Multidisciplinary Investigations on Galphimia glauca: A Mexican Medicinal Plant with Pharmacological Potential

Identification of bioactive compounds and cytogenotoxicity of the essential oil from the leaves of Croton heliotropiifolius Kunth

Croton heliotropiifolius Kunth, popularly known as "quince" and "velame," contains a high concentration of volatile oils in the leaves, and widely used in folk medicine as an antiseptic, analgesic, sedative, anti-inflammatory, spasmolytic and local anesthetic. The objectives of this investigation were to (1) identify the phytochemical compounds and (2) assess the cytogenotoxicity of the essential oil extracted from the leaves of C. heliotropiifolius Kunth. The oil was extracted utilizing hydrodistillation and phytochemical profile determined using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GCMS). In the toxicogenetics analysis, Allium cepa roots were exposed to 1% dimethylsulfoxide or methylmethanesulfonate (MMS, 10 µg/ml) negative and positive controls, respectively, and to C. heliotropiifolius oil at 6 concentrations (0.32; 1.6; 8; 40; 200 or 1000 µg/ml). The phytochemical profile exhibited 40 chromatographic bands, and 33 compounds identified. α-pinene (16.7%) and 1,8-cineole (13.81%) were identified as the major compounds. Some of these identified secondary metabolites displayed biological and pharmacological activities previously reported including antiseptic, analgesic, sedative, anti-inflammatory as well insecticidal, antiviral, anti-fungal actions. In the A. cepa test, C. heliotropiifolius leaves oil induced cytotoxicity at concentrations of 0.32, 1.6 or 200 µg/ml and genotoxicity at 200 or 1000 µg/ml as evidenced by increased presence of micronuclei and significant chromosomal losses. Based upon our observations data demonstrated that the essential oil of C. heliotropiifolius leaves contain monoterpene hydrocarbons, and oxygenated monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and oxygenated sesquiterpenes which are associated with cytotoxic and genotoxic responses noted in on A. cepa cells.

Reduning Attenuates LPS-Induced Human Unmilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) Apoptosis Through PI3K-AKT Signaling Pathway

The molecular mechanism of Reduning (RDN) in the treatment of sepsis was analyzed based on network pharmacology. The system pharmacology method was administered to search the active ingredients and targets of RDN, identify the sepsis-related genes, and determine the targets of RDN in the treatment of sepsis. Cytoscape was used to build a “drug component-target” network to screen key compounds. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using STRING, and core targets were revealed through topological analysis. 404 shared targets of RDN and sepsis were introduced into DAVID Bioinformatics Resources 6.8 for GO and KEGG enrichment analysis to predict their possible signaling pathways and explore their molecular mechanisms. GO enrichment analysis highlighted that they were largely related to protein phosphorylation, inflammatory reaction, and positive regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. KEGG enrichment analysis outlined that they were enriched in PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, calcium signaling pathway, rhoptry-associated protein 1 (Rap1) signaling pathway, and advanced glycation end products and receptors for advanced glycation end products (AGE-RAGE) signaling pathway. Molecular biological validation results exposed that RDN could significantly improve the protein expression of p-AKT and p-PI3K, alleviate apoptosis-related proteins expression level and decrease apoptosis rate in LPS-induced HUVECs. In conclusion, it was illustrated that RDN could considerably constrain LPS-induced apoptosis by activating the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, which advocated a basis for fundamental mechanism research and clinical application of RDN in the treatment of sepsis.

Medicinal Plants for Insomnia Related to Anxiety: An Updated Review

Sleep disorders are common among the general population and can generate health problems such as insomnia and anxiety. In addition to standard drugs and psychological interventions, there are different complementary plant-based therapies used to treat insomnia and anxiety. This review aimed to find and examine the most recent research on the use of herbal medicines for treating anxiety and insomnia as compiled from clinical trials, as well as to assess the safety and efficacy of these medicines and to elucidate their possible mechanisms of action. The process entailed a search of PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library databases from 2010 to 2020. The search terms included "sleep disorder", "insomnia", "sedative", "hypnotic", "anxiety", "anxiolytic", and "clinical trial", combined with the search terms "herbs" and "medicinal plants", in addition to individual herbal medicines by both their common and scientific names. This updated review, which focuses mainly on clinical trials, includes research on 23 medicinal plants and their combinations. Essential oils and their associations have also been reviewed. The efficacy of medicinal plants depends on treatment duration, types of study subjects, administration route, and treatment method. More clinical trials with an adequate, standardized design are necessary, as are more preclinical studies to continue studying the mechanisms of action. As a result of our work, we can conclude that the 3 plants with the most potential are valerian, passionflower, and ashwagandha, with the combination of valerian with hops and passionflower giving the best results in the clinical tests.

Extraction of Galphimines from Galphimia glauca with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

The anti-depressive and anxiolytic effect of galphimine B (isolated from Galphimia glauca) has been demonstrated by researchers. Therefore, it is necessary to explore extraction techniques that produce materials with adequate quality for pharmaceutical applications. In this work, supercritical extractions of galphimines from Galphimia glauca were performed in the presence of carbon dioxide. Pressure, temperature, particle diameter, and flow rate effects were examined to explore the conditions with the highest yield and the concentration profile of galphimines in the studied interval. The identification of the nor-seco triterpenoids and galphimine B and E was carried out by HPLC analyses. The mathematical modeling of the extraction curves was attained by the approaches proposed by Sovová and Papamichail et al. According to results, the highest yield 2.22% was obtained at 323.15 K, 326 μm, 3 L/min, and 33.75 MPa. Meanwhile, the content of galphimine B in the extract was, on average, 19.5 mg·g⁻¹.

Further galphimines from a new population of Galphimia glauca

Both DNA barcoding and phylogenetic data of the studied botanical material suggested the existence a new population of Galphimia glauca. Their leaves afforded three new nor-3,4-seco-friedelanes named galphimines M-O, together with known galphimines D, E, G, and I. Galphimines M and N possess bicyclic orthoacetates which are the first examples of orthoesters found in the Malpighiaceae family, while galphimine O has a 27,20-δ-lactone moiety. The structures elucidation followed from spectroscopic means and the absolute configuration followed from single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. Tests for antibacterial and antifungal activities of galphimines N and M showed no promising effects.