Toxic Chemical Compounds of the Solanaceae

The Solanaceae is comprised of some 2500 species of cosmopolitan plants, especially native to the American continent. They have great value as food, like the well-known potato, tomato and eggplants, and medicines, like species of Atropa, Withania and Physalis, but many plants of this family are toxic, and sometimes lethal to mammals, in particular to man. Some of them also produce hallucinations and perceptual changes. The toxic species of this family are characterized by the occurrence of a variety of chemical compounds, some of which are responsible for the toxicity and lethality observed after ingestion, while others are suspected to be toxic. In this review, the following toxic compounds belonging to different members of the Solanaceae family are described: Tropane alkaloids (Atropa, Datura, Hyoscyamus, Mandragora); pyrrolidine and pyrrolic alkaloids (Nierembergia, Physalis, Solanum); protoalkaloids (Nierembergia); glycoalkaloids (Lycopersicon, Solanum); nicotine (Nicotiana); cardenolides (Cestrum, Nierembergia); capsaicinoids (Capsicum); kaurene-type tetracyclic diterpenes (Cestrum); steroidal glycosides (Cestrum, Solanum); 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and vitamin D3 (Cestrum, Solanum, Nierembergia); and withasteroids, withanolides (Withania), and physalins (Physalis). Other bioactive chemical constituents of members of this family are sugar esters and lectins. Phenylpropanoids are not included in this paper.Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicada

QSAR studies of the antioxidant activity of anthocyanins

Through experimental information available from antioxidant assays of seventeen anthocyanins, and six common anthocyanidins, quantitative structure–activity relationships (QSAR) have been established in the present work. The antioxidant bioactivity has been predicted in three different lipid environments: emulsified and bulk oil (methyl linoleate) (in vitro tests) at concentrations of 50 and 250 μM, and 50 μM of the inhibitor, respectively, and in human LDL (low-density lipoprotein; “bad cholesterol”) (ex vivo test) at concentrations of 2.5, 10, and 25 μM of the inhibitor. Radical scavenging activity was predicted in the assay with the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH·). The QSAR models developed for each test and concentration used allowed to obtain prospective information on the constitutional and topological molecular characteristics for anthocyanin/anthocyanidin compounds. Therefore, the antioxidant activity was predicted for twenty-one compounds with unknown experimental values, leading for some of them to a favorable predicted bioactivity.Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicada