Optimization of total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and anti-gout properties of polyherbal formulation.

OBJECTIVES: An increase in gout prevalence has drawn attention among society and this situation drives the exploration of more favourable treatment using traditional medicinal plants which are rich in phenolic and flavonoid to avoid the side effects of modern medication. However, there are only few studies regarding the optimization of phytochemicals and anti-gout properties of medicinal plants and their combinations. The objectives of this study were to determine the optimal formulation of Strobilanthes crispus, Orthosiphon stamineus Benth and Stevia rebaudiana with maximum total phenolic and flavonoid contents as well as minimum IC50 of in vitro xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity and to examine their correlations among the formulations. METHODS: Plant extracts from hot water infusion were tested for the total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and enzyme inhibition through Folin-ciocalteu assay, aluminium chloride method and xanthine oxidase inhibition assay, respectively. Simplex-centroid mixture design was applied in this study and 13 polyherbal formulations were generated by Design Expert Software. RESULTS: Linear, special cubic and quadratic models were selected to describe the interaction effect between polyherbal formulations and their responses. Low IC50 value (13.90 µg/mL) of xanthine oxidase activity was found in the binary combination of O. stamineus and S. rebaudiana and this probably related to its high phenolic and flavonoid contents as xanthine oxidase inhibition and phytochemicals were correlated. CONCLUSIONS: The suggested optimal formulation was comprised of 44.26 % O. stamineus and 55.74 % S. rebaudiana and it could be developed as an alternative treatment for gout.

Physical and Microstructure Properties of Oyster Mushroom-Soy Protein Meat Analog via Single-Screw Extrusion.

Single-screw extrusion of a fibrous-structured meat analog from soy proteins added with low-grade oyster mushroom was successful. Satisfactory extrudates were obtained at a barrel temperature of 140 °C, screw speed range of 100-160 rpm, and oyster mushroom addition at 0%, 7.5%, and 15% via factorial experiments. Single-screw extrusion equipped with a slit die successfully produced expanded oyster mushroom-soy protein extrudates. However, the increase in the oyster mushroom content significantly decreased (p ≤ 0.05) the expansion ratio of the extrudate from 1.26 to 0.98. This result indicated that adding more oyster mushroom restrained the expansion ratio. The extrudates had a medium density range (max of 1393.70 ± 6.30 kg/m3). By adding oyster mushroom, the extrudates attained a higher moisture content (range = 34.77% to 37.93%) compared with the extrudates containing the protein mixture only (range = 26.99% to 32.33%). The increase in screw speed and oyster mushroom significantly increased (p ≤ 0.05) the water absorption index. The increase in the texturization index was significantly influenced (p ≤ 0.05) by oyster mushroom addition rather than the screw speed. A defined fibrous structure supported the high texturization index and small shape of air cells observed in the extrudates.

Optimization of Extraction Conditions of Phytochemical Compounds and Anti-Gout Activity of Euphorbia hirta L. (Ara Tanah) Using Response Surface Methodology and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) Analysis.

Gout is a common disease affected most of the people due to the elevation of uric acid in the blood. Flavonoid and phenolic compounds are reported to exert the anti-gout activity of medicinal plants. Hence, this study aimed at optimizing the extraction conditions of phenolic and flavonoid compounds as well as the anti-gout (xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity) in vitro of Euphorbia hirta using response surface methodology (RSM). The plant part used was the whole plant excluding roots. The effects of three independent variables (extraction time, X 1; extraction temperature, X 2; and solid-to-liquid ratio, X 3) on three response variables (total flavonoid content, Y 1; total phenolic content, Y 2; and xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity, Y 3) were determined using central composite design (CCD) while phytochemical profiling of the extracts was determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Quadratic models produced a satisfactory fitting of the experimental data with regard to total flavonoid content (r 2 = 0.9407, p < 0.0001), total phenolic content (r 2 = 0.9383, p < 0.0001), and xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity (r 2 = 0.9794, p < 0.0001). The best extraction conditions observed for total flavonoid content, total phenolic content, and xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity were at a temperature of 79.07°C for 17.42 min with solid-to-liquid ratio of 1 : 20 g/ml. The optimum values for total flavonoid, total phenolic, and xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity were 67.56 mg RE/g, 155.21 mg GAE/g, and 91.42%, respectively. The main phytochemical compounds in the optimized E. hirta extract are neochlorogenic acid, quercetin-3ß-D-glucoside, syringic acid, caffeic acid, ellagic acid, astragalin, afzelin, and quercetin. As conclusion, this study clearly demonstrated the best conditions to obtain higher xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity and phytochemical compounds which can be further used for the development of anti-gout agents.

A Review of Malaysian Medicinal Plants with Potential Anti-Inflammatory Activity.

This article aims to provide detailed information on Malaysian plants used for treating inflammation. An extensive search on electronic databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and ScienceDirect and conference papers was done to find relevant articles on anti-inflammatory activity of Malaysian medicinal plants. The keyword search terms used were "inflammation," "Malaysia," "medicinal plants," "mechanisms," "in vitro," and "in vivo." As a result, 96 articles on anti-inflammatory activity of Malaysian medicinal plants were found and further reviewed. Forty-six (46) plants (in vitro) and 30 plants (in vivo) have been identified to possess anti-inflammatory activity where two plants, Melicope ptelefolia (Tenggek burung) and Portulaca oleracea (Gelang pasir), were reported to have the strongest anti-inflammatory activity of more than 90% at a concentration of 250 µg/ml. It was showed that the activity was mainly due to the occurrence of diverse naturally occurring phytochemicals from diverse groups such as flavonoids, coumarins, alkaloids, steroids, benzophenone, triterpenoids, curcuminoids, and cinnamic acid. Hence, this current review is a detailed discussion on the potential of Malaysian medicinal plants as an anti-inflammatory agent from the previous studies. However, further investigation on the possible underlying mechanisms and isolation of active compounds still remains to be investigated.

Anti-gout Potential of Malaysian Medicinal Plants.

Gout is a type of arthritis that causes painful inflammation in one or more joints. In gout, elevation of uric acid in the blood triggers the formation of crystals, causing joint pain. Malaysia is a mega-biodiversity country that is rich in medicinal plants species. Therefore, its flora might offer promising therapies for gout. This article aims to systematically review the anti-gout potential of Malaysian medicinal plants. Articles on gout published from 2000 to 2017 were identified using PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar with the following keyword search terms: "gout," "medicinal plants," "Malaysia," "epidemiology," "in vitro," and "in vivo." In this study, 85 plants were identified as possessing anti-gout activity. These plants had higher percentages of xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity (>85%); specifically, the Momordica charantia, Chrysanthemum indicum, Cinnamomum cassia, Kaempferia galanga, Artemisia vulgaris, and Morinda elliptica had the highest values, due to their diverse natural bioactive compounds, which include flavonoids, phenolics, tannin, coumarins, luteolin, and apigenin. This review summarizes the anti-gout potential of Malaysian medicinal plants but the mechanisms, active compounds, pharmacokinetics, bioavailability, and safety of the plants still remain to be elucidated.

Modelling of rheological behaviour of guava, pomelo and soursop juice concentrates via shear rate-temperature-concentration superpositioning.

The steady-state flow test was conducted on pink-fleshed guava, pink-fleshed pomelo and soursop juice concentrates using a rheometer to understand its rheological behaviour. The power law model was used and a master-curve was created using the shear rate-temperature-concentration superposition technique to predict rheological properties from a wide range of temperatures and concentrations. All three juice concentrates undergo a double horizontal shift whilst the pink-fleshed guava required an additional vertical shift. The final equations show shear-thinning behaviour of pink-fleshed guava, pink-fleshed pomelo and soursop with flow behaviour index of 0.2217, 0.7507 and 0.6347, respectively. The final master-curve predicts shear stress at wide range of shear rates, i.e. between 10-2 and 106 s-1 for the pink-fleshed guava, 100 and 106 s-1 for the pink-fleshed pomelo and 100 and 107 s-1 for the soursop. The results provide useful information and effective technique to predict fruit juice concentrates behaviour affected by heat changes during processing.

Modeling the rheological behavior of thermosonic extracted guava, pomelo, and soursop juice concentrates at different concentration and temperature using a new combination model.

This study has modeled the rheological behavior of thermosonic extracted pink-fleshed guava, pink-fleshed pomelo, and soursop juice concentrates at different concentrations and temperatures. The effects of concentration on consistency coefficient (K) and flow behavior index (n) of the fruit juice concentrates was modeled using a master curve which utilized the concentration-temperature shifting to allow a general prediction of rheological behaviors covering a wide concentration. For modeling the effects of temperature on K and n, the integration of two functions from the Arrhenius and logistic sigmoidal growth equations has provided a new model which gave better description of the properties. It also alleviated the problems of negative region when using the Arrhenius model alone. The fitted regression using this new model has improved coefficient of determination, R2 values above 0.9792 as compared to using the Arrhenius and logistic sigmoidal models alone, which presented minimum R2 of 0.6243 and 0.9440, respectively. Practical applications: In general, juice concentrate is a better form of food for transportation, preservation, and ingredient. Models are necessary to predict the effects of processing factors such as concentration and temperature on the rheological behavior of juice concentrates. The modeling approach allows prediction of behaviors and determination of processing parameters. The master curve model introduced in this study simplifies and generalized rheological behavior of juice concentrates over a wide range of concentration when temperature factor is insignificant. The proposed new mathematical model from the combination of the Arrhenius and logistic sigmoidal growth models has improved and extended description of rheological properties of fruit juice concentrates. It also solved problems of negative values of consistency coefficient and flow behavior index prediction using existing model, the Arrhenius equation. These rheological data modeling provide good information for the juice processing and equipment manufacturing needs.