Potential of Curcumin in the Management of Skin Diseases

Curcumin is a polyphenolic molecule derived from the rhizoma of Curcuma longa L. This compound has been used for centuries due to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties. These make it ideal for preventing and treating skin inflammation, premature skin ageing, psoriasis, and acne. Additionally, it exhibits antiviral, antimutagenic, and antifungal effects. Curcumin provides protection against skin damage caused by prolonged exposure to UVB radiation. It reduces wound healing times and improves collagen deposition. Moreover, it increases fibroblast and vascular density in wounds. This review summarizes the available information on the therapeutic effect of curcumin in treating skin diseases. The results suggest that curcumin may be an inexpensive, well-tolerated, and effective agent for treating skin diseases. However, larger clinical trials are needed to confirm these observations due to limitations in its in vivo use, such as low bioavailability after oral administration and metabolism.

Potential Anticancer Agents against Melanoma Cells Based on an As-Synthesized Thiosemicarbazide Derivative

In this paper, thiosemicarbazide derivatives were synthesized as potential anticancer agents. X-ray investigations for 1-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)acetyl-4-(2-fluorophenyl) thiosemicarbazide, 1-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)acetyl-4-(4-metylothiophenyl)thiosemicarbazide and 1-(2,4-di chlorophenoxy)acetyl-4-(4-iodophenyl)thiosemicarbazide were carried out in order to confirm the synthesis pathways, identify their tautomeric forms, analyze the conformational preferences of molecules, and identify intra- and intermolecular interactions in the crystalline state. TLC and RP-HPLC analyses were used to determine lipophilicity. The lipophilicity analysis revealed that the 4-substituted halogen derivatives of thiosemicarbazides showed greater lipophilicity compared with 2-substituted derivatives. The optimal range of lipophilicity for biologically active compounds logkw is between 4.14 and 4.78. However, as the analysis showed, it is not a decisive parameter. The cytotoxicity of the new compounds was evaluated against both the G-361 and BJ cell lines. Cytotoxicity analyses and cell-cycle and cell apoptosis assays were performed. The MTT test demonstrated that three compounds were cytotoxic to melanoma cells and not toxic to normal fibroblasts in the concentration range used. The cell cycle analysis showed that the compounds had no significant effect on the cell cycle inhibition. An extensive gene expression analysis additionally revealed that all compounds tested downregulated the expression of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH). DHODH is a mitochondrial enzyme involved in the de novo synthesis of pyrimidines. Due to the rapid rate of cancer cell proliferation and the increased demand for nucleotide synthesis, it has become a potential therapeutic target.

Liquid chromatography fingerprint analysis and antioxidant activity of selected lavender species with chemometric calculations

The extracts of seven Lavandulae species (Lavandula stoechas, Lavandula lanata, Lavandula viridis, Lavandula angustifolia "Rosea", Lavandula angustifolia "Afropurpurea", Lavandula angustifolia and one unknown) were analyzed using the reversed-phase-high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (RP-HPLC-DAD) with gradient elution technique to obtain the chromatographic fingerprint profiles. The HPLC analysis was performed using the Kinetex RP18 chromatographic column and eluent consisting of methanol-water-0.1% formic acid (5-100% (v/v)) at 30 °C with the run time of 60 min. and the detection wavelength 280 nm. The chromatograms were preliminary processed with the smoothing, noise reduction, background subtraction and alignment using the SpecAlign program (version 2.4.1). The presence of selected standards (apigenin, myricetin, luteolin, luteolin 7-glucoside, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid) in the extracts was confirmed. The chemical similarity between studied plants was evaluated using the Cluster Analysis (Pearson correlation coefficient, r, and Euclidean) and PCA. The preliminary antioxidant activity of studied extracts was evaluated based on the total phenolic content (Folin-Ciocalteu method), ferric ion reducing antioxidant parameter (FRAP) and α,α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging method using the spectrophotometric technique.

TLC Profiles of Selected Cirsium Species with Chemometrics in Construction of Their Fingerprints

The dried aerial parts of 12 plants of Cirsium species were extracted with the Soxhlet apparatus using dichloromethane and methanol as solvents. Next, the extracts were separated by TLC methods to obtain the fingerprint chromatograms. The analysis was performed on silica gel or RP-18 layers as stationary phases using the following eluents: ethyl acetate/formic acid/acetic acid/water (12/1.5/1.5/4; v/v) for silica gel, and 5% (v/v) aqueous solution of formic acid/methanol (70/30; v/v) for the first development and the same system in the proportion of 50/50 (v/v) for the second development for RP-18. The double development was applied in the case of RP-18 plates. The analysis was performed for all Cirsium methanolic extracts and five selected standards (naringin, apigenin, rutin, caffeic acid and chlorogenic acid). The results were analyzed using chemometrics. The comparison of individual Cirsium species and the identification of unknown species were performed using the similarity indices (Pearson's correlation coefficient, determination coefficient and congruence coefficient), distance indices (Euclidean distance, Manhattan distance and Chebyshev's distance) and Multi-Scale Structural SIMilarity. Based on chemometric analysis, the first extract of the widely grown species is identified as Cirsium arvense and the second one as Cirsium rivulare.

GC-MS fingerprints of mint essential oils

Essential oils from eleven Mentha species were obtained by Deryng hydrodistillation and analysed by GC–MS: 44 compounds were identified. The most abundant were menthone, isomenthone, menthol, carvone, piperitone oxide, D-limonene and eucalyptol. Chemometric similarity measures and principal component analysis were calculated, allowing comparisons based on secondary metabolite content. The fingerprints may be helpful in chemotaxonomy.

Two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography of selected coumarins

Polar-bonded stationary phases (CN-silica and Diol-silica) are used with nonaqueous eluents in adsorption mode or with aqueous eluents in partition mode. This enables the application of these systems in two-dimensional separations because of the different selectivity and application to the separation of closely related compounds of similar physicochemical properties and retention behaviour. Similarly, multiphase plates, connected with C18 strips and silica layers, are used with aqueous and nonaqueous eluents. Such layers were applied for the separation of selected coumarins. Thus, differences in separation selectivity are applied for the separation of coumarin fractions from plant extracts of the Apiaceae family by two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography.