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Different Physalis plants have been widely employed in traditional medicine for management of diabetes mellitus. Previous studies with respect to the in vivo antidiabetic activity of Physalis plants illustrated that they improved glucose and lipid metabolism in streptozotocin (STZ) -induced diabetic rats yet the mechanism of action of bioactive constituents of the different organs of Physalis plants on diabetes remains obscure.Our objective is to study the effects of the different organs of ground cherry (P. pruinosa) on diabetes in rat models and elucidate their mechanism of actions through serum pharmacochemistry combined to network pharmacology analyses and in-vivo testing.Characterization of the constituents in the drug-dosed serum samples relative to the blank serum after treatment with different extracts was performed by UPLC -MS/MS technique. The absorbed metabolites where then subjected to network pharmacology analysis to construct an interaction network linking "compound-target-pathway". In vivo verification was implemented to determine a hypothesized mechanism of action on a STZ and high fat diet induced type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) model based on functional and enrichment analyses of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome and Gene Ontology.Identification of a total of 73 compounds (22 prototypes and 51 metabolites) derived from P. pruinosa extracts was achieved through comparison of the serum samples collected from diabetic control group and extracts treated groups. The identified compounds were found to belong to different classes according to their structural type including withanolides, physalins and flavonoids. The absorbed compounds in the analyzed serum samples were considered as the potential bioactive components. The component-target network was found to have 23 nodes with 17 target genes including MAPK8, CYP1A1 and CYP1B1. Quercetin and withaferin A were found to possess the highest combined score in the C-T network. Integrated serum pharmacochemistry and network pharmacology analyses revealed the enrichment of leaves extract with the active constituents, which can be utilized in T2DM treatment. In the top KEGG pathways, lipid and atherosclerosis metabolic pathways in addition to T2DM pathways were found to be highly prioritized. The diabetic rats, which received leaves extract exhibited a substantial increment in GLUT2, INSR, IRS-1, PIThe study in hand offers a comprehensive study to clarify the bioactive metabolites of the different organs of P. pruinosa. The basic pharmacological effects and underlying mechanism of actions in the management of STZ and high fat diet induced T2DM were specifically covered in this paper.

In this study, the seasonal dynamics of the flavonoids in the cones and leaves of oriental Thuja (Platycladus orientalis L. Franco) as well as the in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of their extracts were investigated. The important chemical markers of the studied extracts were determined using untargeted HPTLC profiling, which was further utilized to assess the seasonality effect on the composition of these metabolites over three seasonal cycles. A quantitative HPTLC method was developed and validated for the identified chemical markers of oriental Thuja: hyperoside, quercetrin, isoscutellarein-7-O-β-xyloside, cupressuflavone, hinokiflavone, sotetsuflavone and isoscutellarein-8-methyl ether. The highest amounts of flavonoids were observed during the summer and winter seasons, where the leaves possessed higher contents of flavonoids compared to cones. Flavone glycosides are a major class of flavones encountered in leaves, while the cones mainly accumulated biflavones. The results showed that the effect of seasonal variation on the accumulation of flavonoids within the cones was less pronounced than in the leaves. The summer leaves showed a remarkable reduction in the levels of INF-γ, where the value decreased to 80.7 ± 1.25 pg mL−1, a significantly lower level than that obtained with piroxicam (180 ± 1.47 pg mL−1); this suggests a noteworthy anti-inflammatory potential. OPLS (orthogonal projection to latent structures) models showed that flavonoidal glycosides, quercetrin, hyperoside and isoscutellarein-7-O-β-xyloside were the most contributing biomarkers to the reduction in pro-inflammatory mediators in LPS-stimulated WBCs. The results obtained in the study can thus be exploited to establish the best organs as well as the optimal periods of the year for collecting and obtaining certain biomarkers at high concentrations to guarantee the efficacy of the obtained extracts.

The aim of this work was to analyze the composition of oriental cedar volatile oils (Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco) obtained from leaves and cones, over one season cycle to study the effect o...

The different parts of pomegranate fruit are considered a powerful mixture of bioactive compounds yet the peels and pulps of the fruits are usually discarded and considered as industrial waste. In this work, ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-QqQ-MS) was utilized for metabolomics analysis of different parts (peel, pulp, seed and juice) of pomegranate fruit cultivars to verify possible variations among the fruits and their waste products as potential sources of functional constituents.Orthogonal projection to latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) coefficient-plot showed enrichment of phenolic compounds such as punicalagin and ellagic acid derivatives in pulp samples while seeds class was enriched in phlorizin, catechin and quercetin, juice class showed abundance of naringenin and pelargonidin-3-pentoside while peels were enriched in anthocyanins and flavonoids including cyanidin diglycoside, quercetin and luteolin glycosides. Although the juice samples of almost all tested cultivars showed remarkable cytotoxic activity, the pulp samples, particularly the Manfalouti cultivar, exhibited the most potent [half maximal inhibitory concentration (ICThe results obtained allow for the full utilization of the resources of pomegranate fruit and its industrial waste as sources of bioactive compounds. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

In this study, the seasonal dynamics of the flavonoids in the cones and leaves of oriental

Platycladus orientalis L. Franco has many folk uses as it is mainly used to treat inflammatory ailments. UPLC–MS/MS was used for the chemical profiling of P. orientalis leaves. Identified metabolites were forwarded to network pharmacology analysis. Networks were constructed based on STITCH, SEA, DAVID, KEGG and STRING databases and using Cytoscape. The identified hit compounds were afzelin, myricetin, apigenin-7-O-hexoside, quercetrin and hyperoside. IL2, VEGFA, AKT1, AKT2, CREB1, IL5, RPS6KB1 and TNF were the main inflammation-related targets identified. Quercetrin and hyperoside were tested for their anti-inflammatory activity. it can be concluded that, the identified hit compounds exhibited strong synergistic interactions with the inflammation and immunity-related targets and pathways.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Juniperus plants are considered important sources of cedar-wood oil which is used widely in folk medicine as antiseptic and in treatment of inflammatory disorders such as, rheumatoid arthritis but there is not enough scientific evidence to support the claimed uses and there is no specification of a certain Juniperus species as the most active. Aim of the study The aim of this study is volatiles profiling of three Juniperus species; J. communis, J. horizontalis and J. chinensis in addition to efficacy-directed discrimination of the three studied essential oils based on their antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activities in LPS (lipopolysaccharide)-stimulated WBCs (White blood cells) to investigate the inter-specific variability effect on the biological activities of each oil. Materials and methods Volatile components profiling of the three studied plants volatile oils was achieved using GC-FID (Gas chromatography – flame ionization detector) and GC–MS (Gas chromatography - mass spectrometry). The antimicrobial activity of the studied essential oils was investigated and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined for oils. The production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines was evaluated by ELISA (Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay). Identification of the biomarkers responsible for each activity was attempted through construction of orthogonal projection to latent structures model using multivariate statistical analysis. Results Forty five components were identified in the volatile oils of the three studied plants. J. horizontalis oil displayed the highest activity against E. coli while J. communis showed the highest activity against S. aureus. OPLS model biplot showed the in-between class discrimination of J. chinensis oil sample from J. communis and J. horizontalis. The three oils were found to significantly decrease the production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines tumour necrosis factor (TNF)- α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and gamma interferon (INF- γ) in lipopolysaccharide-activated white blood cells. All studied oils were similar in reduction of TNF-α, and INF-γ, while J. chinensis oil possessed the highest potency against IL-1β. The coefficient plots of TNF-α and INF-γ pro-inflammatory mediators showed that 1-terpineol, 4-terpineol, bornyl acetate, dl-limonene and α-pinene positive contributors to both activities while β-thujone, 3-carene and γ-muurolene were the positive contributors to IL-1β inhibitory activity. Conclusion The differences observed in the volatile profiles among the three studied oils demonstrate the effect of inter-specific variability on the biological activities of the tested oils. It was shown that the tested oils possessed good antibacterial activities against E.coli and S. aureus justifying its folk use as an a topical antiseptic while the observed anti-inflammatory effects in human WBCs is due at least in part to their inhibitory effect on the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.