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Hedychium spicatum is an essential oil bearing plant extensively used in the traditional system of medicine in several countries. Previous research has revealed H. spicatum essential oil (HSEO) to exhibit anti-tumor activity, although the mechanism of action is still unknown. Therefore, the current study was designed to carry out a comprehensive characterization of HSEO and evaluate the chemotherapeutic potential of HSEO against cancerous cells. The volatile constituents of HSEO was determined by one-dimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOFMS) and two-dimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC-TOFMS). In total, 193 phytocompounds could be detected, out of which 140 were identified for the first time. The major phytoconstituents detected by GCxGC-TOFMS were β -pinene (10.94%), eucalyptol (6.45%), sabinene (5.48%) and trans -isolimonene (5.00%). GCxGC-TOFMS analysis showed two and half fold increase in the constituents over GC-TOFMS due to better chromatographic separation of constituents in the 2nd dimensional column. HSEO was tested for in vitro cytotoxic activity against cancerous (PC-3, HCT-116 and A-549) and normal (3T3-L1) cell, with HSEO being most selective for prostate cancer cell (PC-3) over non-tumorigenic fibroblast (3T3-L1) cell. HSEO treatment inhibited the colony formation ability of PC-3 cells. HSEO treatment caused apoptotic cell death and cell cycle arrest at G2/M and S phase in PC-3 cells. HSEO induced apoptosis via intracellular ROS accumulation, mitochondria depolarization and increased caspase-3, 8, and 9 levels in PC-3 cells. Additionally, HSEO treatment led to a decrease of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL and increase of Bax and Bak protein levels. Overall, results from this study highlighted the anticancer potential of H. spicatum essential oil, which could be considered as a new agent for treating prostate cancer., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Background: The essential oils isolated from several medicinal plants have been reported to possess anticancer activities. Both the essential oil and extracts of many Piper species (Piperaceae) possess potential cytotoxic effects against cancer cell lines and are being used in traditional systems of medicine for the treatment of cancer. There is a need to evaluate and validate the anticancer properties of essential oils extracted from other wild species of Piper., Objective: The current research was undertaken to determine the chemical composition and investigate the anti-proliferative activity of wild-growing Piper trioicum leaf essential oil. The selected five major constituents were subjected to molecular docking to identify possible modes of binding against serine/threonine-protein kinase (MST3) protein., Methods: The essential oil of leaf of P. trioicum was extracted by hydrodistillation method, and its chemical composition was evaluated by GC-FID and GC-MS. The anti-proliferative activity of the essential oil was evaluated by the MTT assay against normal (3T3-L1) and various cancer (HCT 116, HT-29, PC-3 and HepG2) cell lines. Molecular docking analysis was performed using the AutoDock 4.2 software. The pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of the major constituents were determined using absorption, distribution, metabolization, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) analysis., Results: The GC-MS analysis revealed the identification of 45 constituents with δ-cadinene (19.57%), germacrene-D (8.54%), β-caryophyllene (6.84%), 1-epi-cubenol (4.83%) and α-pinene (4.52%) being predominant constituents in the leaf essential oil of P. trioicum. The highest cytotoxicity of essential oil was observed against HT-29 cells (IC 50 value of 33.14 μg/ml). 1-epi-cubenol and δ-cadinene exhibited low binding energy values of -6.25 and -5.92 kcal/mol, respectively. For prediction of in silico pharmacokinetic and drug-like properties of the major compounds, the ADMET prediction tool was used, the results of which were observed to be within the ideal range., Conclusion: The present findings demonstrate that P. trioicum essential oil possesses significant anti-proliferative activity and could be effective against cancer treatment., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

This comparative study aimed to evaluate the effects of different drying methods such as solar drying, shade drying (SHD), freeze drying (FD), oven drying, and microwave drying on the physicochemical properties, bioactive components, and antioxidant activity of Centella asiatica . The results showed that out of all the treated samples, FD-treated samples showed the lowest moisture content (2.4%), the lowest water activity (0.24%), and the highest rehydration ratio (5.51%). For samples treated using different drying methods, significant differences in Commission on Illumination - LAB ( L *, a *, and b *) values and total color difference ( E ) were observed. FD-treated samples showed the minimum color change ( E ) and highest lightness ( L *). Additionally, upon Fourier-transform infrared spectral analysis, no major changes in the functional groups were observed between C. asiatica leaves processed using different drying methods. FD-treated samples showed the highest antioxidant activity followed by SHD-treated samples, as measured by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzo-thiazoline-6-sulphonic acid radical scavenging assays. The phenolic (chlorogenic acid, rutin, kaempferol, and quercetin) and triterpene saponin (madecassoside, asiaticoside, madecassic acid, and asiatic acid) contents of the dried samples of C. asiatica were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography, which showed that the FD method allowed for the highest retention of phenolic and triterpene saponins among the tested drying techniques. The physicochemical characteristics, antioxidant potential, and bioactive retention of the samples that underwent FD treatment were superior to those of other methods, and therefore, FD can be employed as the first-line drying technique for processing C. asiatica leaves., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper., (© 2022 Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences.)

The present investigation was carried out to establish an efficient and reproducible micropropagation protocol for the production of morphologically, genetically and chemically uniform plants of Curcuma zedoaria . Axillary bud explants of C. zedoaria were inoculated into MS basal medium supplemented with various combinations and concentrations of 6-benzyladenine (2.2-22.2 µM, BA), kinetin (2.3-23.2 µM, Kin), indole-3-acetic acid (2.9-11.4 µM, IAA), α-naphthalene acetic acid (2.7-10.2 µM, NAA) and adenine sulphate (33.9-203.6 µM, Ads). Almost 95% of rhizome buds sprouted on MS medium supplemented with 13.3 μM BA, 5.7 μM IAA and 63.9 μM Ads giving rise to an average of 12.89 ± 0.02 shoots within 6 weeks. However, the maximum number of roots (25.8 ± 0.07 roots per explant) was obtained on half strength MS medium supplemented with 7.4 µM of IBA after 4 weeks of inoculation. Morphological characteristics were similar in both conventionally propagated and micropropagated plants. Additionally, genetic homogeneity of in vitro plants was further confirmed through ISSR and flow cytometry analysis. A total of 27 ISSR primers were screened, out of which 13 ISSR primers generated 58 monomorphic and reproducible bands thereby confirming the genetic uniformity of obtained plants. The mean 2C DNA content of the mother plant (2.96 pg) was similar to that of in vitro derived plants (3.07 pg). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis showed similarity in the qualitative profile of chemical constituents of essential oil and high-performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed no significant differences in curcumin content in the tissue culture regenerants and mother plants of C. zedoaria . Therefore, the present micropropagation protocol could be effectively employed to generate true to type plantlets of C. zedoaria., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestAll authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2019.)

Plant NBS-LRR R-genes recognizes several pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and limit pathogen infection through a multifaceted defense response. CzR1, a coiled-coil-nucleotide-binding-site-leucine-rich repeat R-gene isolated from Curcuma zedoaria L exhibit constitutive resistance to different strains of P. aphanidermatum. Majority of the necrotrophic oomycetes are characterized by the presence of carbohydrate PAMPs β-glucans in their cell walls which intercat with R-genes. In the present study, we predicted the 3D (three dimensional) structure of CzR1 based on homology modeling using the homology module of Prime through the Maestro interface of Schrodinger package ver 2.5. The docking investigation of CzR1 with β-glucan using the Glide software suggests that six amino acid residues, Ser186, Glu187, Ser263, Asp264, Asp355 and Tyr425 act as catalytic residues and are involved in hydrogen bonding with ligand β-(1,3)-D-Glucan. The calculated distance between the carboxylic oxygen atoms of Glu187-Asp355 pair is well within the distance of 5Å suggesting a positive glucanase activity of CzR1. Elucidation of these molecular characteristics will help in in silico screening and understanding the structural basis of ligand binding to CzR1 protein and pave new ways towards a broad spectrum rhizome rot resistance development in the cultivated turmeric.

Microrhizomes were induced at the base of the in vitro derived shoots of Curcuma amada grown in the liquid MS medium supplemented with BA (5 mg/l), sucrose (80 g/l) and incubated under 16 hr photoperiod. They were produced year round in culture, harvested after 90 days of growth in medium, and could be used as seeds and germinated to plantlets showing normal growth.