Review: Saffron’s Activity as an Active Ingredient in Cosmetics

Saffron (Crocus sativus) is a plant that has been widely used in Asia, especially in the health sector. This can be related to other than that saffron is also known for its use as a cosmetic because Saffron has various kinds of pharmacological activities beneficial to human skin. Today's cosmetic users prefer cosmetics with herbal or natural ingredients, especially in Indonesia. This happens because it is considered that herbal cosmetics are safer and harmless in long-term use. Therefore, it is necessary to do related act ivities of saffron as a cosmetic ingredient. This is narrative research where the data is obtained from PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar with keywords Saffron, Saffron for cosmetics, and others. There were eight references, with inclusion criteria being national and international journals and national websites published in 2011-2021, especially regarding the study of saffron activity as an ingredient for cosmetics. Then the data is analyzed narratively. It was found that Saffron (Crocus sativus) contains compounds that have a cosmetic activity such as safranal which can be used as a perfume, crocin as an antioxidant and as anti-dark spot, crocin, safranal, and crocetin as anti-UV, crocin, and crocetin as an anti-inflammatory and as coloring pigment in cosmetics, vitamin C, flavonoids and zinc as a face toner, kaempferol, crocin and crocetin as anti-wrinkle, zeaxanthin, lycopene, carotene, crocetin, picrocrocin, kaempferol, and crocin as anti-aging. Saffron (Crocus sativus) has various beneficial activities for the skin, so it can be used as an ingredient in making cosmetics.Keywords : Cosmetics, Herbal, Saffron, Herbal Cosmetics, Active Ingredient

Structure-Based Virtual Screening and Molecular Dynamics of Quercetin and Its Natural Derivatives as Potent Oxidative Stress Modulators in ROS-induced Cancer

Quercetin derivatives are known to have significant anticancer activity. The activity is strongly influenced by the type and position of the substituent group. By studying the structural pattern of quercetin and its impact on their binding affinity, the development of quercetin-based drugs can be optimized. The study aimed to determine the impact of 3D structure, type, and position of quercetin moiety on its activity against ROS-modulating enzymes that play a role in the induction and growth of ROS-induced cancer. The 23 natural quercetin derivatives were docked to 7 ROS-modulating enzymes using Autodock Vina to determine their binding affinity and interaction. The interaction stability was further studied through molecular dynamics simulation using the CABS Flex 2.0 server. Determination of crucial amino acid targets of the quercetin group was determined using DockFlin. Finally, the toxicity of each test ligand was determined using the pkCSM server. The highest binding affinity for SOD and NOX was produced by quercetin 3'-glucoside with the binding energy of -10.2 and -12.8 kcal/mol. Quercetin 3,4'-diglucoside had the highest binding affinity for CAT and GR at -11.5 and -10.5 kcal/mol, respectively. Routine produced the highest binding affinity at LOX (-10.9). Quercetin 3-O-xyloside and quercetin 3-O-rhamnoside-7-O-glucoside had the highest binding affinity in XO with a value of -10.4 kcal/mol. The glucose and prenyl groups are beneficial for quercetin in interacting with all ROS-modulating enzymes except XO. In contrast, the methoxy group negatively affects all interactions of quercetin with receptors. The perfect fit between the binding pocket and the 3D structure of the ligand greatly benefits the ligand in accessing more amino acids in the binding pocket. Their interaction stability and toxicity show that quercetin 3'-glucoside, quercetin 3,4'-diglucoside, and rutin are potent oxidative stress modulators in treating ROS-induced cancer.

Effect of nicotine- and tar-removed cigarette smoke extract on cancer metastasis

Cigarette smoking is known to impact the promotion of carcinogenesis and tumor metastasis. On the other hand, some components in smoke were found to have health-promoting effects, and cancer suppressor effects of components in tobacco smoke have attracted attention. Although some studies showed the cancer suppressive effect of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) in vitro study, the effect of CSE administration on cancer is controversial. In this study, we investigated the effect of CSE-administration on tumor metastasis in a spontaneous tumor metastasis model using B16-BL6 cells, which is more clinical conditions. C57BL/6NCr mice were subcutaneously inoculated B16-BL6 cells into the footpad of the right rear leg. CSE was intraperitoneally administrated for 28 days from the day of inoculation. At 2 weeks after inoculation, the primary focus was excised. Subsequently, survival days of the mice were recorded to determine the effect of CSE-administration on spontaneous metastasis. The effect of CSE, α, β-unsaturated ketones, and aldehydes on B16-BL6 cell invasiveness were confirmed by matrigel invasion assay. Survival days of mice injected with 100% CSE was significantly shortened than that of control. B16-BL6 cell invasiveness was accelerated by the treatment with 0.1% CSE and 3 μM of crotonaldehyde. Intraperitoneal CSE-administration may progress spontaneous metastasis of B16-BL6 cells via enhancement of B16-BL6 cell invasiveness. As the cause, we found that crotonaldehyde contained in CSE may enhance the invasion ability of cancer cells. To clarify the cancer-suppressing effect of tobacco components, the effect of crotonaldehyde-removed CSE on tumor should be assessed in detail. Keywords: cigarette smoke extract (CSE), metastasis, crotonaldehyde (CA), B16-BL6 mouse melanoma cells, invasion

Plant Extract Loaded Nanoparticles

Plant extract, a natural source containing complex mixture of compounds, offers many properties such as antiparasitic, antibiotic, antioxidant, anti-hypertensive, antiviral, insecticide, anticancer, antifungal, hypoglycemic properties. Recent research has been focused on developing formulation the plant extracts not only to deliver them safely but also to enhance its therapeutic efficacy. Nanotechnology-based strategies have been proposed as a system that can be used to formulate plant extracts. Plant extract loaded nanoparticles (NPs) is aimed to facilitate in crossing the biological barriers, to increase bioavailability of poorly water-soluble phytochemicals, to encapsulate mixture compounds of different phytochemicals, to provide targeted delivery of phytochemicals to specific organs resulting in low toxicity, to get effective purification process, to mask unpleasant taste and odor, to protect sensitive phytochemicals from biological (e.g. enzyme, pH) and environmental (e.g. light, temperature, humidity) degradation, to control release of encapsulated phytochemicals, and to provide a more flexible control over the size and shape of the NPs. This review is focused on plant extract loaded NPs including its advantages, stages for developing formulation of plant extract loaded NPs, and nanosystem used to loading plant extract. In addition, this review also depicts studies which have been conducted by many researchers in developing plant extract loaded NPs. The data were collected from published journals with 21 and 39 journals as primary and supporting literatures, respectively. Plant extracts loaded NPs could be a promising delivery system for active phytochemical contained in the plant extract which is not only to deliver them safely but also to enhance its therapeutic efficacy.Keywords: plant, extract, nanoparticle

Veterinary Drug Development from Indonesian Herbal Origin: Challenges and Opportunities

Herbal medicine is increasingly being used in human and veterinary medicine to reduce and prevent minor ailments and support conventional treatment using allopathic medicine. The medicinal properties of the plants used in phytotherapy are due to the large number of active compounds found in the plant kingdom. The active compounds extracted from the plant is often equivalent to a synthetic drug according to its therapeutic efficacy; thus, they are used in veterinary medicine, primarily as antibacterial, antimycotic, antiparasitic, disinfect, and immunostimulant.pharmaceutical quality, ensuring safety, specific standards of purity, and consistency. These standards apply throughout the production and formulation process. This review describes the development of herbs that can be used as veterinary drugs with the possibility of dosage form technology. Veterinary dosage forms show great promise for the future of the herbal veterinary delivery system.Keywords: Veterinary drug, herbal medicine, dosage form, drug delivery.

Mini Review : Sedem System as a Tool to Characterize Excipients in Solid Dosage Form

SeDem System is a new system that can be applied in solid dosage form preformulation studies of medicines. It have parameters to evaluates critical quality attributes of materials that have an impact on final drug product’s quality. SeDeM studies could be used as a method for identifying the best excipient and calculating the maximum amount of excipient required for formulation. SeDeM method can , providing formulation with the lowest amount of excipients as it combines the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) with only one excipient and the standard formula of lubricants, thus avoiding the used of unnecessary excipients, such as diluents, binders and agglutinants. The information given by the SeDeM system contributes to a quality by drug design development.Keywords: SeDeM System, Excipients

Pharmaceutical Industrial Waste Regulation in Five Countries in Asia

The pharmaceutical industry produces a various toxic wastes. Generated waste increases the risk of environmental and ecosystem pollution. It is necessary to have proper waste management to prevent waste pollution to the environment. In 1999, WHO published “Guidelines for the Safe Disposal of Unwanted Pharmaceuticals in and after Emergencies”, that contain treatments and safe disposal method, which is appropriate for any country. Many countries had developed and published regulations and guidelines on waste management. This article aimed to review the handling of pharmaceutical industrial waste in five countries in Asia. This review included studies from ProQuest, Crossref, and Google Scholar. The pharmaceutical industries in Indonesia, India, Japan, Thailand, and China has their own state regulations in order to protect the environment. They also had implemented pharmaceutical industrial waste management following their regulation and guidelines. The method used to treat the waste is similar with WHO guideline. Some factors affecting the country regulations are the insufficient of land and waste management facilities, lack of awareness, low penalties, limited infrastructures, lack of waste testing facilities. The challenge in the future to handle pharmaceutical waste are increasing waste volume, decreasing land for waste management, sewer methods may contaminate water, possible air pollution due to incineration, so it is necessary to have more advanced methods in waste management that are safe for the environment and humans.Keywordz: Industry, Pharmaceutical, Waste Regulation, Asia

Peel Off Gel Mask containing Green Tea Leaf Extract (Camellia sinesis L) with Antioxidant Activity

Peel off mask has been very popular and preferred due to its ease in application. Gel base has been preferred for its cold and moist sensation during application. When herbal ingredients such as extract is introduced into gel formulation, the stability then will become an issue. The aim of the study was to formulate the peel-off mask gels containing green tea leaves extract (Camellia sinensis L.) which effective, stable, and safe to be used. The antioxidant study was conducted by using Diphenylhydrazylpicryl (DPPH) method. The peel-off mask gel formula were Hidroxypropyl Methylcelulosa (HPMC) as gel base at 0.5% concentration and plasticizer Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) at concentration of 12%. Evaluation of peel-off mask gel included observation on pH, viscosity, dispersing power, and drying time during the 90 days of storage at room temperature. The IC50 values of the green tea (Camellia sinensis L.) extract was 5.511 ppm. The concentration of green tea leaves extract in the preparation were 1x IC50 (F1); 2x IC50 (F2) and 3x IC50 (F3). The result showed that all preparations were stable in the aspect of consistency, color, and odor. Viscosity, drying time and dispersing power remained unchanged after 90 days of storage. The pH value changed, but still in the range of acceptable pH of topical preparations. The results of antioxidant activity study showed that formula F3 (peel-off mask gels with 3 x IC50 of green tea extracts) had the highest antioxidant activity.Keywords: antioxidant, Camellia sinensis L., peel off gel masks, green tea

Formulation of Coated Tablets Film of Jengkol Fruit Seeds (Pithecellobium lobatum Benth.) as A Selenium Herbal Supplement

The correlation between the high content of selenium (Se) in plasma and the low prevalence of cardiovascular disease has been published in previous epidemiological studies. The content of Se in the plasma is determined by daily intake. A preliminary surveillance of Se content of several plants showed that the seeds of jengkol (Pithecellobium lobatum Benth.) has the highest concentration of Se. This study aims to develop a pharmaceutical formulation of Se supplement for adjuvant therapy of cardiovascular disease. The jengkol seeds was made into film coated tablets with a wet granulation method. Optimization of the core tablet formula was carried out with variations of binder concentration and coating material. Evaluation was carried out on uniformity of size and weight, disintegration time, hardness and friability. The content evaluation was carried out including the levels of Se, water content, ash, fat, protein, carbohydrate and crude fiber. The results showed that the F3 had the lowest friability and highest hardness. The coating of tablets using PVA has covered the smell of jengkol seed. The evaluation results showed that film coated tablets contained the Se level content of 0.074 ± 0.004 µg/g, water content of 2.19%, ash content of 1.88%, fat content of 0.89%, protein content of 0.66%, carbohydrate content of 94.38% and crude fiber content 1.79%. The results showed that the jengkol seed film coated tablet formulation could be used as a supplement in additional therapy for cardiovascular disease.Keywords : Pithecellobium lobatum, film coated tablet, herbal supplement, selenium

Simple and Rapid Method for Determination of Abemaciclib in Human Serum using Supported Liquid Extraction Pretreatment and LC-MS/MS Analysis

We developed a simple and rapid method for the determination of abemaciclib in human serum using supported liquid extraction (SLE) method for pretreatment and LC-MS/MS. Abemaciclib was extracted using SLE method with methyltert-butyl ether (MTBE) as elution buffer, and analyzed by LC-QTOF MS system, LCMS9030 (Shimadzu). Abemaciclib and fluconazole (internal standard) were detected with ESI spray in positive ionization mode, and the transition were set at 507.3/393.1629 for abemaciclib and 307.1/220.0677 for fluconazole. The retention times of abemaciclib and fluconazole were 2.76 and 2.98 min, respectively, and good linearity was obtained from 20–1,000 ng/mL for abemaciclib. The regression equation (weight = 1/x2) describing the calibration curve in human serum was y = 0.0196 x – 0.056 (R2 = 0.999), where y is the peak area ratio of abemaciclib against the IS and x is the nominal concentration of abemaciclib. The intra- and inter-assay accuracy varied between -4.3–1.7%, and the precision varied between 0.90–6.19%. The mean recovery rate of abemaciclib was 87.7 ± 4.3%, and the mean matrix factor was 1.00 ± 0.083. Our method offers speed and simplicity of sample preparation, which is one of great advantages in the analysis of clinical specimens. We believe that the present method will contribute to establishing a methodology for determining the optimal dose of abemaciclib for individual patients. Key words: abemaciclib, SLE, supported liquid extraction, quantification