ABSTRACT
Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical fruit that is numerous in Indonesia. This fruit can be processed into various processed food products. This author writes this article to find out the potential of pineapple as a food product that can be anti-noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, obesity, oxidative stress, and cancer. This article is written using the narrative review method where data are collected from literature studies, namely articles in journals, books, and other literature-based online on database portals and leading search engines such as PUBMED and NCBI, the official website of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) and the European Phenols Explorer. The collected data are then analyzed, synthesized, discussed in the discussion, and general conclusions are drawn. The findings uncovered that pineapple contains polyphenols and antioxidant components, which are pretty high in concentration and could be useful as anti-NCDs. This fruit also has a proteolytic enzyme, bromelains, which is an immunomodulator against viral infections and diseases. This review concluded that pineapple fruit can be processed into various functional food products through several methods to maintain the content of polyphenols and antioxidants that have anti-NCDs potentials. It is necessary to process or execute this idea to identify and feel its benefits according to the research objectives, and in vivo, clinical trials are needed. Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Rynnye Lyan Resources.
ABSTRACT
One of the structural uniqueness of arylnaphthalene lignans (ANLs) is their potential atropoisomerism, which may result in bioactivity discrepancy. However, the stable ANL atropisomers rarely exist in nature. In the course of our phytochemical study of Justicia procumbens, we isolated nine ANL glycosides (1-9) with four of them (1-4) being identified as new stable atropisomers. Their absolute configurations were determined based on the analysis of the circular dichroism (CD) and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) data. The ANL compounds were evaluated for their antiviral potential as entry inhibitors against the infections of H5N1 influenza virus, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with 5 being the most potent one with IC50 values ranging from 0.0063-1.13 mu M. The atropisomers did not display significant antiviral activity, indicating that a free rotation of the biphenyl aryl-aryl bond could play a significant role in the antiviral activity of ANL compounds.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic and this disease has infected millions of people globally now. COVID-19 is caused by a novel beta coronavirus strain known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Once SARS-CoV-2 manages to enter the body, it identifies and binds to the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors through the binding receptor of Spike Protein (S-protein). The present study aimed to investigate the phytochemicals as potential inhibitors of the binding domain of S protein so that the binding of COVID-19 with ACE2 receptors could be restrained. For this purpose, the library of 2113 phytochemicals was docked against the binding domain of the S-protein. Top ten compounds with maximum binding affinity to the active sites of target protein were further screened for ADMET properties by adopting SwissADME and ADMETsar online servers. The compounds namely Morin, Curcumin, Apigenin, Cedronolactone A and Matairesinol showed acceptable drug-like properties therefore these compounds can be proposed as effective inhibitors, disrupting the S-protein-ACE2 interaction. This study might help in the development of a natural and cost-effective drug against COVID-19. Further, in vivo and in vitro examinations are required to validate our results.