Salvia africana-lutea L.:: a review of ethnobotany, phytochemistry, pharmacology applications and future prospects

Plants are nature’s reserve for vitality and health-boosting agents. Despite ever-rising interest and research on plant medicinal chemistry, many stones are still being left unturned. Moreover, many traditional medicinal plants are yet to be discovered or functionally characterized. This study presented an up-to-date review of a poorly explored member of the Salvia genus indigenous to Africa—Salvia africana-lutea L. (synonymous with Salvia aurea L.) with details on its geographical distribution, ethnobotany, and pharmacological applications. We reviewed all literature published on Salvia africana-lutea up to January 2023, retrieved from PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect as primary databases and google scholar as the secondary source. From our literature search, we found 38 documents published on S. africana-lutea, despite the popularity of the Salvia genus as a medicinal plant (having over 15,000 articles published to date). From the retrieved literature, only a few studies focused on exploiting the ethnobotanical features of the plants, such as the morphology, flowering and existence, and nature of its trichomes. Some studies have reported S. africana-lutea as an excellent source of essential oils trapped within their leaf trichomes with numerous phytochemicals and bioactivities. Other studies have reported some interesting pharmacological activities of plant extracts and isolated phytochemicals, such as their antimicrobial, anti-oxidative, analgesic, antipyretic, anticancer, cytotoxic, and other bioactivities. We identified some limitations of the few published studies, highlighting future research needs that should draw more scientific interest to foster more study on this under-explored and valuable plant species of Salvia, to harness its medicinal and industrial potential fully

African and Holy Basil - a review of ethnobotany, phytochemistry, and toxicity of their essential oil: Current trends and prospects for antimicrobial/anti-parasitic pharmacology

The increased global health burden and mortality rate due to synthetic drug side effects and microbial resistance requires immediate attention for safer and better agents. This quest has fueled the search for phytotherapeutic alternatives, such as essential oils (EOs). Ocimum (Basil) essential oil has pleiotropic health-promoting potential in the treatment of a variety of diseases. This review focused on the ethnobotany, phytochemicals, antimicrobial properties, and toxicity of African and Holy Basil essential oils. African Basil EOs have been used to treat malaria, typhoid, yellow fever candidiasis, influenza, tooth gargle, sore eyes, and ear infections, among other things. Similarly, Holy Basil is used locally as a remedy for diseases such as colds, coughs, malaria, asthma, genitourinary infections, stomach acidity, diabetes, and influenza. This potency could be attributed to the abundance of phytochemicals in the plants, such as eugenol, linalool, and 1, 8-cineole. Experimental evidence has shown that the phytonutrients found primarily in their EOs have antimicrobial activity against many bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoans. This study discusses the multi-targeted approach of these compounds in eliminating microorganisms by distorting their cellular architecture, which leads to membrane permeability disruption, denaturation of key proteins for survival, damage to the microbial DNA and replication machinery, and ultimately cell lysis and organism death. Their antimicrobial pharmacology invariably positions them as a new, effective, and safer Phyto antimicrobial agent to reduce morbidity and mortality due to microbial resistance

Insight into the Alpha-Glucosidase Inhibitory Potentials of <i>Curcuma longa</i> Methanolic Extracts and Phytochemicals: An In Vitro and In Silico Study

Diabetes is a metabolic disease of global concern, causing death due to triggered oxidative and inflammatory complications. Alpha-glucosidase has become a popular drug target for managing diabetes. This study, therefore, investigated the potential of Curcuma longa (Tumeric) rhizome methanolic extract (MECL) to inhibit alpha-glucosidase and screened its phytochemical library through molecular biology docking for potential new drug candidates. Quantitative phytochemical analysis of MECL showed that the plant extract was abundant with phenols (790.32 ± 129.20 mg/100 g), alkaloids (494.99 ± 1.27 mg/100 g), flavonoids (171.08 ± 0.04 mg/100 g), and terpenoids (131.99 ± 6.59 mg/100 g). Moreover, in vitro inhibitory studies showed a dose-dependent increase in the inhibition of alpha-glucosidase by MECL, and the maximum inhibition (37.01%) was observed at 30 µg/mL, possibly a better inhibition with increased concentration. Further scrutiny was performed using molecular docking to screen for Turmeric phytochemicals (retrieved from PubChem) with alpha-glucosidase (PDB ID: 3W37) inhibitory potentials. Based on their binding affinity, the top three compounds [Guaiacol (−7.422), Eriodictyol (−5.266), and p-Tolyl-MethylCarbinol (−3.939)] were analyzed for their intermolecular interactions in the binding pocket of alpha-glucosidase and ADMET properties; and compared to the standard drug, acarbose (−9.522). Interestingly, strong and weak interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, pi-pi stacking, and charged and hydrophobic interactions, were observed with Guaiacol in the binding pocket of alpha-glucosidase. Although acarbose had a better docking score, Guaiacol showed better ADMET (including physicochemical, drug-likeness, and pharmacokinetic) properties. Future studies could evaluate those potential anti-diabetes drug candidates against other targets and analyze them through in vivo experiments

Allistatin:A potent yet uncharacterized therapeutic nugget in Allium sativum

Major solutions to human health challenges are encrypted in nature's resources. Despite the focus of contemporary research on characterizing plant natural products and phytochemicals, a vast number of plants are yet to be discovered, or their products functionally characterized. Garlic is one of the most common traditional Chinese medicinal plants and a hub of over 200 diverse phytochemicals. Interestingly, allistatin is a phytochemical frequently mentioned alongside allicin in research articles on Garlic (Allium sativum) and has been reported to possess interesting therapeutic activities. However, there are no reports on the proper characterization of allistatin or any of its structural information available on public repositories or databases. Moreover, experimental evidence to back up the claims of its therapeutic bioactivities is not available in any accessible literature. All of these have hampered prospective studies with allistatin and possible discoveries of novel therapeutic activities. This review provides a piece of up-to-date information on allistatin and a hypothetical prediction of the nature of its structure from the sparsely available information. Available information on its bioactivities was also reviewed, although very sparse evidence on their mechanism of action. Finally, a pathway towards the complete characterization of allistatin was suggested as a future prospect.</p

Allistatin:A potent yet uncharacterized therapeutic nugget in Allium sativum

Major solutions to human health challenges are encrypted in nature's resources. Despite the focus of contemporary research on characterizing plant natural products and phytochemicals, a vast number of plants are yet to be discovered, or their products functionally characterized. Garlic is one of the most common traditional Chinese medicinal plants and a hub of over 200 diverse phytochemicals. Interestingly, allistatin is a phytochemical frequently mentioned alongside allicin in research articles on Garlic (Allium sativum) and has been reported to possess interesting therapeutic activities. However, there are no reports on the proper characterization of allistatin or any of its structural information available on public repositories or databases. Moreover, experimental evidence to back up the claims of its therapeutic bioactivities is not available in any accessible literature. All of these have hampered prospective studies with allistatin and possible discoveries of novel therapeutic activities. This review provides a piece of up-to-date information on allistatin and a hypothetical prediction of the nature of its structure from the sparsely available information. Available information on its bioactivities was also reviewed, although very sparse evidence on their mechanism of action. Finally, a pathway towards the complete characterization of allistatin was suggested as a future prospect.</p