ABSTRACT
Developments of drugs or natural products from plants are possibly made, simple to use and lower cost than modern drugs. The development processes can be started with studying local wisdom and literature reviews to choose the plants which have long been used in diverse areas, such as foods, traditional medicine, fragrances and seasonings. Then those data will be associated with scientific researches, namely plant collection and identification, phytochemical screening by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, pharmacological study/review for their functions, and finally safety and efficiency tests in human. For safety testing, in vitro cell toxicity by cell viability assessment and in vitro testing of DNA breaks by the comet assay in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells can be performed. When active chemicals and functions containing plants were chosen with safety and efficacy for human uses, then, the potential medicinal natural products will be produced. Based on these procedures, the producing cost will be cheaper and the products can be evaluated for their clinical properties. Thus, the best and lowest-priced medicines and natural products can be distributed worldwide.
ABSTRACT
Several Cissus species are commonly used as traditional and modified medicines, and their chemical constituents are major point for precise usage. However, C. quadrangularis is the only species for which the usages and the chemical composition have been reported. These data should be investigated for other species in the genus. Eight species namely C. assamica, C. carnosa, C. elongata, C. hastata, C. javana, C. pteroclada, C. quadrangular is and C. repens were evaluated for genetic relationships and chemical composition. Constructed dendrogram shows high-powered efficiency of inter-simple sequence repeat [ISSR] data used which can clearly identify different and identical species. Genetic similarity [S] value of the identical species is 0.86, whereas for different species the value can vary from 0.53 to 0.75. Four highly related species [S=0.64-0.72], C. assamica, C. carnosa, C. hastata and C. repens were selected to undergo chemical study by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry [GC-MS] on the methanol crude extract. Only one compound, beta -sitosterol, found in the four species is identical to the compound reported from C. quadrangular is, where there were five identical chemicals found in the selected species. Species-specific barcode with rbcL region was constructed. Nucleotide variation was evaluated indicating genetic distance value of 0.025 to 0.072
ABSTRACT
Allamanda species [Apocynaceae] are popular ornamentals. Additionally, A. cathartica possesses medicinal properties whereas all other species have not been reported. This research aims to analyze genetics and chemical contents of Allamanda species existing in Thailand. The explored species are A. blanchetii, A. cathartica, A. neriifolia, A. schottii, and A. violacea. The dendrogram constructed from 16 inter-simple sequence repeat markers clearly distinguished species with genetic similarity values of 0.92-0.93 for species level and 0.50-0.76 for genus level. Diverse chemicals content in hexane extracts from A. blanchetii, A. neriifolia, A. schottii, and A. violacea were detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A high amount of squalene was found in A. blanchetii [55.81%] and A. violacea [51.09%]. This content may function as a chemo preventative substance to protect people from cancer. Alpha-Tocopherol, a form of vitamin E, was one of the predominant components found in A. violacea [26.325%], A. schottii [15.41%], and A. neriifolia [9.16%]. One more substance, 9,12,15-octadecatrien-1-ol, was found to be relatively high in A. schottii [17.31%] and A. neriifolia [15.51%]. Other minor and unknown compounds were also detected. The discovery of these chemicals provides an alternative and supplement for improving human well-being and pharmaceutical industries with natural resources, especially in light of the population increase.