Cones of coniferous taxa as a potential source of bioactive polyphenols

Background: Coniferous cones are a by-product of forestry and wood logging, used for many possible purposes, e.g., the extraction of polyphenols. Objective: The aim of the present article was the comparison of the antioxidant polyphenol content of the differently matured cones of 17 selected conifers, either common in Hungary or yet uninvestigated. Methods: Total polyphenol content, ferric reducing antioxidant power and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assays were used to determine the antioxidant contents. A scoring system was implemented using the three assay results to evaluate and compare the overall antioxidant power of the samples. Result and Conclusion: Highest antioxidant contents were found in green cones, followed by mature and opened cones. Taxa with the highest scores were Tsuga canadensis, Cryptomeria japonica, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, Thuja orientalis, Metasequoia glyptostroboides and Picea abies. For the samples with the highest overall antioxidant power the high-performance liquid chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric polyphenol profiling was carried out (green cones of T. canadensis and P. abies) and 83 compounds have been tentatively identified and described. Results contribute to the future bioactivity testing and evaluation of the cone extracts of T. canadensis and P. abies.

Formulation and evaluation of herbal ointment using leaves of Thuja orientalis l. Leaf extract

The study of diseases and their treatment are important part of our ancient time worldwide. The knowledge of medicinal plants must have been accumulated in the course of many centuries. Herbal plants are huge sources of neutraceuticals, prevent the different disease or maintain healthy life. Plant produces primary metabolites for their basic survival and secondary metabolites for their ecological, taxonomical and biochemical differentiation and diversity. Herbal medicine prepare different part of plant are used. Herbal drug is design as the alternative formulation for the external use in the form of ointment. For the clinical use the herbal ointment apply externally on human body. The main aims of this research are preparation of herbal ointment from the Thuja orientalis L.Plants used as antibacterial activity. Under this research work, it is design as herbal ointment with the help of Ethanolic extract of Thuja orientalis L. and determines the anti bacterial capacity on it. In vitro study the antibacterial activity of the Ethanolic extracts of dried leaves of Thuja orientalis L. are determine by using the Agar cup plate method versus different bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa etc. By blending the Ethanolic extract of Thuja orientalis L.(10 % w/w) into aqueous cream we formulated herbal ointment. The emulsifying agent and simple ointment bases are added in above herbal ointment for increase the antibacterial effectiveness during in vitro evaluation. Thuja orientalis L. (Family Cupressaceae) are broadly used in traditional system of medicine throughout different part of India, China, Russia, Korea, Japan, India, Florida and Iran. It is used in the treatment of diarrhea, cough, cold, bronchitis, and upper part repertory infection. The current study deals with the determination of formulation and evaluation of herbal ointment using Thuja orientalis leave extract.

Synthesis of silver nanoparticles by using Aloe vera and Thuja orientalis leaves extract and their biological activity: a comprehensive review

Background Nanotechnology's rapid development has been in great demand, particularly for silver nanoparticles, which are useful in a variety of industries including medicine, textiles, and home appliances. Silver nanoparticles are extremely essential due to their unique physicochemical and antibacterial properties, which can be used in a variety of applications. Green synthesis is an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional synthesis because it uses fewer chemical reagents and lowers temperature and pressure. Aloe vera and Thuja orientalis have a wide medical use because it contains a large number of compounds derived and was decided to use for the synthesis of nanoparticles. Main text The combination of silver nanoparticles has a wide range of applications, which has encouraged researchers to focus on the methods for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles from Aloe vera and Thuja orientalis leaves extract, characterization techniques of synthesized silver nanoparticles, and evaluation of their antimicrobial and antifungal activities. The synthesized AgNPs can be characterized by using various analytical techniques including UV–visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), etc. The various types of silver nanoparticles, various strategies for silver nanoparticle synthesis, nano-based drug delivery systems, taxonomy and chemical constituents of Aloe vera and Thuja orientalis plants, the general mechanism of action of silver nanoparticles in bacteria, and various applications of silver nanoparticles have also been discussed. Conclusion This review covers a wide range of research on silver nanoparticles to gain a better understanding of their physicochemical feature characterization, production, mechanisms of action, and applications. Various AgNP factors, such as size, surfactant, and structural shape, influence the unique physicochemical properties of these nanoparticles. Even though there are a variety of ways to make AgNPs, green synthesis has a high yield and biocompatibility because it uses natural agents and harmless chemicals. In this paper, we describe the green manufacture of silver nanoparticles utilizing Aloe vera and Thuja orientalis leaf extracts, as well as the method to test their antimicrobial and antifungal activity.

An alcoholic extract of Thuja orientalis L. leaves inhibits autophagy by specifically targeting pro-autophagy PIK3C3/VPS34 complex

Autophagy is a lysosome-dependent degradation program to maintain cellular homeostasis in response to a variety of stressful conditions, such as long-lived or non-functional subcellular organelles, protein aggregates, nutrient limitation, and virus/bacteria infection. Accordingly, dysregulation of autophagy is closely associated with many human pathophysiological conditions, such as neurodegenerative diseases, aging, and cancer, and autophagy is highlighted as an important therapeutic target for these human diseases. In autophagy process, PIK3C3/VPS34 complex plays important roles in autophagosome biogenesis. Accumulating evidences that inhibition of PIK3C3/VPS34 complex successfully blocks autophagy make the complex as an attractive target for the development of autophagy-specific inhibitors. However, considering that various forms of PIK3C3/VPS34 complex exist and they are involved in many different cellular functions, the targeting of the pro-autophagy PIK3C3/VPS34 complex is required to specifically inhibit autophagy. To identify autophagy inhibitors targeting the pro-autophagy complex, we have performed the screening of a customized natural product library consisting of 35 herbal extracts which are widely used in the oriental medicine as anti-inflammation and/or anti-tumor reagents. We discovered that an alcoholic extract of Thuja orientalis L. leaves inhibits pro-autophagy complex formation by disrupting the interaction between autophagy-specific factor, ATG14L, and the complex core unit Vps34-Beclin 1 in vitro. Also, it inhibits the nutrient starvation induced autophagy and diminished pro-autophagy PIK3C3/VPS34 complex containing either ATG14L or UVRAG in several cell lines. Our results strongly suggest that Thuja orientalis L. leave extract functions as an autophagy-specific inhibitor not decreasing the complex activity nor the protein level, but preventing protein–protein interaction between autophagy-specific factor (ATG14L and UVRAG) and PIK3C3/VPS34 complex core unit, Vps34-Beclin 1, thereby specifically depleting the pro-autophagy complex to inhibit autophagy.

Coniferous Cones as a Forestry Waste Biomass—A Source of Antioxidants

The cones of conifers are a waste biomass, potentially be utilized for a variety of purposes, including the extraction of bioactive materials, particularly antioxidant polyphenols. In the present work we conducted a comparative analysis of the antioxidant content of selected taxa that are either common in Hungary or that have not yet been investigated in any great detail (Cedrus atlantica, Larix decidua, Picea abies, Pinus mugo, Pinus nigra, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus wallichiana, Tsuga Canadensis, Tsuga heterophylla, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, Taxodium distichum, Thuja occidentalis, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Thuja orientalis, Cryptomeria Japonica, Cunninghamia lanceolata). A comparison of different maturation stages (green, mature, and opened cones) was carried out for the assigned taxa. Folin-Ciocâlteu total phenol content, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays were used to assess the antioxidant contents. Total antioxidant power was determined by a scoring system that combined the three assay results. For each taxon the overall best results were found for green cones, followed by mature, and opened cones. Taxa with the highest scores were Tsuga Canadensis, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, Cryptomeria Japonica, Thuja orientalis and Picea abies. High-performance liquid chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric profiling of the polyphenols was completed for selected samples. Results provide a basis for future bioactivity testing of these samples. The research was supported by the ÚNKP-20-5-12 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund and by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.