Bioactive Phytochemicals with Anti-Aging and Lifespan Extending Potentials in Caenorhabditis elegans

In the forms of either herbs or functional foods, plants and their products have attracted medicinal, culinary, and nutraceutical applications due to their abundance in bioactive phytochemicals. Human beings and other animals have employed those bioactive phytochemicals to improve health quality based on their broad potentials as antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and anti-aging effects, amongst others. For the past decade and half, efforts to discover bioactive phytochemicals both in pure and crude forms have been intensified using the Caenorhabditis elegans aging model, in which various metabolic pathways in humans are highly conserved. In this review, we summarized the aging and longevity pathways that are common to C. elegans and humans and collated some of the bioactive phytochemicals with health benefits and lifespan extending effects that have been studied in C. elegans. This simple animal model is not only a perfect system for discovering bioactive compounds but is also a research shortcut for elucidating the amelioration mechanisms of aging risk factors and associated diseases.

Phytochemical competence and pharmacological perspectives of an endangered boon—Costus speciosus (Koen.) Sm.: a comprehensive review

Background Costus speciosus (Koen) Sm. popularly known as crepe ginger or spiral ginger and insulin plant is a perennial rhizomatous herb contain variable number of medicinally important bioactive phytochemicals having intensive pharmacological effects due to antioxidant, antimicrobial, insecticidal, anticancerous, and antidiabetic properties. This plant is widely distributed throughout India and has tremendous ethnobotanical uses. This review article is the coalescence of the distribution, morphology, phytochemistry, pharmacology, effect, and mode of action of pharmacologically active principles of Costus speciosus. Main body The therapeutic potential possessed by the plant is mainly the attribution of the bioactive compounds such as phenolics, steroids, alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, terpenoids, and tannins, which are found to be present in different parts of the plant. Bioactive constituents like diosgenin, gracillin, dioscin, prosapogenins A and B of dioscin, eremanthin, costunolide, β-sitosterol, β-D-glucoside, β-carotene, α-tocopherol quinine, dihydrophytylplastoquinone, 5α-stigmast-9(11) en3β-ol, tetracosanyl octadecanoate, methyl hexadecanoate, methyl octadecanoate, cycloartenol, cycloartanol, and cycloalaudenol are specifically found in C. speciosus. This review also focuses on the possible mechanisms followed by these bioactive compounds while exhibiting various pharmacological properties. Because of the presence of diosgenin, this plant is given the name “insulin plant.” Diosgenin along with an important sesquiterpene, costunolide, performs significantly high antioxidant, anticancer, and antidiabetic activities. Besides these properties, insecticidal, antifungal, antibacterial, and anthelminthic properties have also been discussed. This plant needs to be given more emphasis as it is exploited at the commercial level by the pharmaceutical industries, conservation status is getting poorer, and it is already in a near-threatened state. Therefore, more systematic and intensive research should be done in a sustainable manner. Conclusion Spiral ginger plant shows diverse pharmacological effects due to presence of variety of bioactive phytochemicals, but the compounds like diosgenins, costunolides, eremanthin, and arbusculin are highly specific that exhibit effective antidiabetic, anticancerous, and antioxidative properties through different mechanism. Thus, C. speciosus can be exploited as an economically sustainable source of effective drugs against deadly diseases like diabetes and cancers with less or no side effects, and further research is needed to explore the intricacy of its pharmacological actions with human trials. Graphical Abstract

Aquatic Phlorotannins and Human Health: Bioavailability, Toxicity, and Future Prospects

Medicinal chemists and pharmacognosists have relied on terrestrial sources for bioactive phytochemicals to manage and treat disease conditions. However, minimal interest is given to sea life, especially macroalgae and their inherent phytochemical reserves. Phlorotannins are a special class of phytochemicals mainly predominant in brown algae of marine and estuarine habitats. Phlorotannins are formed through the polymerization of phloroglucinol residues and derivatives via the polyketide (acetate–malonate) pathway. Studies over the past decades have implicated phlorotannins with several bioactivities, including anti-herbivory, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-proliferative, anti-diabetic, radio-protective, adipogenic, anti-allergic, and anti-human immunodeficiency virus (anti-HIV) properties. All these activities are reflected in their applications as nutraceuticals and cosmeceutical agents. This article reviews the chemical composition of phlorotannins, their biological roles, and their applications. Moreover, very few studies on phlorotannin bioavailability, safety, and toxicity have been thoroughly reviewed. The paper concludes by suggesting exciting research questions for further studies.

Qualitative Analysis of Asparagus Racemosus Willd. (Shatavari) Root of Family Asparagaceae

The purpose of this study is to determine the quality of bioactive phytochemicals in Asparagus racemosus willd roots. Asparagus racemosus willd. is generally known as Shatavari in the Indian traditional system (Ayurveda). It is a well-known herb in Ayurveda. It is grown in Sri Lanka, Nepal, tropical areas of India and the Himalayas. Ayurveda medicine is a medical system that has its origins in the Indian subcontinent. Modernized and globalized practices derived from Ayurveda traditions are complementary or alternative medicine. Ayurveda therapies and practices have been integrated into medical use and general wellness applications in the Western world. Therefore, this paper aims to present an overview of pharmacognostical, traditional, phytochemical investigations on the roots of the plant Asparagus recemosus Willd. Keywords Asparagus racemosus, phytoconstituents, pharmacognostical, phytochemical