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To get more scientific information to support the medicinal uses of Ipomoea batatas, I. carnea, and I. pescaprae, phytochemical constituent analysis, toxicity and detoxification testing on normal and poisoned human cells, and ion channel inhibition using VGSCs, VGKCs and hERG channel were investigated. GC-MS and HPLC analysis were used for phytochemical screening and measuring the major compounds in 100 g leaf samples, which were 53.15-1446.93 mg oleamide in I. batatas -- I. pes-caprae, 1.51-59.57 mg phytol in I. batatas -- I. pes-caprae, and 39.04 mg α-amyrin and 8.09 mg β-amyrin in I. pes-caprae. The MTT assay showed no IC50 value, and the comet assay revealed insignificant DNA damages (p > 0.05) on normal PBMCs. Detoxification efficacy for rice whisky- and herbicide-exposed cells was tested, and higher cell viability percentages were shown when the poisoned cells were treated with I. carnea and I. pes-caprae extracts compared with negative control. The hexane and acetonitrile extracts of I. batatas, I. carnea, and I. pes-caprae inhibited the VGSCs (Nav1.6 and 1.8) and VGKCs (Kv1.1 and Kv10.1) channels, but not the hERG channel. The overall results indicated that the pharmacological activities of the studied plant extracts allowed them to be used as an excellent analgesic, an early marker in tumor formation useful for diagnosis and therapy of tumors, and treatments of poison and drug addiction, in addition to their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic activities. The plants can be used in daily human life with good cardiac safety and low risk for hERG inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arbutin plays an important role as a tyrosinase inhibitor in melanogenesis and a polyphenol oxidase inhibitor in enzymatic browning reactions. In this study, we utilized GC-MS and HPLC to quantify arbutin in dried ethanol extract of leaves from Artocarpus lacucha and Artocarpus thailandicus, followed by arbutin purification and purity analysis using semipreparative HPLC and 1H-NMR. MTT and comet assays run on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were used to test the plant extracts for cytotoxicity and genotoxicity. The plants' biological activities were determined by colorimetric tyrosinase inhibition assay and polyphenol oxidase inhibition in enzymatic browning reaction on banana peels. Analysis by GC-MS and HPLC in the two species showed that young leaves had an arbutin content of 9.47%, 0.24 mg/g and 13.35%, 0.32 mg/g, respectively, which were higher than those in mature leaves. Neither of the two species showed toxicity to PBMCs at the cellular or DNA level. Furthermore, both species were shown to have significant antioxidant and tyrosinase suppression effects (p < 0.05), and a solution of ground mature A. lacucha leaves containing 10% arbutin significantly suppressed (p < 0.05) brown spot formation in banana. These results provide novel and important scientific insights that could benefit human health and facilitate the post harvesting process of agricultural products. The leaf extracts of A. lacucha and A. thailandicus are promising new candidates that could be added as a whitening agent in cosmetics and a preserving agent for fruit products. The major advantage of these two species is they are recognized as a plentiful and sustainable resource with high quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species of Allamanda and Plumeria have been used as medicinal plants for a long time. This study investigates the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of their extracts on lymphocytes and HeLa cells using cell viability tests and comet assay. A. cathartica, A. violacea, P. obtusa, and P. rubra were collected and hexane-extracted. The maximum concentrations of crude extracts were 315, 625, 357, and 303 mg/ml, respectively. For cytotoxicity on lymphocytes treated with the maximum final concentration of the four extracts, the cell viabilities were 79%, 96%, 70%, and 60%, respectively. In HeLa cells, the IC50 was 13.5, 3.75, 21.5, and 14.5 mg/ml, respectively. These extracts showed significant genotoxicity (p < 0.01) on both lymphocytes and HeLa cells. These findings suggest that Allamanda and Plumeria should not be used as medicinal plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]