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Bioactivity Compounds in Latin American Medicinal Plants

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A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 11032

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. José Carlos Tavares Carvalho

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Guest Editor

1. Drugs Research Laboratory, Federal University of Amapá, Macapá 68902-280, Brazil
2. University Hospital of the Federal University of Amapá, Macapá 68902-280, Brazil
Interests: nutraceutical from the Amazonian; dyslipidemie; anti-inflammatory; anxiolytic; antidepressant; alternative methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Research on medicinal plants in Latin America has contributed to validating certain species that have great potential due to their pharmacological actions and their phytochemical composition. Only the Amazon has exuberant biodiversity, with thousands of species being studied at all levels of knowledge, which has added to the other countries that make up Latin America, representing a wealth of new knowledge that needs to be registered and disseminated. Therefore, this Special Issue on Bioactivity Compounds in Latin American Medicinal Plants will cover a wide range of research areas related to natural products, including but not limited to the following:

Ethnopharmacological studies of medicinal plants;
Ethnobotanical studies;
Pharmacological validation with standardized plant derivatives;
In silico studies with compounds isolated from medicinal plants;
Studies of standardized plant derivatives in alternative models;
Phytochemical studies of medicinal species.

All manuscripts within these themes are very welcome, and those submitted will be carefully processed for publication in Molecules.

Prof. Dr. José Carlos Tavares Carvalho
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

natural products
ethnopharmacology
ethnobotany
zebrafish model
medicinal plants
phytochemistry
in silico

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 664 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Flavanone Glycosides, Triterpenes, Volatile Compounds and Antimicrobial Activity of Miconia minutiflora (Bonpl.) DC. (Melastomataceae)

by Nathália Siso Ferreira, Márcia Moraes Cascaes, Lourivaldo da Silva Santos, Mozaniel Santana de Oliveira, Maria das Graças Bichara Zoghbi, Isabella Santos Araújo, Ana Paula Trovatti Uetanabaro, Eloisa Helena de Aguiar Andrade and Giselle Maria Skelding Pinheiro Guilhon

Molecules 2022, 27(6), 2005; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules27062005 - 21 Mar 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1919

Abstract

Chemical composition of the essential oils and extracts and the antimicrobial activity of Miconia minutiflora were investigated. The flavanone glycosides, pinocembroside and pinocembrin-7-O-[4″,6″-HHDP]-β-D-glucose, were identified, along with other compounds that belong mainly to the triterpene class, besides the phenolics, gallic acid and methyl gallate. Sesquiterpenes and monoterpenes were the major compounds identified from the essential oils. Screening for antimicrobial activity from the methanolic extract of the leaves showed that the MIC and MMC values against the tested microorganisms ranged from 0.625 to 5 mg·mL⁻¹ and that the extract was active against microorganisms, Staphyloccocus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus cereus. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactivity Compounds in Latin American Medicinal Plants)

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35 pages, 5432 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Potential of the Compounds from Bixa orellana Purified Annatto Oil and Its Granules (Chronic^®) against Dyslipidemia and Inflammatory Diseases: In Silico Studies with Geranylgeraniol and Tocotrienols

by Mateus Alves Batista, Abrahão Victor Tavares de Lima Teixeira dos Santos, Aline Lopes do Nascimento, Luiz Fernando Moreira, Indira Ramos Senna Souza, Heitor Ribeiro da Silva, Arlindo César Matias Pereira, Lorane Izabel da Silva Hage-Melim and José Carlos Tavares Carvalho

Molecules 2022, 27(5), 1584; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules27051584 - 28 Feb 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3074

Abstract

Some significant compounds present in annatto are geranylgeraniol and tocotrienols. These compounds have beneficial effects against hyperlipidemia and chronic diseases, where oxidative stress and inflammation are present, but the exact mechanism of action of such activities is still a subject of research. This study aimed to evaluate possible mechanisms of action that could be underlying the activities of these molecules. For this, in silico approaches such as ligand topology (PASS and SEA servers) and molecular docking with the software GOLD were used. Additionally, we screened some pharmacokinetic and toxicological parameters using the servers PreADMET, SwissADME, and ProTox-II. The results corroborate the antidyslipidemia and anti-inflammatory activities of geranylgeraniol and tocotrienols. Notably, some new mechanisms of action were predicted to be potentially underlying the activities of these compounds, including inhibition of squalene monooxygenase, lanosterol synthase, and phospholipase A₂. These results give new insight into new mechanisms of action involved in these molecules from annatto and Chronic^®. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactivity Compounds in Latin American Medicinal Plants)

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Review

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19 pages, 514 KiB

Open AccessReview

Phytochemistry and Biological Activities of Amburana cearensis (Allemão) ACSm

by Zildene de Sousa Silveira, Nair Silva Macêdo, Suieny Rodrigues Bezerra, Abolghasem Siyadatpanah, Henrique Douglas Melo Coutinho, Zahra Seifi, Bonglee Kim, Francisco Assis Bezerra da Cunha and Valdir de Queiroz Balbino

Molecules 2022, 27(2), 505; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules27020505 - 14 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2803

Abstract

Amburana cearensis (Allemão) ACSm. belongs to the Fabaceae family and occurs in the Brazilian semiarid, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. Numerous studies that portray its ethnobotany, use in popular medicine, chemical composition, and biological activities exist in the literature. This review aimed to provide an overview of the chemical composition, ethnopharmacology, and biological activities associated with A. cearensis and its isolated constituents. Information was collected from internet searches in the Scopus, Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect databases were performed covering publications from 1997–2020. An ethnopharmacological literature analysis revealed that A. cearensis is used to treat a wide range of respiratory disorders in addition to intestinal, circulatory, and inflammatory problems. Coumarins, flavonoids, phenolic glycosides, phenolic acids, phenylpropanoid derivatives, and triterpenoids, among others, have been reported as active compounds, with High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) being the main analytical technique used. The A. cearensis extracts and compounds presented several biological activities, including antimicrobial, antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, neuroprotective, and myorelaxant activities, among others. This review provides a useful bibliography for future investigations and A. cearensis applications; however, future studies should focus on its toxic effects and the mechanisms of action of its extracts and isolated constituents to guide clinical applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactivity Compounds in Latin American Medicinal Plants)

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16 pages, 16381 KiB

Open AccessReview

Secondary Metabolites Found among the Species Trattinnickia rhoifolia Willd

by Agerdânio Andrade de Souza, Brenda Lorena Sánchez Ortíz, Rosemary de Carvalho Rocha Koga, Priscila Faimann Sales, Divino Bruno da Cunha, Ana Luiza Mantovaneli Guerra, Gisele Custódio de Souza and José Carlos Tavares Carvalho

Molecules 2021, 26(24), 7661; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26247661 - 17 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2541

Abstract

Plant-derived products may represent promising strategies in the treatment of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). From this perspective, it is observed that the Amazon phytogeographic region contains the tribe Canarieae of the Burseraceae family, composed of trees and shrubs supplied with resin channels. Its uses in folk medicine are related to aromatic properties, which have numerous medicinal applications and are present in reports from traditional peoples, sometimes as the only therapeutic resource. Despite its economic and pharmacological importance in the region, and although the family is distributed in all tropical and subtropical regions of the world, most of the scientific information available is limited to Asian and African species. Therefore, the present work aimed to review the secondary metabolites with possible pharmacological potential of the species Trattinnickia rhoifolia Willd, popularly known as “Breu sucuruba”. To this end, an identification key was created for chemical compounds with greater occurrence in the literature of the genus Trattinnickia. The most evident therapeutic activities in the consulted studies were antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antifungal, anesthetic and antiparasitic. An expressive chemical and pharmacological relevance of the species was identified, although its potential is insufficiently explored, mainly in the face of the NTDs present in the Brazilian Amazon. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioactivity Compounds in Latin American Medicinal Plants)

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