scholarly journals Honey-Based Medicinal Formulations: A Critical Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 5159
Author(s):  
Md Lokman Hossain ◽  
Lee Yong Lim ◽  
Katherine Hammer ◽  
Dhanushka Hettiarachchi ◽  
Cornelia Locher

Honey, a concentrated natural product, is produced by honeybees (Apis mellifera) from the nectar of flowers. It contains over 200 compounds that exert various biological or pharmacological activities, ranging from antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antihypertensive to hypoglycemic effects. Due to the presence of a plethora of bioactive compounds, as well as unique physicochemical properties, honey has been widely used as medicine throughout human history along with its extensive utilization as common food and flavoring agent. The application of neat honey for therapeutic purpose, however, poses some difficulties such as the maintenance of a required therapeutic concentration over an adequate timeframe due to the problem of liquefaction and leakage. This has driven researchers to incorporate honey into a range of formulations, for example, hydrogels, dressings, ointments, pastes, or lozenges. After a brief discussion of the chemistry and medicinal use of honey, this review focuses on commercial honey-based medicinal formulations as well as in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies on noncommercial honey formulations for the treatment of various ailments. In addition to this, it also covers the application of honey formulations and the evidence underpinning their use.

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (19) ◽  
pp. 5849
Author(s):  
Reny Rosalina ◽  
Natthida Weerapreeyakul

Sesame seeds are rich in lignan content and have been well-known for their health benefits. Unlike the other sesame lignan compounds (i.e., sesamin and sesamol), the study of the pharmacological activity of sesamolin has not been explored widely. This review, therefore, summarizes the information related to sesamolin’s pharmacological activities, and the mechanism of action. Moreover, the influence of its physicochemical properties on pharmacological activity is also discussed. Sesamolin possessed neuroprotective activity against hypoxia-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress in neuron cells by reducing the ROS and inhibiting apoptosis. In skin cancer, sesamolin exhibited antimelanogenesis by affecting the expression of the melanogenic enzymes. The anticancer activity of sesamolin based on antiproliferation and inhibition of migration was demonstrated in human colon cancer cells. In addition, treatment with sesamolin could stimulate immune cells to enhance the cytolytic activity to kill Burkitt’s lymphoma cells. However, the toxicity and safety of sesamolin have not been reported. And there is also less information on the experimental study in vivo. The limited aqueous solubility of sesamolin becomes the main problem, which affects its pharmacological activity in the in vitro experiment and clinical efficacy. Therefore, solubility enhancement is needed for further investigation and determination of its pharmacological activity profiles. Since there are fewer reports studying this issue, it could become a future prospective research opportunity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 1934578X1701200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepika Singh ◽  
Prabir K Chaudhuri

Tinospora cordifolia (Menispermaceae) is an Ayurvedic medicinal plant distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and China. The whole plant is used in folk and the Ayurvedic system of medicine alone and in combination with other plants. Due to its commercial importance, T. cordifolia has been of intense research interest for the last four decades with the isolation of diverse compounds such as alkaloids, sesquiterpenoids, diterpenoids, phenolics, steroids, aliphatic compounds and polysaccharides, along with the discovery of a wide spectrum of pharmacological properties like immunomodulation, anticancer, hepatoprotective and hypoglycemic. Although pharmacological activities of extracts and compounds of T. cordifolia have been studied both in vitro and in vivo, only few mechanisms of action have been explored and need further elaboration. In the present review, the pharmacological activities of compounds and different extracts of T. cordifolia are highlighted, along with those of the marketed products, showing the relevance of phytochemicals and the standardization of the marketed products for medicinal use. This compilation of the extensive literature of T. cordifolia here will be a referral point for clinical study and the development of standardized phytomedicines in healthcare.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaik Ibrahim Khalivulla ◽  
Arifullah Mohammed ◽  
Kokkanti Mallikarjuna

Background: Diabetes is a chronic disease affecting a large population worldwide and stands as one of the major global health challenges to be tackled. According to World Health Organization, about 400 million are having diabetes worldwide and it is the seventh leading cause of deaths in 2016. Plant based natural products had been in use from ancient time as ethnomedicine for the treatment of several diseases including diabetes. As a result of that, there are several reports on plant based natural products displaying antidiabetic activity. In the current review, such antidiabetic potential compounds reported from all plant sources along with their chemical structures are collected, presented and discussed. This kind of reports are essential to pool the available information to one source followed by statistical analysis and screening to check the efficacy of all known compounds in a comparative sense. This kind of analysis can give rise to few numbers of potential compounds from hundreds, whom can further be screened through in vitro and in vivo studies, and human trails leading to the drug development. Methods: Phytochemicals along with their potential antidiabetic property were classified according to their basic chemical skeleton. The chemical structures of all the compounds with antidiabetic activities were elucidated in the present review. In addition to this, the distribution and their other remarkable pharmacological activities of each species is also included. Results: The scrutiny of literature led to identification of 44 plants with antidiabetic compounds (70) and other pharmacological activities. For the sake of information, the distribution of each species in the world is given. Many plant derivatives may exert antidiabetic properties by improving or mimicking the insulin production or action. Different classes of compounds including sulfur compounds (1-4), alkaloids (5-11), phenolic compounds (12-17), tannins (18-23), phenylpropanoids (24-27), xanthanoids (28-31), amino acid (32), stilbenoid (33), benzofuran (34), coumarin (35), flavonoids (36-49) and terpenoids (50-70) were found to be active potential compounds for antidiabetic activity. Of the 70 listed compounds, majorly 17 compounds are from triterpenoids, 13 flavonoids and 7 are from alkaloids. Among all the 44 plant species, maximum number (7) of compounds are reported from Lagerstroemia speciosa followed by Momordica charantia (6) and S. oblonga with 5 compounds. Conclusion: This is the first paper to summarize the established chemical structures of phytochemicals that have been successfully screened for antidiabetic potential and their mechanisms of inhibition. The reported compounds could be considered as potential lead molecules for the treatment of type-2 diabetes. Further, molecular and clinical trials are required to select and establish the therapeutic drug candidates.


Author(s):  
Roohi Mohi-ud-din ◽  
Reyaz Hassan Mir ◽  
Prince Ahad Mir ◽  
Saeema Farooq ◽  
Syed Naiem Raza ◽  
...  

Background: Genus Berberis (family Berberidaceae), which contains about 650 species and 17 genera worldwide, has been used in folklore and various traditional medicine systems. Berberis Linn. is the most established group among genera with around 450-500 species across the world. This comprehensive review will not only help researchers for further evaluation but also provide substantial information for future exploitation of species to develop novel herbal formulations. Objective: The present review is focussed to summarize and collect the updated review of information of Genus Berberis species reported to date regarding their ethnomedicinal information, chemical constituents, traditional/folklore use, and reported pharmacological activities on more than 40 species of Berberis. Conclusion: A comprehensive survey of the literature reveals that various species of the genus possess various phytoconstituents mainly alkaloids, flavonoid based compounds isolated from different parts of a plant with a wide range of pharmacological activities. So far, many pharmacological activities like anti-cancer, anti-hyperlipidemic, hepatoprotective, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory both in vitro & in vivo and clinical study of different extracts/isolated compounds of different species of Berberis have been reported, proving their importance as a medicinal plant and claiming their traditional use.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1147-1156
Author(s):  
Ruchi Singh ◽  
Syed M. Hasan ◽  
Amit Verma ◽  
Sanjay K. Panda

Background: A plant is a reservoir of potentially useful active chemical entities which act as drugs as well as intermediates for the discovery of newer molecules and provide newer leads for modern drug synthesis. The demand for new compounds in the field of medicine and biotechnology is centuries old and with a rise in chronic diseases and resistance to existing drugs in the field of anti-infective agents, the chemicals obtained from plant sources have been an area of attraction. The whole plant has possessed multiple pharmacological activities. This is scientifically established by in-vivo and in-vitro studies. Methods: Various electronic databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Google were searched to collect the data of the present review. All the collected information is categorized into different sections as per the aim of the paper. Results: Fifty-six research and review papers have been studied and were included in this review article. After a detailed study, we provide a significant description of various phytochemicals present in Nyctanthes arbor-tristis Linn., which is responsible for various pharmacological activities. Twenty of studied articles gives a general introduction and ethnobotanical information about the plant, two papers contained microscopic detail of leaf and fruit. Twenty papers contained information about the phytoconstituents present in different parts of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis plant and fourteen articles reported pharmacological activities like antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiarthritic, antimicrobial and immunobiotic activity. Conclusion: This review explores the published research work comprising the ethnobotanical description of the subjected plant, distribution, phytochemical profile, and arthritis-related pharmacological activities.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 2543
Author(s):  
Ruidong Ni ◽  
Suzeeta Bhandari ◽  
Perry R. Mitchell ◽  
Gabriela Suarez ◽  
Neel B. Patel ◽  
...  

Fatty acid amides are a diverse family of underappreciated, biologically occurring lipids. Herein, the methods for the chemical synthesis and subsequent characterization of specific members of the fatty acid amide family are described. The synthetically prepared fatty acid amides and those obtained commercially are used as standards for the characterization and quantification of the fatty acid amides produced by biological systems, a fatty acid amidome. The fatty acid amidomes from mouse N18TG2 cells, sheep choroid plexus cells, Drosophila melanogaster, Bombyx mori, Apis mellifera, and Tribolium castaneum are presented.


2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 1530-1540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Yan ◽  
Wenhui Wu ◽  
Tongwei Su ◽  
Jiajie Chen ◽  
Quangang Zhu ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Shifali Thakur ◽  
Gitika Chaudhary

Cinnamomum tamala is an evergreen plant native to Sri Lanka and India. This herbal plant is commonly called Indian cassia, Tejpatta and Indian bay leaf. There are many bioactive constituents isolated from plant Cinnamomum tamala. Leaves of the plant possess aromatic fragrance and are also utilized as a flavoring agent. It is used in food curry, pickles and other spices. Besides food application, the leaves have also been used for curing a number of ailments. All parts of the plant possess many major bioactive chemical constituents like cinnamaldehyde, trans-cinnamaldehyde, 3,4,5,7- tetrahydroxyflavone, 3,3,4,5,6- pentahydroflavone (non-glycoside compounds), kaempferol, eugenol, etc. These phytochemical compounds have many pharmacological activities such as anticancer, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, antidiarrheal and immunomodulatory. In the past time, it is also considered for medicinal use. Their medicinal use was also mentioned in the literature of ayurveda, yunani and other traditional systems of medicine. Due to aromatic fragrance, it is also utilized in the perfume industry. The major aim of this review is to give a brief knowledge about the plant Cinnamomum tamala based on their phytochemical constituents, ayurvedic view, folk view and pharmacological application.


Author(s):  
Sharuti Mehta ◽  
Anil Kumar Sharma ◽  
Rajesh Kumar Singh

Background: Andrographis paniculata, commonly known as “Kalmegh”, is an annual herbaceous plant from family Acanthaceae. The whole plant of A. paniculata has explored for multiple pharmacological activities and is scientifically recognized by in-vivo and in-vitro studies. Various biotechnologically engineered techniques have been explored to enhance the bioavailability of this plant. Objective: In this review, we aim to present comprehensive recent advances in the ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, specific pharmacology, safety and toxicology and bioavailability of A. paniculata and its pure compounds. Possible directions for future research are also outlined in brief, which will encourage advance investigations on this plant. Methods: Information on the recent updates of the present review is collected from different electronic scientific databases such as Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. All the composed information is classified into different sections according to the objective of the paper. Results: More than hundred research and review papers have been studied and incorporated in the present manuscript. After vast literature search of A. paniculata, we present a noteworthy report of various phytoconstituents present in plant, which are accountable for potential therapeutic properties of the plant. Forty-five of studied articles give general information about introduction, ethnobotany and traditional uses of the plant. Twenty-two papers enclosed information about the phytoconstituents present in different parts of A. paniculata and seventy-two papers briefly outlined the pharmacological activities like antioxidant, anti-dengue, anti-ulcerogenic, antifungal, some miscellaneous activities like activity against SARS-CoV-2, antidiarrhoeal. Nineteen studies highlighted the research work conducted by various researchers to increased bioavailability of A. paniculata and two studies reported the safety and toxicology of the plant. Conclusion: This review incorporated the scientifically validated research work encompassing the ethnobotanical description of the subjected plant, phytochemical profile, various pharmacological activities, and recent approaches to enhance the bioavailability of active metabolites.


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