Physalis angulata Linn. as a medicinal plant (Review)

There are numerous medicinal benefits from herbal plants, with many herbal medicines being used as 'Jamu', 'standardized herbal medicines' and phytopharmaceuticals. Physalis angulata Linn. (P. angulata L.), a plant utilized for both medicinal and food consumption purposes in a number of tropical and subtropical nations, is widely studied for its beneficial properties. The present review summarized the scientific evidence which suggested that P. angulata L. possesses antibacterial, anticancer, antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory, antifibrotic and antidiabetic properties. Furthermore, the various pharmacological studies that have been conducted utilizing in vivo and in vitro models, as well as the identification of phytochemical components with therapeutic value are described. In addition, the present review explained the solvents and the toxicity tests that were used for the investigation of P. angulata L. The authors aspire that this literature review will provide an overview for researchers regarding the scientific progress of P. angulata L. over the past ten years and the potential areas of future research.

New hybrid radio-fluorescent probes [131I]-BPF-01 and [131I]-BPF-02 for visualisation of cancer cells: Synthesis and preliminary in vitro and ex vivo evaluations

We synthesised and biologically evaluated two new hybrid probes [131I]BPF-01 and [131I]BPF-02 which were built from three structural entities: benzothiazole-phenyl, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), and iodine-131. These probes were designed for potential applications in assisting surgical procedures of solid cancers. The cytotoxicity study demonstrated that fluorescent probes BPF-01 (31.23 μg/mL) and BPF-02 (250 μg/mL) were relatively not toxic to normal immortalized human keratinocytes (HaCaT) cells, as indicated by the percentage of cell survival above 50 %. Furthermore, both probes displayed low to moderate anticancer activity against the breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) and prostate cancer cells (LNCaP and DU-145). The probe BPF-01 apparently showed an accumulation in the tumour tissues, as suggested by ex vivo fluorescence examinations. In addition, the cellular uptake study suggests that hybrid probe [131I]-BPF-01 was potentially accumulated in the MCF-7 cell line with the highest uptake of 16.11 ± 1.52 % after 2 h of incubation, approximately 50-fold higher than the accumulation of iodine-131 (control). The magnetic bead assay suggests that [131I]-BPF-02 and [131I]-BPF-02 showed a promising capability to interact with translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO). Moreover, the computational data showed that the binding scores for ligands 7-8, BPF-01 and BPF-02, and [131I]-BPF-01 and [131I]-BPF-02 in the TSPO were considerably high. Accordingly, fluorescent probes BPF-01 and BPF-02, and hybrid probes [131I]BPF-01 and [131I]BPF-02 can be further developed for targeting cancer cells during intraoperative tumour surgery.