scholarly journals Therapeutic Potential of α- and β-Pinene: A Miracle Gift of Nature

Biomolecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahare Salehi ◽  
Shashi Upadhyay ◽  
Ilkay Erdogan Orhan ◽  
Arun Kumar Jugran ◽  
Sumali L.D. Jayaweera ◽  
...  

α- and β-pinene are well-known representatives of the monoterpenes group, and are found in many plants’ essential oils. A wide range of pharmacological activities have been reported, including antibiotic resistance modulation, anticoagulant, antitumor, antimicrobial, antimalarial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-Leishmania, and analgesic effects. This article aims to summarize the most prominent effects of α- and β-pinene, namely their cytogenetic, gastroprotective, anxiolytic, cytoprotective, anticonvulsant, and neuroprotective effects, as well as their effects against H2O2-stimulated oxidative stress, pancreatitis, stress-stimulated hyperthermia, and pulpal pain. Finally, we will also discuss the bioavailability, administration, as well as their biological activity and clinical applications.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rabia Shabir Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Bilal Hussain ◽  
Muhammad Tauseef Sultan ◽  
Muhammad Sajid Arshad ◽  
Marwa Waheed ◽  
...  

Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) is a popular natural drug, traditionally used for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. Its root, as its most popular part used for medicinal purposes, contains different types of phytochemicals and minerals. This review summarizes what is currently known on biochemistry, safety, pharmacological activities (mechanistically), and clinical applications of turmeric. In short, curcumin is considered as the fundamental constituent in ground turmeric rhizome. Turmeric possesses several biological activities including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, antimutagenic, antimicrobial, antiobesity, hypolipidemic, cardioprotective, and neuroprotective effects. These reported pharmacologic activities make turmeric an important option for further clinical research. Also, there is a discussion on its safety and toxicity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (16) ◽  
pp. 1298-1368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ankit Jain ◽  
Poonam Piplani

: Triazole is a valuable platform in medicinal chemistry, possessing assorted pharmacological properties, which could play a major role in the common mechanisms associated with various disorders like cancer, infections, inflammation, convulsions, oxidative stress and neurodegeneration. Structural modification of this scaffold could be helpful in the generation of new therapeutically useful agents. Although research endeavors are moving towards the growth of synthetic analogs of triazole, there is still a lot of scope to achieve drug discovery break-through in this area. Upcoming therapeutic prospective of this moiety has captured the attention of medicinal chemists to synthesize novel triazole derivatives. The authors amalgamated the chemistry, synthetic strategies and detailed pharmacological activities of the triazole nucleus in the present review. Information regarding the marketed triazole derivatives has also been incorporated. The objective of the review is to provide insights to designing and synthesizing novel triazole derivatives with advanced and unexplored pharmacological implications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nermin S. Ahmed ◽  
Marek Samec ◽  
Alena Liskova ◽  
Peter Kubatka ◽  
Luciano Saso

AbstractTamoxifen is the gold standard drug for the treatment of breast cancer in pre and post-menopausal women. Its journey from a failing contraceptive to a blockbuster is an example of pharmaceutical innovation challenges. Tamoxifen has a wide range of pharmacological activities; a drug that was initially thought to work via a simple Estrogen receptor (ER) mechanism was proven to mediate its activity through several non-ER mechanisms. Here in we review the previous literature describing ER and non-ER targets of tamoxifen, we highlighted the overlooked connection between tamoxifen, tamoxifen apoptotic effects and oxidative stress.


Planta Medica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 84 (01) ◽  
pp. 8-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Ríos ◽  
Salvador Máñez

AbstractBetulinic acid is a naturally occurring pentacyclic lupane-type triterpenoid usually isolated from birch trees, but present in many other botanical sources. It is found in different plant organs, both as a free aglycon and as glycosyl derivatives. A wide range of pharmacological activities has been described for this triterpenoid, including antiviral and antitumor effects. In addition, several other interesting properties have been identified in the fields of immunity and metabolism, namely antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, and anti-inflammatory activities. Taken together, these latter three properties make betulinic acid a highly interesting prospect for treating metabolic syndrome. The present review focuses on the therapeutic potential of this agent, along with several of its semisynthetic derivatives, which could open new frontiers in the use of natural product-based medicines.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 949-959
Author(s):  
Ranju Bansal ◽  
Ranjit Singh

Steroidal pyrazolines constitute an interesting and promising scaffold for drug discovery as they display diverse chemical reactivity and a wide range of biological activities. Literature reports indicate potent anticancer potential of steroidal pyrazolines along with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities. Strong neuroprotective effects with steroids possessing pyrazoline moiety have also been observed. Among all the therapeutically active steroidal pyrazolines, D-ring-substituted derivatives are highly potent and the least toxic. The current and futuristic research approaches in this area are focused towards the exploration of this promising scaffold to develop molecules with widespread pharmacological activities. This review article mainly covers the synthetic and pharmacological aspects of steroidal pyrazolines, which will assist the medicinal chemists working in this area in their scientific endeavors.


Planta Medica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (17) ◽  
pp. 1304-1315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura González-Cofrade ◽  
Beatriz de las Heras ◽  
Luis Apaza Ticona ◽  
Olga M. Palomino

AbstractNatural products and their derivatives represent the most consistently successful source of drug leads. Terpenoids, a structurally diverse group, are secondary metabolites widely distributed in nature, endowed with a wide range of biological activities such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antitumoral, or neuroprotective effects, which consolidate their therapeutic value. During the last decades, and taking into consideration the prevalence of aging-related diseases, research activity into the neuroprotective effects of these types of compounds has increased enormously. Several signaling pathways involved in neuroprotection are targets of their mechanism of action and mediate their pleiotropic protective activity in neuronal cell damage. In the present review, molecular basis of the neuroprotection exerted by terpenoids is presented, focusing on preclinical evidence of the therapeutic potential of diterpenoids and triterpenoids on neurodegenerative disorders. By acting on diverse mechanisms simultaneously, terpenoids have been emphasized as promising multitarget agents.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziying Wang ◽  
Zhuanli Zhou ◽  
Xinbing Wei ◽  
Mingwei Wang ◽  
Bi-Ou Wang ◽  
...  

Although studies have seen dramatic advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis of stroke such as oxidative stress, inflammation, excitotoxicity, calcium overload and apoptosis, the delivery of stroke therapies is still a great challenge. In this study, we designed and synthesized a series of novel twin compounds containing tetramethylpyrazine and carnitine substructures and explored their therapeutic potential and mechanism in stroke-related neuronal injury. We first screened the neuroprotective effects of candidate compounds and found that among the tested compounds, LR134 and LR143 exhibited significant neuroprotection as evidenced by reducing cerebral infarct and edema, improving neurological function as well as blood-brain barrier integrity in rats after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. We further demonstrated that the neuroprotective effects of compounds LR134 and LR143 were associated with the reduced inflammatory responses and NADPH oxidase- (NOX2-) mediated oxidative stress and the protection of mitochondria accompanied by the improvement of energy supply. In summary, this study provides direct evidence showing that the novel twin compounds containing tetramethylpyrazine and carnitine substructures have neuroprotective effects with multiple therapeutic targets, suggesting that modulation of these chemical structures may be an innovative therapeutic strategy for treating patients with stroke.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 723-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tugce Boran ◽  
Aysenur Gunaydin ◽  
Ayse Tarbin Jannuzzi ◽  
Eren Ozcagli ◽  
Buket Alpertunga

Abstract Celastrol is a natural bioactive compound extracted from the medicinal plant Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. It exhibits immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities. Cisplatin is a commonly used chemotherapeutic drug in the treatment of a wide range of tumors. Although very effective therapeutically, it can cause nephrotoxicity leading to dose reduction or discontinuation of treatment. This study aims to clarify the therapeutic potential of celastrol in cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. The possible protective effects of celastrol pretreatment against cisplatin-induced oxidative stress and genotoxicity were investigated. A rat kidney epithelial cell line NRK-52E was pretreated with the desired concentrations of celastrol (200 nM, 100 nM, and 50 nM) for 24 h. The cells were treated with 50 μM cisplatin for a further 24 h to see whether cisplatin caused the same or less toxicity compared to the vehicle control group. Alkaline comet assay was performed for genotoxicity assessment. Genotoxicity evaluation revealed that celastrol caused a statistically significant reduction in DNA damage. Oxidative stress parameters were evaluated by measuring the glutathione (GSH) and protein carbonyl (PC) levels and also by measuring the enzyme activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes. Celastrol pretreatment increased the GSH content of the cells and ameliorated the protein carbonylation level. Likewise, celastrol pretreatment improved the GR and CAT activities. However, no significant difference was observed in GPx and SOD activities. In the light of these findings, celastrol treatment could be a therapeutic option to reduce cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. Further studies are needed for the clarification of its therapeutic potential.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayate Javed ◽  
Sheikh Azimullah ◽  
MF Meeran ◽  
Suraiya Ansari ◽  
Shreesh Ojha

Parkinson’s disease (PD), a multifactorial movement disorder that involves progressive degeneration of the nigrostriatal system affecting the movement ability of the patient. Oxidative stress and neuroinflammation both are shown to be involved in the etiopathogenesis of PD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic potential of thymol, a dietary monoterpene phenol in rotenone (ROT)-induced neurodegeneration in rats that precisely mimics PD in humans. Male Wistar rats were injected ROT at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg body weight for 4 weeks, to induce PD. Thymol was co-administered for 4 weeks at a dose of 50 mg/kg body weight, 30 min prior to ROT injection. The markers of dopaminergic neurodegeneration, oxidative stress and inflammation were estimated using biochemical assays, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, western blotting and immunocytochemistry. ROT challenge increased the oxidative stress markers, inflammatory enzymes and cytokines as well as caused significant damage to nigrostriatal dopaminergic system of the brain. Thymol treatment in ROT challenged rats appears to significantly attenuate dopaminergic neuronal loss, oxidative stress and inflammation. The present study showed protective effects of thymol in ROT-induced neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration mediated by preservation of endogenous antioxidant defense networks and attenuation of inflammatory mediators including cytokines and enzymes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 463-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manpreet Kaur ◽  
Naveen Chandra Talniya ◽  
Seema Sahrawat ◽  
Arvind Kumar ◽  
Elena E. Stashenko

Medicinal properties of papaya (Carica papaya Linn.) fruit and other parts are wellknown in the traditional system of medicine. Papaya plant originated in Central America and now grown in tropical areas of worldwide, most particularly in Africa and Asia. Studies validate that, papaya has several pharmacological activities, such as antioxidant, antiulcer, antibacterial, woundhealing, anti-inflammatory and anti-sickling, just to name a few. The present review article provides the explicit and updated information on botanical aspects, ethnomedicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological activities of C. papaya plant in order to explore their therapeutic potential. This review conducted a systematic search on C. papaya through electronic database search (Google Scholar, PubMed, SciFinder, Scopus, Science Direct, and Web of Science) and a library search for articles published in peer-reviewed journals, until January of 2018. Constituents of papaya plant belongs to different chemical classes that include alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponins, steroids, tannin, vitamins, quinones, minerals and others. Experimental evidence confirmed that these classes of compounds cure the microbial infections, diabetes, inflammatory, cytotoxic and liver disorders. Conclusively, the present review aimed to summarize the information of ethnomedicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological activities to prevent and treat the wide range of diseases and disorders. The future research draws the attention of the researcher for intensive investigations relating to phytochemicals, pharmacological activities and industrial applications.


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