Plantas medicinais no tratamento de ansiedade e depressão: Uma revisão

Há uma grande diversidade de plantas no Brasil, e muitas delas, ao serem estudadas, apresentam elevado teor nutricional, presença de antioxidante, entre outras propriedades, podendo ter um potencial farmacológico significativo e consequentemente gerando aplicações em diversas áreas como saúde, cosmética e culinária. As plantas medicinais são usadas por grande parte da população mundial, como um recurso medicinal alternativo para o tratamento de diversas doenças, visto que em muitas comunidades, representam um recurso mais acessível em diversos sentidos em relação aos medicamentos alopáticos. Destaca-se a utilização das plantas medicinais para fins terapêuticos, em que muitas atividades biológicas conferidas às plantas foram demonstradas, dentre elas a ação no sistema nervoso central, sendo utilizadas para o tratamento e/ou prevenção de transtornos psicossociais como ansiedade e depressão. Sendo assim, o presente estudo tem como objetivo realizar uma revisão bibliográfica sobre as plantas medicinais mais utilizadas no tratamento da ansiedade e depressão. Verificou-se que nos tratamentos, as plantas medicinais e os fitoterápicos são vistos como uma alternativa viável para o tratamento dos quadros de ansiedade e depressão, visto que possuem menos efeitos colaterais. Sendo assim, a presente pesquisa revisou as espécies: Hypericum perforatum L.; Passiflora incarnata L.; Melissa Officinalis L.; Chamomilla recutita L.; Piper methysticum G.; Erythrina verna; Humulus lupulus L. e Crataegus oxyacantha L. Foi possível apresentar a efetividade de todas as espécies citadas, com as descrições encontradas em estudos da literatura.

Evaluation of resistance to Pseudoperonospora humuli and of the content of alpha acids and hop oils in hops of selected genetic resources of hop Humulus lupulus L.

Twenty hop genotypes were selected for the evaluation of resistance to primary and secondary Pseudoperonospora humuli infection and of alpha acid and hop oil content in the hops. From the wild hop genotypes, two from Canada and one from Belgium showed resistance. Among the registered hop varieties, the Czech varieties Kazbek and Boomerang were the most resistant. Both wild hop genotypes from Canada showed the highest content of alpha acids among the wild hop entries, namely 4% w/w. The lowest variability of the alpha acid content in the wild hop category was found in two wild hop varieties from the Caucasus, one from Austria and one from Lithuania. The highest content of hop oils was determined in two hop genotypes from Canada and two from Belgium. Wild hop genotypes from the Caucasus have the lowest variability of hop oils among the wild hop entries. Two hop genotypes from Canada and one from Belgium were selected for breeding aimed at drought resistance.

The Comparative Analysis of the DNA Repeat Composition among Cannabis Sativa L., Humulus Lupulus L. And Humulus Japonicus Siebold & Zucc. With Heteromorphic Sex Chromosomes

Heteromorphic sex chromosomes are rarely found in plants. They were observed only in 47 species from phylogenetically distant families, suggesting that the evolution of sex chromosomes was independent in these species. It was shown that DNA repeat sequences are one of the major factors driving sex chromosomes evolution, and an accumulation or elimination of the repetitive DNA elements are closely linked with the formation of differences in the sex chromosomes. The goal of this study was to characterize the transposon composition in male and female plants of Cannabis sativa L., Humulus lupulus L. and Humulus japonicus Siebold & Zucc. For the first time, the male and female genomes of H. japonicus as well as male genomes of H. lupulus and C. sativa have been sequenced (there were no open data about them). The analysis of genome-wide sequencing data with using Repeatexplorer2 and author’s scripts was carried out. It was shown that accumulation of Ty3-gypsy may be associated with speciation in Cannabaceae family which is the opposite of the theory of speciation throw whole-genome duplication. Moreover, the sex-specific DNA repeat clusters in C. sativa and H. japonicus were found. The analysis also revealed that the concentration of Tekay, Retand and Ikeros repeats in the Y chromosome of C. sativa is lower than in the X chromosome and the Angela concentration is higher in the Y chromosome.

Developmental regulation of lupulin gland-associated genes in aromatic and bitter hops (Humulus lupulus L.)

Background Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) bitter acids are valuable metabolites for the brewing industry. They are biosynthesized and accumulate in glandular trichomes of the female inflorescence (hop cone). The content of alpha bitter acids, such as humulones, in hop cones can differentiate aromatic from bitter hop cultivars. These contents are subject to genetic and environmental control but significantly correlate with the number and size of glandular trichomes (lupulin glands). Results We evaluated the expression levels of 37 genes involved in bitter acid biosynthesis and morphological and developmental differentiation of glandular trichomes to identify key regulatory factors involved in bitter acid content differences. For bitter acid biosynthesis genes, upregulation of humulone synthase genes, which are important for the biosynthesis of alpha bitter acids in lupulin glands, could explain the higher accumulation of alpha bitter acids in bitter hops. Several transcription factors, including HlETC1, HlMYB61 and HlMYB5 from the MYB family, as well as HlGLABRA2, HlCYCB2–4, HlZFP8 and HlYABBY1, were also more highly expressed in the bitter hop cultivars; therefore, these factors may be important for the higher density of lupulin glands also seen in the bitter hop cultivars. Conclusions Gene expression analyses enabled us to investigate the differences between aromatic and bitter hops. This study confirmed that the bitter acid content in glandular trichomes (lupulin glands) is dependent on the last step of alpha bitter acid biosynthesis and glandular trichome density.

Microwave-Assisted Hydrodistillation of Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) Terpenes: A Pilot-Scale Study

Interest in essential oils has consistently increased in recent years. Essential oils have a large variety of applications in multiple fields, including in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. The volatile fraction (VF) in hops (Humulus lupulus L.) fits within this domain as it is primarily used in the brewery industry for the aromatization of beer, and is responsible for the floral and fruity tones. This work aims to design an optimized extraction protocol of the VF from hops, using microwaves. Microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MAHD) has been developed to reduce energy and time consumption in lab-scale reactors up to industrial-scale systems. Hops are principally available in three forms, according to a brewery’s applications: (i) fresh (FH); (ii) dried (DH) and (iii) pelletized (PH). In this work, all three forms have therefore been studied and the recovered volatiles characterized by means of GC-MS. The optimized lab-scale MAHD protocol gave the best extraction yield of 20.5 mLVF/kgdry matrix for FH. This value underwent a slight contraction when working at the highest matrix amount (3 kg), with 17.3 mLVF/kgdry matrix being achieved. Further tests were then performed in a pilot reactor that is able to process 30 kg of material. In this case, high yield increases were observed for PH and DH; quadruple and double the lab-scale yields, respectively. In addition, this industrial-scale system also provided marked energy savings, practically halving the absorbed kJ/mLVF.