterized by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxide accumulation, leading to damage and organ impairments. The intricate interplay between iron, ferroptosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress in SCD underscores the necessity of thoroughly understanding these processes for the development of innovative therapeutic strategies. This review highlights the importance of balancing the complex interactions among various factors and exploitation of the knowledge in developing novel therapeutics for this devastating disease.

A simple and practical solvent system selection strategy for high-speed countercurrent chromatography based on the HPLC polarity parameter model

The selection of an appropriate solvent system is the most crucial step in high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) separation. The compound polarity plays an important role in HPLC analysis and HSCCC separation, and it can be calculated by the HPLC polarity parameter model and the average polarity of the HSCCC solvent system, respectively. However, flow rates, columns and methanol concentrations of the HPLC experiment can influence the calculation of the compound polarity. Therefore, the applicability and accuracy of the HPLC polarity parameter model still needed to be extensively validated. We chose 14 compounds to conduct the shake-flask experiments and HPLC analysis on, such as apigenin, honokiol, phloridzin and dihydromyricetin. The HPLC analysis results showed that different flow rates and columns have negligible effects on the calculated compound polarities. However, there was a certain variation trend in the calculated polarities with different methanol concentrations. Although the polarity values of some compounds showed a difference between the HPLC analysis and shake-flask experiments, their partition coefficients (K) in the HSCCC solvent systems were still located in the range of 0.5 < K < 2.0. Guided by the HPLC polarity parameter model, the appropriate HSCCC solvent systems for mangosteen peel and Hypericum sampsonii Hance were selected, and the two main components (mangostin and quercetin) were isolated from their extracts, respectively. The separation results showed that the predicted compound polarities were sufficient to meet the HSCCC separation requirements. Meanwhile, this method required only 1 to 2 HPLC analyses with reference compounds, greatly improved the efficiency of the HSCCC solvent system selection, and shortened the experimental time. The polarity parameter model was a fast and efficient analysis method for the selection of an appropriate HSCCC solvent system.

Experimental Study on the Inhibition of Bacteria and Algae by Jussiaea stipulacea Ohwi Extract

Nowadays, plant allelopathy, as a new type of biological algal and/or bacterial inhibition technology, has attracted extensive attention. Eight substances were isolated and identified from Jussiaea stipulacea Ohwi, and five concentration gradients, as well as a control (0, 1.25, 5, 10, 20, and 50 mg/L) were set, with three parallels in each group, and then sampled and detected at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h. When the concentration was 50 mg/L, the inhibition rate of Anabaena was as high as 74.8%, 69.2%, and 70.7% for ursolic acid, kaempferol, and luteolin, respectively. Streptococcus iniae and Aeromonas hydrophila were cultured to a logarithmic phase, and their final concentrations reached 1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.50, 31.25, 15.63, and 7.81 μg/mL. Luteolin and gallic acid showed an inhibitory effect on S iniae and A hydrophila at 1000 μg/mL. We found that allelochemicals also had a certain bacteriostatic effect, among which luteolin has great development potential.