Ethnobotanical uses and phytochemical, biological, and toxicological profiles of Datura metel L.: A review

Datura metel L., a recognized poisonous plant in the Solanaceae family, is widely distributed in the world. Traditionally, D. metel is used in many diseases, including neurological and heart diseases; fever; catarrh; pain; diarrhea; skin diseases; chronic bronchitis; asthma; digestive disorders; and so on. It possesses many important phytochemicals that can be used to treat various types of diseases. This review aims at summarizing the traditional uses, phytochemical, biological, and toxicological profiles of D. metel based on the database reports. For this, an up-to-date (till March 20, 2023) search was made in the databases: PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, and MedLine, with relevant keywords for the published evidence. Findings suggest that the plant has many traditional uses, such as a cure for madness, epilepsy, psoriasis, heart diseases, diarrhea, mad dog bites, indigestion, etc. It possesses various important phytochemicals, including withanolides, daturaolone, datumetine, daturglycosides, ophiobolin A, baimantuoluoline A, and many others. D. metel has many important biological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, insecticidal, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, analgesic, anti-pyretic, neurological, contraceptive, and wound healing capacity. In conclusion, the toxic plant, D. metel, can be considered a potential source of phyto-therapeutic lead compounds

Anxiolytic-<i>like</i> Effects by <i>trans</i>-Ferulic Acid Possibly Occur through GABAergic Interaction Pathways

Numerous previous studies reported that ferulic acid exerts anxiolytic activity. However, the mechanisms have yet to be elucidated. The current study aimed to investigate the anxiolytic effect of trans-ferulic acid (TFA), a stereoisomer of ferulic acid, and evaluated its underlying mechanism using in vivo and computational studies. For this, different experimental doses of TFA (25, 50, and 75 mg/kg) were administered orally to Swiss albino mice, and various behavioral methods of open field, hole board, swing box, and light–dark tests were carried out. Diazepam (DZP), a positive allosteric modulator of the GABAA receptor, was employed as a positive control at a dose of 2 mg/kg, and distilled water served as a vehicle. Additionally, molecular docking was performed to estimate the binding affinities of the TFA and DZP toward the GABAA receptor subunits of α2 and α3, which are associated with the anxiolytic effect; visualizations of the ligand-receptor interaction were carried out using various computational tools. Our findings indicate that TFA dose-dependently reduces the locomotor activity of the animals in comparison with the controls, calming their behaviors. In addition, TFA exerted the highest binding affinity (−5.8 kcal/mol) to the α2 subunit of the GABAA receptor by forming several hydrogen and hydrophobic bonds. Taken together, our findings suggest that TFA exerts a similar effect to DZP, and the compound exerts moderate anxiolytic activity through the GABAergic interaction pathway. We suggest further clinical studies to develop TFA as a reliable anxiolytic agent

Neurobiological effects of gallic acid: current perspectives

Gallic acid (GA) is a phenolic molecule found naturally in a wide range of fruits as well as in medicinal plants. It has many health benefits due to its antioxidant properties. This study focused on finding out the neurobiological effects and mechanisms of GA using published data from reputed databases. For this, data were collected from various sources, such as PubMed/Medline, Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholar, SpringerLink, and Web of Science. The findings suggest that GA can be used to manage several neurological diseases and disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, strokes, sedation, depression, psychosis, neuropathic pain, anxiety, and memory loss, as well as neuroinflammation. According to database reports and this current literature-based study, GA may be considered one of the potential lead compounds to treat neurological diseases and disorders. More preclinical and clinical studies are required to establish GA as a neuroprotective drug

Antiemetic activity of trans-ferulic acid possibly through muscarinic receptors interaction pathway: In vivo and in silico study

Current study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the polyphenol trans-ferulic acid (TFA) as an antiemetic agent using in vivo and in silico methods. To evaluate this, we induced emesis in 3-day-old chicks through the oral administration of copper sulfate (CuSO4·5H2O) at a dose of 50 mg/kg. To ascertain the potential antiemetic mechanism of TFA, we employed various reference drugs such as domperidone (6 mg/kg), ondansetron (5 mg/kg), and hyoscine (21 mg/kg) as positive control groups, while the vehicle acted as a negative control group. TFA was administered orally at the doses of 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg body weight. Both the TFA and reference drug provided alone or in combined groups to assess their synergistic or antagonistic activity on the chicks. Molecular docking of TFA and the selected reference drugs was conducted against 5HT3, D2, H1, NK1, and mAChRs (M1-M5) receptors for determining binding affinity to the receptors. Active binding sites and drug-receptor interactions were predicted with the aid of various computational tools. Various pharmacokinetic features and drug-likeness of all the selected ligands were determined through the SwissADME online server. The results suggest that TFA diminishes the mean number of retches and enhances latency in the chicks at lower doses. In the combined drug therapy, TFA exhibited better antiemetic effects with ondansetron and hyoscine. In silico ADME proposed that TFA retains preferable drug-likeness and better pharmacokinetic properties to be a reliable lead. Additionally, TFA revealed the elevated binding affinity against mAChRs and the ligand (TFA) expressed the highest binding affinity (−7 kcal/mol) with the M5 receptor (6OL9). In conclusion, TFA demonstrated mild antiemetic effects in chicks, possibly through the mAChRs interaction pathway