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Bua Bok or Centella asiatica (CA) is an Asian vegetable with anti-inflammatory benefits. Asiaticoside, asiatic acid, madecassoside and madecassic have been characterised as major active ingredients with a wide range of pharmacological advantages. In manufacturing processes, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS) are used to routinely determine the active compounds in raw materials.This research aims to explore anti-inflammatory properties, characterise metabolites and observe the biochemical changes of the inflammatory induced macrophages after pretreatment with the potential extracted fractions.Bua Bok leaf extracts were prepared. Macrophages were pretreated with non-toxic fractions to determine the anti-inflammatory action. Tentative metabolites of effective fractions were identified by LC-MS. Synchrotron fourier-transform infrared (S-FTIR) microspectroscopy was utilised to observe the biochemical change of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cells after pretreatment with potential fractions.Fractions of ethyl acetate, 30% and 100% ethanol highly increased the nitrile scavenging and suppressed the function of phospholipase AWhile the anti-inflammatory actions of 70% and 100% ethanol were similar. S-FTIR expressed they inhibited inflammatory response with the distinct features of biomolecules. The S-FTIR, LC-MS and biological assay confidently provided the efficient strategies to inform the advantage of herbal extract on cellular organisation instead of a single compound.

Protein-ligand (GOLD) docking of the NCI compounds into the ligand-binding site of Plasmodium falciparum adenosine deaminase (PfADA) identified three most active azo compounds containing 4-[(4-hydroxy-2-oxo-1H-quinolin-3-yl) moiety. These compounds showed IC

The therapeutic activities of food-derived bioactive proteins and peptides are attracting increased attention within the research community. Medicinal plants used in traditional medicines are an excellent source of bioactive proteins and peptides, especially those traditionally prepared by water extraction for use as tea or food supplement. In this study, novel bioactive peptides were isolated from enzymatic digests of 33 Thai medicinal plants. The inhibitory activity of each against dengue virus (DENV) infection was investigated. Of 33 plants, peptides from Acacia catechu extract demonstrated the most pronounced anti-DENV activity. Half maximal inhibitory concentration of 0.18 μg/ml effectively inhibited DENV foci formation. Treatment with 1.25 μg/ml crude peptide extract could reduce virus production less than 100-fold with no observable cell toxicity. Peptide sequences were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Two bioactive peptides isolated from Acacia catechu inhibited DENV foci formation >90% at the concentration of 50 μM; therefore, they are recommended for further investigation as antiviral peptides against DENV infection.

Yellow head virus (YHV) is one of the causative agents of shrimp viral disease. The prevention of YHV infection in shrimp has been developed by various methods, but it is still insufficient to protect the mass mortality in shrimp. New approaches for the antiviral drug development for viral infection have been focused on the inhibition of several potent viral enzymes, and thus the YHV protease is one of the interesting targets for developing antiviral drugs according to the pivotal roles of the enzyme in an early stage of viral propagation. In this study, a theoretical modeling of the YHV protease was constructed based on the folds of several known crystal structures of other viral proteases, and was subsequently used as a target for virtual screening—molecular docking against approximately 1364 NCI structurally diversity compounds. A complex between the protease and the hit compounds was investigated for intermolecular interactions by molecular dynamics simulations. Five best predicted compounds (NSC122819, NSC345647, NSC319990, NSC50650, and NSC5069) were tested against bacterial expressed YHV. The NSC122819 showed the best inhibitory characteristic among the candidates, while others showed more than 50 % of inhibition in the assay condition. These compounds could potentially be inhibitors for curing YHV infection. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00894-014-2116-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.