scholarly journals Plant Secondary Metabolites Produced in Response to Abiotic Stresses Has Potential Application in Pharmaceutical Product Development

Molecules ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 313
Author(s):  
Karma Yeshi ◽  
Darren Crayn ◽  
Edita Ritmejerytė ◽  
Phurpa Wangchuk

Plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) are vital for human health and constitute the skeletal framework of many pharmaceutical drugs. Indeed, more than 25% of the existing drugs belong to PSMs. One of the continuing challenges for drug discovery and pharmaceutical industries is gaining access to natural products, including medicinal plants. This bottleneck is heightened for endangered species prohibited for large sample collection, even if they show biological hits. While cultivating the pharmaceutically interesting plant species may be a solution, it is not always possible to grow the organism outside its natural habitat. Plants affected by abiotic stress present a potential alternative source for drug discovery. In order to overcome abiotic environmental stressors, plants may mount a defense response by producing a diversity of PSMs to avoid cells and tissue damage. Plants either synthesize new chemicals or increase the concentration (in most instances) of existing chemicals, including the prominent bioactive lead compounds morphine, camptothecin, catharanthine, epicatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), quercetin, resveratrol, and kaempferol. Most PSMs produced under various abiotic stress conditions are plant defense chemicals and are functionally anti-inflammatory and antioxidative. The major PSM groups are terpenoids, followed by alkaloids and phenolic compounds. We have searched the literature on plants affected by abiotic stress (primarily studied in the simulated growth conditions) and their PSMs (including pharmacological activities) from PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE Ovid, Google Scholar, Databases, and journal websites. We used search keywords: “stress-affected plants,” “plant secondary metabolites, “abiotic stress,” “climatic influence,” “pharmacological activities,” “bioactive compounds,” “drug discovery,” and “medicinal plants” and retrieved published literature between 1973 to 2021. This review provides an overview of variation in bioactive phytochemical production in plants under various abiotic stress and their potential in the biodiscovery of therapeutic drugs. We excluded studies on the effects of biotic stress on PSMs.

Author(s):  
Michael Lartey ◽  
Samuel Frimpong-Manso ◽  
Prince Osei Banahene ◽  
Adolphina Addo-Lartey ◽  
Nathaniel N A Okine ◽  
...  

Background: Anthropogenic activities release metals into the environment that could be absorbed by plants and assimilate into herbal medicines. Objective: This study sought to correlate the outcome of anthropogenic activities that release metals into the environment with levels of metals in medicinal plants using the leaves of Moringa oleifera Lam. (M. oleifera)as a case study. Methods: Leaves of M. oleifera and soil around sampled plants were collected from three locations in the Accra Metropolis: a commercial area, an area with dense vehicular traffic, and a quasi-natural habitat. Samples were analyzed with Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectroscopy for the presence and levels of arsenic (As), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), vanadium (V) and zinc (Zn). Statistical analyses were performed and the correlation between metal concentrations in leaves and soil was assessed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Results: Levels of metals in the leaves and soil samples varied with the site of sample collection. Levels of metals in leaves were significantly lower than permissible limits (p< 0.05) in herbal medicines. Translocation factor (TF) estimates indicated that the M. oleifera leaves exclude the metals under investigation irrespective of the site of collection. However, the TF > 1 in the case of Zn from the quasi-natural habitat signifying bioaccumulation in the leaves. Except forCo, the total concentration of each metal in the soil was not correlated with its concentration in the leaves. Conclusion: The concentration of sampled metals in the leaves and soil varied with the site of sampling and potentially with the anthropogenic activities that release metals into that environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Torres-Mendoza ◽  
Humberto E. Ortega ◽  
Luis Cubilla-Rios

Endophytic fungi are an important group of microorganisms and one of the least studied. They enhance their host’s resistance against abiotic stress, disease, insects, pathogens and mammalian herbivores by producing secondary metabolites with a wide spectrum of biological activity. Therefore, they could be an alternative source of secondary metabolites for applications in medicine, pharmacy and agriculture. In this review, we analyzed patents related to the production of secondary metabolites and biotransformation processes through endophytic fungi and their fields of application. We examined 245 patents (224 related to secondary metabolite production and 21 for biotransformation). The most patented fungi in the development of these applications belong to the Aspergillus, Fusarium, Trichoderma, Penicillium, and Phomopsis genera and cover uses in the biomedicine, agriculture, food, and biotechnology industries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Carlos Cardoso ◽  
Maria Eduarda BS de Oliveira ◽  
Fernanda de CI Cardoso

ABSTRACT The production of secondary metabolites from medicinal plants, also called Plant-Derived Medicinal Compounds (PDMC), is gaining ground in the last decade. Concomitant to the increase in the knowledge about pharmacological properties of these compounds, horticultural plants are becoming the most important, sustainable and low-cost biomass source to obtain high-complex PDMCs to be used as medicaments. Biotechnological tools, including plant cell and tissue culture and plant genetic transformation, are increasingly being employed to produce high quality and rare PDMC under in vitro conditions. The proper use of these technologies requires studies in organogenesis to allow for better control of in vitro plant development and, thus, to the production of specific tissues and activation of biochemical routes that result in the biosynthesis of the target PDMCs. Either biotic or abiotic factors, called elicitors, are responsible for triggering the PDMC synthesis. In vitro techniques, when compared to the conventional cultivation of medicinal plants in greenhouse or in the field, have the advantages of (1) producing PDMCs in sterile and controlled environmental conditions, allowing better control of the developmental processes, such as organogenesis, and (2) producing tissues with high PDMC contents, due to the efficient use of different biotic and abiotic elicitors. Nevertheless, the process has many challenges, e.g., the establishment of step-by-step protocols for in vitro biomass and PDMC production, both involving and being affected by many factors. Other limitations are the high costs in opposition to the relatively cheaper alternative of growing medicinal plants conventionally. This paper aims to quickly review the general origin of plant secondary metabolites, the leading techniques and recent advances for PDMC in vitro production, and the challenges around the use of this promising technology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL4) ◽  
pp. 900-905
Author(s):  
Satish Kumar Sharma ◽  
Omprakash Goshain

Covid-19, a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV) has challenged pharmaceutical science against viruses, globally. The disease has become a global pandemic beginning the race of new therapeutic strategies against novel corona virus (nCoV). Therefore, management of such pandemic issue is a need of the hour. Drug delivery refers to an approach adopted to transfer drug particles within the body to obtain a potent therapeutic effect. In the present study, an attempt has been taken to discuss about plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) and fungal bioactive compounds which are potent antiviral pharmaceutical agents. Also, a discussion about allopathic ingredient of plant secondary metabolites have also been done. The unique repository of Indian plants and versatility of fungal species provide broad spectrum to screen for pharmaceutical ingredients against novel corona virus. Further, screening of plant secondary metabolites by molecular docking can be a cost effective way to combat from novel corona virus. Thus, it can be said that, Multidimensional approach discussed herein may provide insights to combat antimicrobial resistance in the future. The present review will promote further research horizons in plants and fungal based therapeutics and a novel approach towards drug discovery thereby preventing the humans from suffering through severe adversities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smita Kishor Puri ◽  
Prasanna Vasantrao Habbu ◽  
Preeti Venkatrao Kulkarni ◽  
Venkatrao Hanumantrao Kulkarni

Metabolites ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uttpal Anand ◽  
Nadia Jacobo-Herrera ◽  
Ammar Altemimi ◽  
Naoufal Lakhssassi

The war on multidrug resistance (MDR) has resulted in the greatest loss to the world’s economy. Antibiotics, the bedrock, and wonder drug of the 20th century have played a central role in treating infectious diseases. However, the inappropriate, irregular, and irrational uses of antibiotics have resulted in the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. This has resulted in an increased interest in medicinal plants since 30–50% of current pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals are plant-derived. The question we address in this review is whether plants, which produce a rich diversity of secondary metabolites, may provide novel antibiotics to tackle MDR microbes and novel chemosensitizers to reclaim currently used antibiotics that have been rendered ineffective by the MDR microbes. Plants synthesize secondary metabolites and phytochemicals and have great potential to act as therapeutics. The main focus of this mini-review is to highlight the potential benefits of plant derived multiple compounds and the importance of phytochemicals for the development of biocompatible therapeutics. In addition, this review focuses on the diverse effects and efficacy of herbal compounds in controlling the development of MDR in microbes and hopes to inspire research into unexplored plants with a view to identify novel antibiotics for global health benefits.


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofna D.S. Banjarnahor ◽  
Nina Artanti

Flavonoids represent a remarkable group of plant secondary metabolites and have long been used as traditional medicines with scientifically proven pharmacological benefits. They serve vast-ranging medicinal activities that may lead drug discovery with novel and potential therapeutic evidence. Latest research magnifies primarily functional activity of flavonoids as antioxidant against oxidative stress. This review enlightens the prospective role of flavonoids as antioxidant.


Author(s):  
Sreya Kosanam ◽  
Rajeshwari Pasupula

Plants are the major source of human living. Since the beginning of the era, plants have been used for medicinal purposes. There is dire to explore the mechanism of chemical constituents in plants and particularly saponins, cardiac glycosides, and flavonoids due to their mechanism to save damaged cells in cardiac muscle. Databases like Google Scholar, Medline, PubMed, and the Directory of Open Access Journals were searched to find the articles describing the cardioprotective mechanism of medicinal plants. Saponin, flavonoids, glycoside, steroid, alkaloids, tannin, phenol, phlorotannin, terpenoids, and anthraquinone are chemical constituents in plants that enhance cardioprotection activity and decreases cardiac abnormalities. The current review article provides data on the use of medicinal plants, specifically against cardiac diseases, as well as an investigation of molecules/phytoconstituents as plant secondary metabolites for their cardioprotective potential.


Biomolecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angel de Jesús Dzul-Beh ◽  
Andrés Humberto Uc-Cachón ◽  
Jorge Bórquez ◽  
Luis A. Loyola ◽  
Luis Manuel Peña-Rodríguez ◽  
...  

Mulinane- and azorellane-type diterpenoids have unique tricyclic fused five-, six-, and seven-membered systems and a wide range of biological properties, including antimicrobial, antiprotozoal, spermicidal, gastroprotective, and anti-inflammatory, among others. These secondary metabolites are exclusive constituents of medicinal plants belonging to the Azorella, Laretia, and Mulinum genera. In the last 30 years, more than 95 mulinanes and azorellanes have been reported, 49 of them being natural products, 4 synthetics, and the rest semisynthetic and biotransformed derivatives. This systematic review highlights the biosynthetic origin, the chemistry, and the pharmacological activities of this remarkably interesting group of diterpenoids.


Author(s):  
Soyoung Park ◽  
Seungsu Kim ◽  
Dongyun Shin

AbstractNatural arylnaphthalene lactones are representative lignans that are found in various dietary and medicinal plants. Their unique structural features and significant pharmacological activity have attracted considerable attention from both synthetic and medicinal chemists. Owing to their unique structural features such as relative rigid tetracyclic skeleton, structural diversity of more than five substituents, and no chiral center, arylnaphthalene lactones are recognized as a valuable scaffold for drug discovery, in addition to their significant pharmacological activities. This review covers the structures and isolation of all naturally occurring arylnaphthalene lactone congeners reported. Based on the aryl substituents, they were categorized as Type I and Type II and further classified according to the oxidation state of the ring and glycosylation level. Special attention has been paid to natural arylnaphthalene lactones owing to their broad spectrum of biological activities such as cytotoxic, antiplatelet, antiviral, anti-HIV, antifungal, neuroprotective, and anti-inflammatory properties. All the products were reorganized based on their biological activities, and selected data are presented.


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