ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants have provided numerous medicinal active ingredients for thousands of years and these ingredients have been used in Chinese medicine (CM) and traditional pharmacologies worldwide. Recently, the exploitation and utilisation of medicinal plant resources has increased significantly. The results of the studies have led to the identification of many active components, such as steroidal alkaloids, saponins, terpenoids, and glycosides, in various medicinal plants with different evolutionary levels. Moreover, research on the chemical classification, molecular phylogeny, and pharmacological activity of medicinal plants is increasing in popularity. Pharmacophylogeny is an interdisciplinary topic that studies the correlation between plant phylogeny, chemical composition, and curative effects (pharmacological activity and the traditional curative effect) of medicinal plants. In addition, it provides the basic tools to enable research and development of CM resources. This literature review, based on the genetic relationship between phytogroup and species, highlights the formation process, research content, applications, and future directions of pharmacophylogeny.
Subject(s)
Alkaloids , Glycosides , Plant Extracts/chemistry , Plants, Medicinal/chemistry , Saponins , TerpenesABSTRACT
The Solanaceae plants distributed in China belong to 105 species and 35 varietas of 24 genera. Some medicinal plants of Solanaceae are rich in tropane alkaloids(TAs), which have significant pharmacological activities. In this paper, the geographical distribution, chemical components, traditional therapeutic effect, pharmacological activities, and biosynthetic pathways of TAs in Solanaceous plants were summarized. Besides, the phylogeny of medicinal plants belonging to Solanaceae was visualized by network diagram. Fourteen genera of Solanaceae plants in China contain TAs and have medical records. TAs mainly exist in Datura, Anisodus, Atropa, Physochlaina, and Hyoscyamus. The TAs-containing species were mainly concentrated in Southwest China, and the content of TAs was closely related to plant distribution area and altitude. The Solanaceae plants containing TAs mainly have antispasmodic, analgesic, antiasthmatic, and antitussive effects. Modern pharmacological studies have proved the central sedative, pupil dilating, glandular secretion-inhibiting, and anti-asthma activities of TAs. These pharmacological activities provide a reasonable explanation for the traditional therapeutic efficacy of tropane drugs. In this paper, the geographical distribution, chemical components, traditional therapeutic effect, and modern pharmacological activities of TAs-containing species in Solanaceae were analyzed for the first time. Based on these data, the genetic relationship of TAs-containing Solanaceae species was preliminarily discussed, which provided a scientific basis for the basic research on TAs-containing solanaceous species and was of great significance for the development of natural medicinal plant resources containing TAs.
Subject(s)
Biosynthetic Pathways , Phylogeny , Plants, Medicinal , Solanaceae/genetics , TropanesABSTRACT
The worldwide botanical and medicinal culture diversity are astonishing and constitute a Pierian spring for innovative drug R&D. Here, the latest awareness and the perspectives of pharmacophylogeny and pharmacophylogenomics, as well as their expanding utility in botanical drug R&D, are systematically summarized and highlighted. Chemotaxonomy is based on the fact that closely related plants contain the same or similar chemical profiles. Correspondingly, it is better to combine morphological characters, DNA markers and chemical markers in the inference of medicinal plant phylogeny. Medicinal plants within the same phylogenetic groups may have the same or similar therapeutic effects, thus forming the core of pharmacophylogeny. Here we systematically review and comment on the versatile applications of pharmacophylogeny in (1) looking for domestic resources of imported drugs, (2) expanding medicinal plant resources, (3) quality control, identification and expansion of herbal medicines, (4) predicting the chemical constituents or active ingredients of herbal medicine and assisting in the identification and determination of chemical constituents, (5) the search for new drugs sorting out, and (6) summarizing and improving herbal medicine experiences, etc. Such studies should be enhanced within the context of deeper investigations of molecular biology and genomics of traditional medicinal plants, phytometabolites and metabolomics, and ethnomedicine-based pharmacological activity, thus enabling the sustainable conservation and utilization of traditional medicinal resources.
ABSTRACT
The Ranunculaceae genus(order Ranunculales), comprising more than 150 species, mostly herbs, has long been used in folk medicine and worldwide ethnomedicine. Various medicinal compounds have been found inplants, especially triterpenoid saponins, some of which have shown anti-cancer activities. Somecompounds and extracts display immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial activities. More than 50 species have ethnopharmacological uses, which provide clues for modern drug discovery.compounds exert anticancer and other bioactivitiesmultiple pathways. However, a comprehensive review of themedicinal resources is lacking. We here summarize the ethnomedical knowledge and recent progress on the chemical and pharmacological diversity ofmedicinal plants, as well as the emerging molecular mechanisms and functions of these medicinal compounds. The phylogenetic relationships ofspecies were reconstructed based on nuclear ITS and chloroplast markers. The molecular phylogeny is largely congruent with the morphology-based classification. Commonly used medicinal herbs are distributed in each subgenus and section, and chemical and biological studies of more unexplored taxa are warranted. Gene expression profiling and relevant "omics" platforms could reveal differential effects of phytometabolites. Genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics should be highlighted in deciphering novel therapeutic mechanisms and utilities ofphytometabolites.
ABSTRACT
This paper reports a pharmacophylogenetic study of a medicinal plant family, Ranunculaceae, investigating the correlations between their phylogeny, chemical constituents, and pharmaceutical properties. Phytochemical, ethnopharmacological, and pharmacological data were integrated in the context of the systematics and molecular phylogeny of the Ranunculaceae. The chemical components of this family included several representative metabolic groups: benzylisoquinoline alkaloids, ranunculin, triterpenoid saponin, and diterpene alkaloids, among others. Ranunculin and magnoflorine were found to coexist in some genera. The pharmacophylogenetic analysis, integrated with therapeutic information, agreed with the taxonomy proposed previously, in which the family Ranunculaceae was divided into five sub-families: Ranunculoideae, Thalictroideae, Coptidoideae, Hydrastidoideae, and Glaucidioideae. It was plausible to organize the sub-family Ranunculoideae into ten tribes. The chemical constituents and therapeutic efficacy of each taxonomic group were reviewed, revealing the underlying connections between phylogeny, chemical diversity, and clinical use, which should facilitate the conservation and sustainable utilization of the pharmaceutical resources derived from the Ranunculaceae.