Clinacanthus nutans: A review of the medicinal uses, pharmacology and phytochemistry

AbstractClinacanthus nutans Lindau is known as snake grass belonging to the Acanthaceae family. This plant has diverse and potential medicinal uses in traditional herbal medicine for treating skin rashes, insects and snake bites, lesions caused by herpes simplex virus, diabetes, and gout in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and China. Phytochemical investigations documented the varied contents of bioactive compounds from this plant namely flavonoids, glycosides, glycoglycerolipids, cerebrosides and monoacylmonogalatosylglycerol. The pharmacological experiment proved that various types of extracts and pure compounds from this species exhibited a broad range of biological properties such as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant, and anti-diabetic activities. The findings of toxicity study showed that extracts from this plant did not show any toxicity thus it can be used as strong therapeutic agents for specific diseased conditions. However, further experiments on chemical components and their mode of action showing biological activities are required to elucidate the complete phytochemical profile and assess to confirm their suitability for future drugs. This review summarizes the medicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of this plant in order to explore its therapeutic potential and gaps necessitating for prospected research work

Enrichment of antibacterial compound from the stem bark of Stereospermum fimbriatum using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction

Supercritical carbon dioxide (sc-CO2) extraction was carried out on Stereospermum fimbriatum’s stem bark in order to obtain an enriched extract containing the targeted active compound. The recovery of its active compound, C1, was compared with the most active Soxhlet’s extract of dichloromethane. A minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assay was done to examine the antibacterial activity of extracts against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The optimum condition for an enriched extract of sc-CO2 to have a maximum recovery of C1 at MIC value of 400 µg/mL was suggested to be operated at 40°C and pressure at 30 MPa, with addition of 6% co-solvent

Supercritical carbon dioxide fractionation of pithecellobium jiringan jack seed compositions using fast gas chromatography time of flight mass spectrometry

The volatile oil components of ground Pithecellobium jiringan seeds were fractionated using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) at 80C and 6,000 psi. The extract was collected every 20 min and the yield was successively extracted into five fractions; thus, the total extraction time was 100 min. The yields (volatile oils) were analyzed with fast gas chromatography/time of flight mass spectrometry (Fast GC-MS-TOF) and 55 components were identified. The major components were found to be fatty acids, ally sulfur, vitamin E, terpenoids, and flavonoid and alkaloid compounds. The major components were present at different percentages in each fraction, where some compounds were more dominant in fraction 1 and extracted in the first 20 min where others were more dominant in later fractions. However, the SC-CO2 and GC-MS-TOF may be regarded as new analytical tools for the separation and identification of chemical components from P. jiringan jack seeds. Substances extracted from P. jiringan jack seeds could be evaluated for anti-diabetic and anti-hypertensive effects