Plant-based natural products in cancer therapeutics.

Various cells in our body regularly divide to replace old cells and dead cells. For a living cell to be growing, cell division and differentiation is highly essential. Cancer is characterised by uncontrollable cell division and invasion of other tissues due to dysregulation in the cell cycle. An accumulation of genetic changes or mutations develops through different physical (UV and other radiations), chemical (chewing and smoking of tobacco, chemical pollutants/mutagens), biological (viruses) and hereditary factors that can lead to cancer. Now, cancer is considered as a major death-causing factor worldwide. Due to advancements in technology, treatment like chemotherapy, radiation therapy, bone marrow transplant, immunotherapy, hormone therapy and many more in the rows. Although, it also has some side effects like fatigue, hair fall, anaemia, nausea and vomiting, constipation. Modern improved drug therapies come with severe side effects. There is need for safer, more effective, low-cost treatment with lesser side-effects. Biologically active natural products derived from plants are the emerging strategy to deal with cancer proliferation. Moreover, they possess anti-carcinogenic, anti-proliferative and anti-mutagenic properties with reduced side effects. They also detoxify and remove reactive substances formed by carcinogenic agents. In this article, we discuss different plant-based products and their mechanism of action against cancer.

Flavored Food Additives on the Leaves of Piper betle L.: A Human Health Perspective.

Natural products and traditional ethnomedicines are of great effect in therapeutics. Such types of medicine have been practiced in certain areas of the world to treat different health conditions. This pilot investigation aims to review the cumulative health effect of addendums used in betel quid such as areca nut, lime, and tobacco-associated betel quid chewing and without tobacco-associated chewing. This review shows that betel leaf extract and its essential oil could inhibit growth of microbes and damage different gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria as well as various fungus species. Some studies concluded that the combination of Piper leaves essential oil with antibiotics have potential effect on oral microorganisms. Long-term consumption of betel quid with tobacco is known to cause cancer, chromosomal aberrations, and pharynx tumors. However, consumption of betel leaf without tobacco has health benefits because of ethnomedicinal properties. Its essential is oil utilized as raw material for perfumes and mouth fresheners manufacturing. Scientific researches on this plant revealed that it possesses many beneficial activities to be used for developing novel drugs. However, compounds of betel leaves have beneficial natural antioxidant. Chewing and intake of leaves have effect on moving parts of salivary gland which is the main step of digestion. Its components also act as heartbeat regulators in relaxing the blood vessels to reduce hypertension. So this review discussed the natural compounds of betel leaves which is used as traditional medicine to further develop drug discovery.

Untargeted Metabolomics in Piper betle Leaf Extracts to Discriminate the Cultivars of Coastal Odisha, India.

Betel leaf is consumed as a mouth freshener due to its characteristic flavor, aromaticity, and medicinal values. Abundance of phytochemicals in betel leaf contributes towards unique qualitative features. Screening of metabolites is quintessential for identifying flavoring betel leaves and their origin. Metabolomics presently lays emphasis on the cumulative application of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic approaches. Here we adopted different protocols based on the above-mentioned analytical metabolomics platform for untargeted plant metabolite profiling followed by multivariate analysis methods and a phytochemical characterization of Piper betel leaf cultivars endemic to coastal Odisha, India. Based on variation in the solvent composition, concentration of solvent, extraction temperature, and incubation periods, five extraction methods were followed in GC-MS and NMR spectroscopy of betel leaf extracts. Phytochemical similarities and differences among the species were characterized through multivariate analysis approaches. Principal component analysis, based on the relative abundance of phytochemicals, indicated that the betel cultivars could be grouped into three groups. Our results of FTIR-, GC-MS-, and NMR-based profiling combined with multivariate analyses suggest that untargeted metabolomics can play a crucial role in documenting metabolic signatures of endemic betel leaf varieties.

Biofluid metabotyping of occupationally exposed subjects to air pollution demonstrates high oxidative stress and deregulated amino acid metabolism.

Occupational exposure to air pollution induces oxidative stress and prolonged exposure increases susceptibility to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in several working groups. Biofluid of these subjects may reflect perturbed metabolic phenotypes. In this study we carried out a comparative molecular profiling study using parallel biofluids collected from subjects (n = 85) belonging to auto rickshaw drivers (ARD), traffic cops (TC) and office workers (OW). Higher levels of oxidative stress and inflammation markers in serum of ARD subjects were observed as compared to OW and TC. Uni and multivariate analyses of metabolites identified in urine by 1H NMR revealed 11 deregulated molecules in ARD subjects and involved in phenylalanine, histidine, arginine and proline metabolism. Despite contribution of confounding factors like exposure period, dietary factors including smoking and alcohol status, our results demonstrate existence of exposure specific metabotypes in biofluids of ARD, OW and TC groups. Monitoring serum oxidative stress and inflammation markers and urine metabolites by NMR may be useful to characterize perturbed metabolic phenotypes in populations exposed to urban traffic air pollution.