Chemical Composition of Volatile Oils of Fresh and Air-Dried Buds of Cannabis chemovars, Their Insecticidal and Repellent Activities

© The Author(s) 2020. The volatile oils of fresh and air-dried buds of 3 different varieties of Cannabis, namely, high cannabidiol (CBD) chemotype, intermediate CBD/tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) chemotype, and high THC chemotype were prepared by hydrodistillation. Gas chromatography analysis of the volatile oils resulted in the identification of 71 compounds, of which 33 were monoterpenes and 38 were sesquiterpenes. The volatile oil obtained from the THC chemotype showed an increase in the ratio of the sesquiterpenes to monoterpenes content. The content of terpinolene was dramatically decreased upon drying of THC chemotype. Moderate increase in β-caryophyllene and caryophyllene oxide was observed. However, there was no detectable change in the percentage of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes content in both the intermediate type and CBD chemotype upon drying. The insecticidal activity of the volatile oils was evaluated. The oil obtained from the fresh and dried high CBD cannabis showed good biting deterrent activity at 10 ug/cm2 compared with N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide at 4.78 µg/cm2, and good larvicidal activity

A Validated UPLC-PDA Method for Simultaneous Determination of 3 Biologically Active Isoflavans in Trigonella stellata Extract

© The Author(s) 2020. In this study, an ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)/photodiode array method was developed for the simultaneous determination of trigonellan glucoside (1), isotrigonellan (2), and methoxy-isotrigonellan (3) in Trigonella stellata extract using an external standard method. The extract was prepared using a standardized method by maceration of the dried plant material in ethanol. The 3 isoflavans (1-3) were separated on an Acquity UPLC C18 column using gradient elution with a mobile phase consisting of 0.1% (v/v) formic acid aqueous solution and 0.1% (v/v) formic acid in acetonitrile, and ultraviolet detection. The method provides a linear correlation for all analytes over the investigated ranges with all correlation coefficients greater than 0.998. The validated lower limits of quantitation were 53, 127, and 5 μg/mL for isoflavans 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Intraday and interday precisions (percent relative SD [RSD%]) were less than 8.3% and accuracy (RE%) ranged from 90% to 100%. The method’s capability to remain unaffected by small, but deliberate variations in method parameters (method’s reliability during normal usage) described by the robustness showed RSD% less than 4.6% measured by varying 3 different parameters. The validated method was successfully applied to simultaneously determine the concentration of the 3 new isoflavans having anti-inflammatory and antidiabetic activities. The results revealed that the validated method can be used for quality control of herbal preparations containing these or similar isoflavans that are marketed for the prevention of inflammation and as antidiabetics

Effect of Gamma Irradiation on Cannabinoid, Terpene, and Moisture Content of Cannabis Biomass

In recent years, cannabis has been proposed and promoted not only as a medicine for the treatment of a variety of illnesses, but also as an industrial crop for different purposes. Being an agricultural product, cannabis inflorescences may be contaminated by environmental pathogens at high concentrations, which might cause health problems if not controlled. Therefore, limits have to be placed on the levels of aerobic bacteria as well as yeast and mold. To ensure the safety of cannabis plant material and related products, a remediation process has to be put in place. Gamma irradiation is a sterilization process mainly used for pharmaceuticals, foods, cosmetics, agricultural, and herbal products including cannabis plant material. This study was designed to determine the effect of irradiation on the microbial count as well as on the chemical and physical profiles of the cannabis biomass, particularly cannabinoids, terpenes, and moisture content. The full cannabinoid profile was measured by GC/FID and HPLC analysis, while terpene profile and moisture content were determined using GC/MS and Loss on Drying (LoD) methods, respectively. Analyses were conducted on the samples before and after gamma irradiation. The results showed that the minimum and maximum doses were 15 and 20.8 KiloGray (KGY), respectively. Total Aerobic Microbial Count (TAMC) and Total Yeast and Mold Count (TYMC) were determined. The study showed that irradiation has no effect on the cannabinoids and little effect on terpenes and moisture content, but it did result in the virtual sterilization of the plant material, as evidenced by the low levels of bacterial and fungal colony-forming units (CFUs) < 10 after gamma irradiation

Flavonoids of Alcea rosea L. and their immune stimulant, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities on hepatocellular carcinoma HepG-2 cell line

Alcea rosea L. is widely cultivated in gardens of Egypt as an ornamental plant and it has a great history of folkloric medicinal uses. In the present work, phytochemical investigation of the alcoholic extract of the flowers of A. rosea L. led to the isolation of six flavonoids (1â\u80\u936). Dihydrokaempferol-4â\u80²-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (1), dihydrokaempferol (2),Â&nbsp;kaempferol-3-O-[6â\u80³-(E-coumaroyl)]-β-d-glucopyranoside (3), kaempferol-3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (4), Apigenin (5) and kaempferol-3-O-α-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1â\u80²â\u80³â\u86\u926â\u80³)-β-d-glucopyranoside (6). Four of the isolated compounds were evaluated for their antioxidant, immunostimulant and cytotoxic activities against HepG-2 cell line. Compound (3) showed potent cytotoxic activity against HepG-2 cell line with high selectivity towards hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro (with IC50Â&nbsp;=Â&nbsp;3.8Â&nbsp;μg/mL). Compounds 1 and 2 exhibited significant antioxidant activity and compound 4 showed a significant immune stimulant activity. Compound 1 is isolated for the first time from genus Alcea and this is the first report for its biological investigation

Bioactivity-Guided Isolation of Potential Antidiabetic and Antihyperlipidemic Compounds from <i>Trigonella stellata</i>

The in vitro antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic activities of an alcoholic extract of <i>Trigonella stellata</i> were evaluated in terms of the activation of PPAR_α and PPAR_γ in human hepatoma (HepG2) cells. The extract was investigated phytochemically, aiming at the isolation of the most active compounds to be used as a platform for drug discovery. Three new isoflavans, (3<i>S</i>,4<i>R</i>)-4,2′,4′-trihydroxy)-7-methoxyisoflavan (<b>1</b>), (3<i>R</i>,4<i>S</i>)-4,2′,4′-trihydroxy-7-methoxy-4′-<i>O</i>-β-d-glucopyranosylisoflavan (<b>2</b>), and (2<i>S</i>,3<i>R</i>,4<i>R</i>)-4,2′,4′-trihydroxy-2,7-dimethoxyisoflavan (<b>3</b>), were isolated and characterized along with the five known compounds <i>p</i>-hydroxybenzoic acid (<b>4</b>), 7,4′-dihydroxyflavone (<b>5</b>), dihydromelilotoside (<b>6</b>), quercetin-3,7-<i>O</i>-α-l-dirhamnoside (<b>7</b>), and soyasaponin I (<b>8</b>). The structures of <b>1</b>–<b>3</b> were elucidated using various spectroscopic techniques including HRESIMS and 1D and 2D NMR. The absolute stereochemistry of the new isoflavans (<b>1</b>–<b>3</b>) was determined using both experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism as well as DP4 calculations. The isolated compounds were tested for their PPAR_α and PPAR_γ activation effects in HepG2 cells