Neuroprotective activity of Hypericum perforatum and its major components

Hypericum perforatum is a perennial plant, with worldwide distribution, commonly known as St. Johns wort. It has been used for centuries in traditional medicine for the treatment of several disorders, such as minor burns, anxiety, and mild to moderate depression. In the past years, its antidepressant properties have been extensively studied. Despite that, other H. perforatum biological activities, as its neuroprotective properties have also been evaluated. The present review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the main biologically active compounds of H. perforatum, as for its chemistry, pharmacological activities, drug interactions and adverse reactions and gather scattered information about its neuroprotective abilities. As for this, it has been demonstrated that H. perforatum extracts and several of its major molecular components have the ability to protect against toxic insults, either directly, through neuroprotective mechanisms, or indirectly, through is antioxidant properties. H. perforatum has therefore the potential to become an effective neuroprotective therapeutic agent, despite further studies that need to be carried out.This work was supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), projects PTDC/AGR-ALI/105169/2008, PEst-OE/AGR/UI4033/2014. AO was supported by Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saude do Porto and Instituto Politecnico do Porto (Programa de Formacao Avancada de Docentes).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An Overview on Citrus aurantium L.: Its Functions as Food Ingredient and Therapeutic Agent.

Citrus aurantium L. (Rutaceae), commonly known as bitter orange, possesses multiple therapeutic potentials. These biological credentials include anticancer, antianxiety, antiobesity, antibacterial, antioxidant, pesticidal, and antidiabetic activities. The essential oil of C. aurantium was reported to display marked pharmacological effects and great variation in chemical composition depending on growing locations but mostly contained limonene, linalool, and β-myrcene. Phytochemically, C. aurantium is rich in p-synephrine, an alkaloid, and many health-giving secondary metabolites such as flavonoids. Animal studies have demonstrated a low affinity of p-synephrine for adrenergic receptors and an even lower affinity in human models. The present review focuses on the different biological activities of the C. aurantium in animal and human models in the form of extract and its pure secondary metabolites. Finally, it is concluded that both the extract and isolated compounds have no unwanted effects in human at therapeutic doses and, therefore, can confidently be used in various dietary formulations

Cytotoxic Activity-Guided Isolation Studies on Fumana procumbens (Dunal) Gren. & Godr.

Among the plant secondary metabolites much attention has been given to naturally occurring phenolic compounds as attractive candidates for cancer treatment and prevention. Fumana procumbens (Dunal) Gren. & Godr (Cistaceae) is a perennial herb, distributed in inner and southwest Anatolia, Turkey. F. procumbens was shown to be rich in phenolic constituents especially flavonoids and biflavonoids which are known for their antioxidant and anticarcinogenic effects. Thus, this study aims to investigate the anticancer activity of F. procumbens extracts, fractions and pure compounds by MTT test against HeLa, MCF-7, and A549 as well as BEAS-2B cell lines for determining selectivity. Bioactivity-guided phytochemical investigation on Fumana procumbens (Dunal) Gren. & Godr. led to the isolation and identification of three biflavonoids: genkwanol A, dihydrodaphnodorin B and stelleranol. The structures were elucidated by extensive 1D- and 2D-NMR spectroscopic analysis in combination with MS experiments. This is the first report on the isolation of genkwanol A and stelleranol from the genus Fumana and from the family Cistaceae. As a result, no individual cytotoxic activity was obtained for biflavonoid compounds. However, the former fractions FrC and FrD as well as MeOH and n-BuOH extracts exerted moderate and significant cytotoxic activity which suggested a possible synergistic effect