Metabolomics and molecular networking approach for exploring the anti-diabetic activity of medicinal plants.

Metabolomics and molecular networking approaches have expanded rapidly in the field of biological sciences and involve the systematic identification, visualization, and high-throughput characterization of bioactive metabolites in natural products using sophisticated mass spectrometry-based techniques. The popularity of natural products in pharmaceutical therapies has been influenced by medicinal plants with a long history of ethnobotany and a vast collection of bioactive compounds. Here, we selected four medicinal plants Cleistocalyx operculatus, Terminalia chebula, Ficus lacor, and Ficus semicordata, the biochemical characteristics of which remain unclear owing to the inherent complexity of their plant metabolites. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the potential of these aforementioned plant extracts in inhibiting the enzymatic activity of α-amylase and α-glucosidase, respectively, followed by the annotation of secondary metabolites. The methanol extract of Ficus semicordata exhibited the highest α-amylase inhibition with an IC50 of 46.8 ± 1.8 µg mL-1, whereas the water fraction of Terminalia chebula fruits demonstrated the most significant α-glucosidase inhibition with an IC50 value of 1.07 ± 0.01 µg mL-1. The metabolic profiling of plant extracts was analyzed through Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-HRMS) of the active fractions, resulting in the annotation of 32 secondary metabolites. Furthermore, we applied the Global Natural Product Social Molecular Networking (GNPS) platform to evaluate the MS/MS data of Terminalia chebula (bark), revealing that there were 205 and 160 individual ion species observed as nodes in the methanol and ethyl acetate fractions, respectively. Twenty-two metabolites were tentatively identified from the network map, of which 11 compounds were unidentified during manual annotation.

Phytochemical Analysis and Antioxidant and Antidiabetic Activities of Extracts from Bergenia ciliata, Mimosa pudica, and Phyllanthus emblica.

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder of high blood sugar levels which leads to various chronic health-related complications. The digestive enzymes α-amylase and α-glucosidase play a major role in the hydrolysis of starch to glucose; hence, inhibiting these enzymes is considered an important strategy for the treatment of diabetes. Medicinal plants such as Bergenia ciliata, Mimosa pudica, and Phyllanthus emblica are commonly used in traditional remedies due to their numerous health benefits. This study aimed to determine the phytochemicals as well as TPC and TFC contents in these plant extracts along with their antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase and α-amylase. The ethyl acetate extracts of selected plants have shown higher TPC and TFC contents. The aqueous extract of B. ciliata (IC50: 16.99 ± 2.56 µg/mL) and ethyl acetate extract of P. emblica (IC50: 11.98 ± 0.36 µg/mL) and M. pudica (IC50: 21.39 ± 3.76 µg/mL) showed effective antioxidant activities. Furthermore, ethyl acetate extract of B. ciliata showed significant inhibitory activity against α-amylase and α-glucosidase with IC50 values of 38.50 ± 1.32 µg/mL and 3.41 ± 0.04 µg/mL, respectively. Thus, secondary metabolites of these medicinal plants can be repurposed as effective inhibitors of digestive enzymes.

Potential Therapeutic Applications of Plant-Derived Alkaloids against Inflammatory and Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Alkaloids are a type of natural compound possessing different pharmacological activities. Natural products, including alkaloids, which originate from plants, have emerged as potential protective agents against neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs) and chronic inflammations. A wide array of prescription drugs are used against these conditions, however, not free of limitations of potency, side effects, and intolerability. In the context of personalized medicine, further research on alkaloids to unravel novel therapeutic approaches in reducing complications is critical. In this review, a systematic survey was executed to collect the literature on alkaloids and their health complications, from which we found that majority of alkaloids exhibit anti-inflammatory action via nuclear factor-κB and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and neuroprotective interaction through acetylcholinesterase (AChE), COX, and ß-site amyloid precursor protein activity. In silico ADMET and ProTox-II-related descriptors were calculated to predict the pharmacological properties of 280 alkaloids isolated from traditional medicinal plants towards drug development. Out of which, eight alkaloids such as tetrahydropalmatine, berberine, tetrandrine, aloperine, sinomenine, oxymatrine, harmine, and galantamine are found to be optimal within the categorical range when compared to nicotine. These alkaloids could be exploited as starting materials for novel drug synthesis or, to a lesser extent, manage inflammation and neurodegenerative-related complications.