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To investigate in vitro anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant and in vivo hypoglycaemic effects of crude methanolic extracts (CMEs) of Berberis baluchistanica and Daphne oleoides. MTT assay for cytotoxicity on HeLa and NIH cells, disc diffusion protocols for antimicrobial and DPPH assay for antioxidant potential were applied. In vivo hypoglycaemic effect was investigated on Alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits. D. oleoides CME exhibited moderate cytotoxic behaviour against HeLa cells (IC50 77.87µg/mL) whereas B. baluchistanica CME was found deficient (IC50 170.02µg/mL). P. aeruginosa was susceptible to both CMEs. M. luteus and B. subtilis was prone to the bactericidal effects of D. oleoides and B. baluchistanica CMEs respectively. D. oleoides CME inhibited more than 80% S. cerevisiae and 60% C. glabrata colonies. B. baluchistanica CME showed significant antioxidant activity (IC50 52.86µg/ml) than D. oleoides CME (IC50 87.30µg/ml) and standard resveratrol (IC50 109.46µg/ml). B. baluchistanica CME showed superior antidiabetic effect (135.75 mg/dl ±0.53) as compared to D. oleoides CME (191.50 mg/dl ± 0.48) but less antidiabetic effect than metformin hydrochloride (standard). All the above potentials exhibited by D. oleoides and B. baluchistanica CMEs propose further investigations to isolate and purify responsible biologically active lead molecule(s) with diverse capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans rely on plants as a necessitous source of their food, energy, cosmetics and medicines, as medicinal plants are rich source of new therapeutically active compounds from decades. Current study was designed to separate and identify active constituents of Erythrina suberosa bark extract using phytochemical screening and gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy, respectively and evaluated their therapeutic activities. E. suberosa bark extract contained saponins, glycosides, alkaloids, tannins, terpenoids, phenols and 44 active compounds identified by phytochemical and gas chromatography and mass spectroscopic analysis. Therapeutic potentials of E. suberosa bark extract was evaluated by such as cytotoxicity, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant assay. Surprisingly, bark extract shows the concentration dependent cytotoxicity against human fibroblast malignant melanoma-144 cell lines and remarkably inhibited (15.18±1.13%, at 400mg/ml) growth of cancer cells after 24 hours treatment. In addition, the E. suberosa bark extract also exhibited anti-inflammatory effect at higher doses (400mg/kg) and moderate antioxidant activity is also noticed through (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical) assay. These findings indicate that E. suberosa bark extract exhibited prominent anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities and might be serve as a potent therapeutic agent in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicinal plants are proven to reveal vast promising potential providing novel drug candidates to combat health-related problems. The aim of current study is to discover new drug compounds with anti-anticancer, antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal potential, to serve the purpose Saussurea heteromalla (Family: Asteraceae) indigenous to Pakistan was screened for the in vitro cytotoxicity against HeLa cells (Human cervical cancer cell line) compared to the NIH / 3T3 cells (mouse normal fibroblast cells) by performing the MTT colorimetric assay and antifungal, antibacterial and antioxidant potential by adopting standard protocols. S. heteromalla crude methanolic extract (CME) demonstrated strong cytotoxic potential against HeLa cells at 200µg/mL; (77.28 ±1.53% kill; IC50: 62.13µg/mL) compared to standard doxorubicin (95.90% kill; IC50: 0.2µg/mL). Inhibitory Zone of the extract at concentrations (30, 60, 90µg/mL) against Bacillus subtilis, Serratia marecescens, Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Strptotropomonas maltophilia, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans, Candida glabrata was measured. Manifestation of intensified results against Gram-negative Serratia marecescens qualifies the S. heteromalla extract as a considerable source of narrow spectrum antibiotic. However, antifungal activity against C. albicans was found to be logical. Antioxidant potential was determined through DPPH assay which declared no notable antioxidant effects. To the best of our knowledge this is first research and report on above mentioned biological studies of S. heteromalla. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genus Daphne belongs to the Thymelaeaceae family and consists of 70 species. Its various species exist in Europe, Philippine Islands, temperate and subtropical Asia, North Africa, Australia and Pacific. In Pakistan, Daphne is represented by three species. Our focused Daphne oleoides is widely found in diverse climatic conditions from northern cold to central hot regions which creates a rich diversity and novelty in biosynthetic levels of its chemical constituents and hence is a great opportunity. Daphne oeloides is a proven rich source of a variety of unique and interesting nature-made skeletons with a wide range of therapeutic properties. D. oleoides possesses effective therapeutic properties, therefore, has been used in herbal medicines and is still being used to treat various diseases. The modern research by various groups, including ourselves, has resulted in the isolation of a number of natural molecules including some novel tris- and bis- coumarins, daphnane diterpenoids and lignoids. Therefore, due to novelty and richness of the nature-made molecules, and their therapeutic potential combined with our significant work on D. oleoides, this report covers chemical constituents isolated from D. oleoides. The pharmacological activities of the isolated compounds and use of this species in folk medicine have also been reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

5-Nitroimidazole derivatives 2-8 were synthesized from secnidazole. The syntheses were accomplished in two steps which start from the oxidation of secnidazole to the secnidazolone 1. Secnidazolone 1 was converted into its hydrazone derivative 2-8 by treating with different substituted acid hydrazide. Compounds 2-8 were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, compounds 3 and 4 showed the significant activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis, however, compound 2 showed good inhibitions against Corynebacterium diphtheria when compared with the standard. Compound 3 showed good inhibitory potential against tested Gram-negative bacterial strains i.e. Enterobacter aerogene, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella paratyphi A, Shigella flexeneri and Vibrio choleriae. All synthetic derivatives were also tested against eight fungal stains, however, they were weekly active against Aspergillus flavus and Candida albican. The synthesized compounds were characterized by different spectroscopy techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixteen (16) chiral, amides were synthesized from commercially available L-tartaric acid, having two asymmetric centers and C2 axis of symmetry. The diacid functionality of L-tartaric acid was protected as dimethyl ester and dihydroxy groups as acetonoid. The partial hydrolysis of acetonoid of dimethyl ester gave the corresponding monoester. Monoester upon treatment with different substituted aromatic amines gave desired amides (1-8). Amides (1-8) afforded deprotected compounds (9-16) after reacting with acetyl chloride and methanol. All the compounds were characterized by using spectroscopic techniques such as IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and EIMS. The compounds gave reasonable elemental analyses. The structure of compound 6 was unambiguously obtained by X-ray crystallography. Protected (1-8) and deprotected amides (9-16) were tested for their antileishmanial (against Leshmania tropica KWH23 Promastigotes) and antimicrobial activities at different concentrations against different strains of bacteria and fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel 2-thio substituted 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives of santonic acid (13-18) were synthesized. The synthesis of these derivatives was comprised of six steps which start from the basic hydrolysis of α-santonin 1 to the santoninic acid 2 followed by in situ rearrangement of 2 into santonic acid 3. Santonic acid 3 was then converted into its acyl imidazole derivative 4 followed by hydrazinolysis to give santonic carbohydrazide 5 which was further converted into santonic-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thiol 6. Santonic-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thiol 6 was alkylated to afford 2-thio substituted 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives of santonic acid (13-18). All the synthetic steps were carried out under microwave irradiation in controlled parameters. Compounds 13-18 along with intervening intermediates 5 and 6 were evaluated for their antimicrobial potential. Compound 14 showed appreciably good activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis. On the other hand compounds 6 and 17 demonstrated good activity against Escherichia coli and Shigella flexeneri, respectively. Compound 6 showed good antifungal activity. The synthesized compounds were characterized by different spectroscopy techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnopharmacological relevance of Saussurea species to anticancer compounds instigated the present research. Therefore to search the bioactive anticancer lead compound (s) scientifically bioactivity guided fractionation of Saussurea heteromalla (Compositae) was carried out that resulted in the isolation and characterization of three butyrolactone (lignan) secondary metabolites i.e. arctigenin (1), arctiin (2) and matairesinol (3). Compounds (1) and (2) were already reported in S. heteromalla , whereas compound (3) is isolated for the first time in present study. Moreover in vitro antiproliferative activity of arctigenin against HeLa cells (IC 50: 11.04 μg/ml) along with its docking against two HeLa proteins cellular tumor antigen p53 " − 7.31 kcal/mol" and NF-κB " − 6.31 kcal/mol" are reported here for the first time. These docking results support the cytotoxic potential of arctigenin and authenticate it as valuable drug for cervical cancer. Based on cytotoxic activity and docking results compound (1) is striking substrate for further research to explore its mechanism of action in vivo. The structure of three compounds was elucidated by the interpretation of their ESI-MS, 1H and 13C NMR, FT-IR and UV results and by comparison to the already published data. [Display omitted] • Bio guided fractionation of Saussurea heteromalla resulted in three butyrolactones—arctigenin, arctiin and matairesinol. • Arctigenin was identified as cytotoxic bioactive lead molecule. • Docking studies of arctigenin against p53 and NF-κB authenticated its potential against cervical cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steroidal hormones progesterone and testosterone play a vital role in breast and prostate cancers. In this research, we have synthesized and characterized a total of thirty-one ( 31 ) new nitrogenous derivatives of progesterone and testosterone. The synthesized derivatives ( 1 – 31 ) were screened for their anti-cancer potential against MCF-7 and PC-3 cell lines of breast using MTT assay. The compounds 1-31 exhibited significant inhibitory potentials against MCF-7 and PC-3 cell lines. In MCF-7 assay, compound 17 displayed IC 50 value of 04 ± 0.02 μM while compound 18 was leading in PC-3 assay with IC 50 of 03.14 ± 0.4 μM. Tamoxifen was used as positive control which exhibited an IC 50 of 0.12 ± 0.03 and 0.26 ± 0.01 μM against MCF-7 and PC-3 respectively. The compounds also showed good anti-inflammatory activity according to oxidative burst inhibition by chemiluminescence technique where ibuprofen was used as positive control with 73.2 ± 1.4% ROS inhibition. The compounds showed the percent ROS inhibition between 23.2 ± 0.2 and −3.2 ± 4.1. The results of the compounds were compared with the positive control ibuprofen. Molecular docking correlations suggest that the compounds exerted their inhibitory activity by binding to the active of the enzyme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major problems with the formulation of herbal medicines is the quality control of plant material to ensure its efficacy and safety. Quality control of medicinal plants requires analysis of many bioactive compounds present in the plant. C-alkylated flavonoids are an important bioactive subclass of flavonoids. A simple, rapid, sensitive and selective method is presented here for the quantification of bioactive C-alkylated flavonoids. This is the first quantitative method for analysis of C-alkylated flavonoids based on the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) approach so far. This study focuses on method development for quantification of bioactive C-alkylated flavonoids. Quantification of a total of five C-alkylated flavonoids was done employing the MRM approach on an HPLC-QqQ-MS instrument. LODs and LOQs for quantified flavonoids were in the range of 0.41-1.32 and 1.23-3.96 ng/mL, respectively. Linear calibration curves between 25 and 1500 ng/mL were obtained with the regression coefficients of ≥0.996. Accuracy (% bias) and precision (% RSD) of the analyses were found to be less than 5%. Developed HPLC-ESI-MS/MS can be employed as a quality control method of plant raw materials., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Terpenoid class of molecules possesses a diverse therapeutic properties and potentials owing to their specific structural features. Prostratin and its derivatives are exemplified in this context to exhibit a variety of biological activities. In this review we discuss in detail the role of prostratin as potential therapeutic and underlying molecular mechanisms by which it accomplishes these activities. Prostratin [13-O-acetyl-12-deoxyphorbol] is a phorbol ester that was first isolated from Strathmore weed Pimelea prostrate, a small endemic New Zealand shrub, and characterized by Hecker in 1976. Structurally, prostratin contains four rings designated as A, B, C and D. Ring A is trans linked to the 7-membered ring B while Ring C is a 6 membered and is cis linked to the cyclopentane ring D. Chemical synthesis of this compound initiated with acidic hydrolysis of phorbol, a tigliane diterpene isolated from croton oil. Prostratin-containing extracts have been used by the Samoan healers to treat individuals with certain medical conditions such as jaundice. Importantly, these treatments are not associated with any significant side effect. Prostratin inhibits HIV-1 infections by down regulating HIV-1 cellular receptors through the activation of protein kinase C (PKC) pathway and reduces the HIV-1 latency. Unlike other phorbol esters that induce carcinogenesis by activating PKC, prostratin does not induce tumors rather has shown tumor suppressing activity. Its ability to induce lytic gene expression supports a role for phorbol-ester regulated signaling pathways in Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpes-virus reactivation.