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Molecules
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Bioactivity and Analysis of Natural Products in Plants
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Bioactivity and Analysis of Natural Products in Plants

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 4237

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Wirginia Kukula-Koch

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chair and Department of Pharmacognosy with Medicinal Plants Garden, Medical University of Lublin, Chodzki str., 20-093 Lublin, Poland
Interests: natural products chemistry; chromatography; mass spectrometry; bioactivity testing; secondary metabolites; countercurrent chromatography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Antonia Cianciulli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy
Interests: microglia; neurons; neurodegeneration; neuroinflammation; signaling pathway; inflammation; cytokine; innate immunity; polyphenols; functional food

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Extensive research in the last decade has demonstrated that most chronic diseases are characterized by dysregulation in multiple cell signaling pathways that are linked to inflammation.

The inflammatory response promotes the activation of transcriptional factors and proinflammatory cytokines, which can result in an unresolved inflammatory response, and this is a major cause or aggravating factor in a variety of acute and chronic pathological conditions such as aging, diabetes, cancer, and neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Currently available drugs for controlling and suppressing inflammation, namely steroids, nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), and immunosuppressants, are only partly effective and are associated with adverse side effects. Therefore, safer and more effective strategies with minimal effective doses need to be developed to allow appropriate and effective management of the most common chronic inflammatory-based diseases.

Natural products, including medicinal plants, spices, fruits, and vegetables, contain a wide assortment of nutritional and health-promoting bioactive compounds.

The significance of bioactive natural compounds acting as antioxidants, enzyme inhibitors, and immunomodulating molecules are drawing increasing attention with regard to discussions on the prevention and treatment of inflammatory-based diseases, because they have the potential to be utilized to treat and slow the progression of many inflammatory-based diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, neuroinflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases.

The aim of this Special Issue is to contribute to improving knowledge on the benefits of plant bioactive compounds in a range of human inflammatory-based pathologies, serving as sources of active components useful for treating inflammation. Both original research and review articles will be considered. Original investigations in animal and cell models as well as bioavailability studies and clinical studies are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Wirginia Kukula-Koch
Dr. Antonia Cianciulli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • natural products
  • nutraceuticals
  • antioxidants
  • analysis of plant natural compounds
  • inflammation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 10482 KiB  
Article
Anxiolytic-like Effects and Quantitative EEG Profile of Palmitone Induces Responses Like Buspirone Rather Than Diazepam as Clinical Drugs
by Daniela Onofre-Campos, María Eva González-Trujano, Gabriel Fernando Moreno-Pérez, Fernando Narváez-González, José David González-Gómez, Benjamín Villasana-Salazar and David Martínez-Vargas
Molecules 2023, 28(9), 3680; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28093680 - 24 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1718
Abstract
Anxiety is a mental disorder with a growing worldwide incidence due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic. Pharmacological therapy includes drugs such as benzodiazepines (BDZs) or azapirones like buspirone (BUSP) or analogs, which unfortunately produce severe adverse effects or no immediate response, respectively. Medicinal [...] Read more.
Anxiety is a mental disorder with a growing worldwide incidence due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic. Pharmacological therapy includes drugs such as benzodiazepines (BDZs) or azapirones like buspirone (BUSP) or analogs, which unfortunately produce severe adverse effects or no immediate response, respectively. Medicinal plants or their bioactive metabolites are a shared global alternative to treat anxiety. Palmitone is one active compound isolated from Annona species due to its tranquilizing activity. However, its influence on neural activity and possible mechanism of action are unknown. In this study, an electroencephalographic (EEG) spectral power analysis was used to corroborate its depressant activity in comparison with the anxiolytic-like effects of reference drugs such as diazepam (DZP, 1 mg/kg) and BUSP (4 mg/kg) or 8-OH-DPAT (1 mg/kg), alone or in the presence of the GABAA (picrotoxin, PTX, 1 mg/kg) or serotonin 5-HT1A receptor antagonists (WAY100634, WAY, 1 mg/kg). The anxiolytic-like activity was assayed using the behavioral response of mice employing open-field, hole-board, and plus-maze tests. EEG activity was registered in both the frontal and parietal cortex, performing a 10 min baseline and 30 min recording after the treatments. As a result, anxiety-like behavior was significantly decreased in mice administered with palmitone, DZP, BUSP, or 8-OH-DPAT. The effect of palmitone was equivalent to that produced by 5-HT1A receptor agonists but 50% less effective than DZP. The presence of PTX and WAY prevented the anxiolytic-like response of DZP and 8-OH-DPAT, respectively. Whereas only the antagonist of the 5-HT1A receptor (WAY) inhibited the palmitone effects. Palmitone and BUSP exhibited similar changes in the relative power bands after the spectral power analysis. This response was different to the changes induced by DZP. In conclusion, brain electrical activity was associated with the anxiolytic-like effects of palmitone implying a serotoninergic rather than a GABAergic mechanism of action. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactivity and Analysis of Natural Products in Plants)
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12 pages, 4000 KiB  
Article
Sesquiterpenes from Artemisia annua and Their Cytotoxic Activities
by Xiao Han, Yao Chai, Cheng Lv, Qianqian Chen, Jinling Liu, Yongli Wang and Guixin Chou
Molecules 2022, 27(16), 5079; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27165079 - 10 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2028
Abstract
Artemisia annua is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine. Due to its highest antimalarial efficacy, China has a long history of cultivating A. annua, and it is used for “clearing heat and detoxicating”. Several, studies have shown that the A. annua extract exerts [...] Read more.
Artemisia annua is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine. Due to its highest antimalarial efficacy, China has a long history of cultivating A. annua, and it is used for “clearing heat and detoxicating”. Several, studies have shown that the A. annua extract exerts cytotoxicity. In order to clarify the basis of the cytotoxic effect of A. annua, 18 sesquiterpenes were isolated from the herb, including 2 new sesquiterpenes and 16 known analogues. The structures of new compounds were elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses, including HR-ESI-MS, NMR experiments, single-crystal X-ray, and DP4+ and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations. Cytotoxic activity screening revealed three compounds that exhibited cytotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner. Additional exploration showed that compound 5 significantly inhibited the proliferation of CT26 and HCT116 cells and induced apoptosis of HCT116 cells after 24 h. These chemical constituents contributed to elucidating the mechanism of action of the cytotoxic activity of A. annua. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactivity and Analysis of Natural Products in Plants)
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