Worldwide, there are plants known as psychoactive plants that naturally contain psychedelic active components. They have a high concentration of neuroprotective substances that can interact with the nervous system to produce psychedelic effects. Despite these plants' hazardous potential, recreational use of them is on the rise because of their psychoactive properties. Early neuroscience studies relied heavily on psychoactive plants and plant natural products (NPs), and both recreational and hazardous NPs have contributed significantly to the understanding of almost all neurotransmitter systems. Worldwide, there are many plants that contain psychoactive properties, and people have been using them for ages. Psychoactive plant compounds may significantly alter how people perceive the world.
1. Anal Chim Acta. 2024 Nov 22;1330:343288. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2024.343288. Epub 2024 Oct 3. On the greenness of separation modes containing compressed fluids. Handlovic TT(1), Wahab MF(1), Glass BC(1), Armstrong DW(2). Author information: (1)Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Arlington, USA. (2)Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Arlington, USA. Electronic address: sec4dwa@uta.edu. BACKGROUND: In the past three decades, liquid chromatography (LC) has been recognized as a significant environmental, health, and safety burden due to its heavy reliance on toxic organic solvents. Various chromatographic modes are in vogue today for complex analyses, such as sub/supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and enhanced fluidity liquid chromatography (EFLC). These modes are often advertised as "universally green" compared to the traditional allliquid reversed (RPLC) and normal phases (NPLC). Quantitative greenness evaluations must be done to validate or invalidate this assumption and allow separation scientists to make educated choices when deciding on what mode to use. RESULTS: In this work, we modify the Analytical Method Greenness Score (AMGS) to include the cycle time of the instrument, and with the help of the first-order optimality condition (by setting the AMGS gradient = 0), we show that SFC and EFLC are not always the greenest option as they are often thought to be. Most of the greenness metrics have ignored the cycle time of instruments, yet this key component changes the entire AMGS response to flow rate. The complex case of separating tobacco alkaloid enantiomers (nicotine, nornicotine, anabasine, and anatabine) was selected as an illustrative example for comparing and contrasting separation modes using the modified greenness metric. These enantiomers have been selected due to their notorious difficulty in separation over the past 30 years. Using this family of molecules, four unique retention patterns were observed covering a wide variety of retention phenomena seen in small molecule enantioseparations. SIGNIFICANCE: The modified AMGS metric will assist practicing analytical chemists in assessing the environmental impact of their separation methods from a single run in a given chromatographic mode. The proposed methodology identifies the minimum AMGS score corresponding to the greenest separation for routine chemical analysis. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2024.343288 PMID: 39489969 [Indexed for MEDLINE] Conflict of interest statement: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Daniel W. Armstrong has a potential research conflict of interest due to a financial interest with the company AZYP, LLC. A management plan has been created to preserve objectively in research in accordance with UTA policy. 2. Chemosphere. 2024 Nov 1:143633. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.143633. Online ahead of print. Reduction of tobacco alkaloid bioaccumulation in pea shoots: a comparative study of biochar derived from cow dung and maize straw. Cheng Y, Ba Y, Yao H, Wang X, Yuan Y, He X, Lv S, You X, Zheng H, Li Y. Tobacco alkaloids in tobacco-cultivated soils pose potential risks for succeeding crops, due to their allelopathy and toxicity. Effects of biochar on the dissipation of tobacco alkaloids in soil-crop systems remain poorly understood. In this study, a 40-day pot experiment was conducted to explore the effect of cow dung biochar (CDBC) and maize straw biochar (MSBC) on the uptake of nicotine and nornicotine by pea (Pisum sativum L.) and their dissipation in an agricultural soil. The results revealed that the bioaccumulation of nicotine and nornicotine by pea shoots in the soils added with CDBC and MSBC at 1.5% and 3.0% significantly decreased by 46.97-79.13% and 33.64-71.59%, respectively. CDBC more effectively decreased the uptake and bioaccumulation of nicotine and nornicotine by pea shoots than MSBC due to the higher soil pH and nutrient content. In addition, the enhanced relative abundances of soil nicotine-degrading bacteria belonging to the genera Arthrobacter and Gemmatimonas also contributed to the decreasing uptake of nicotine by pea plants. The decreased bioavailability in the soils due to the increased adsorption was the key factor for the reduced bioaccumulation of tobacco alkaloids. This study provides guidance to protect subsequent crops in tobacco-cultivated soil from tobacco alkaloids with biochar. Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd. DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.143633 PMID: 39489304 Conflict of interest statement: Declaration of Competing Interest ☒ 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. 3. Front Chem. 2024 Oct 14;12:1483868. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1483868. eCollection 2024. Comparison of genotoxic impurities in extracted nicotine vs. synthetic nicotine. Nisathar A(1), Chen H(1), Lei X(2), Zeng Z(2), Chen J(2). Author information: (1)Analytical Research Development and Quality Control, JSTAR Research Inc., Cranbury, NJ, United States. (2)Porton Pharma Solutions, Chongqing, China. Nicotine is a chiral alkaloid; nitrogen-containing organic compound that occurs naturally. (S)-nicotine is extracted from Tobacco plants and used as the key addictive ingredient in many smoking products. Synthetic nicotine has gained the interest of many smoking product manufacturers over the last few decades due to the ease and low cost of manufacturing. Another claimed advantage of synthetic nicotine is the absence of genotoxic impurities that form during the extraction process of nicotine. These impurities are other plant alkaloids, phenolic compounds, and heavy metals. Additionally, the U. S. FDA has implemented new regulations on the quality control of synthetic nicotine. However, only a very few research articles have been published on assessing the complete impurity profile of synthetic nicotine. Therefore, the need to know the composition difference between tobacco-extracted nicotine vs. synthetic nicotine is highly necessary. In this research study, the impurity profile of thirteen different lots of synthetic nicotine was compared with fourteen lots of nicotine extracted from plants using in-house analytical methods. First, the samples were tested for other alkaloids and phenols by reversed-phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Second, the chiral purity was analyzed by normal phase HPLC. Third, lead and arsenic content were tested by atomic absorption and fluorescence spectrometry. Fourth, nicotine-specific nitrosamines were tested by LC-MS. The reversed phase HPLC data suggested similar quantities of total impurities in both synthetic and tobacco-extracted nicotine (0.1%). However, synthetic nicotine lacks some impurities such as cotinine, nornicotine, and nicotine-N-oxide. Additionally, the synthetic nicotine lots used in this study have high enantiomeric purity similar to the tobacco-extracted nicotine. Copyright © 2024 Nisathar, Chen, Lei, Zeng and Chen. DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1483868 PMCID: PMC11514277 PMID: 39469415 Conflict of interest statement: Authors AN, and HC were employed by JSTAR Research Inc. Authors XL, ZZ, and JC were employed by Porton Pharma Solutions. 4. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2024 Aug 14;739:150550. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2024.150550. Online ahead of print. A P450 superfamily member NtCYP82C4 promotes nicotine biosynthesis in Nicotiana tabacum. Zeng W(1), Shi C(2), Kong W(1), Meng Y(2), Song C(1), Xu F(3), Huang H(1), Deng L(1), Gao Q(1), Wang K(1), Cui M(3), Ning Y(3), Xiang H(4), Wang Q(5). Author information: (1)Yunnan Academy of Tobacco Science, Kunming, 650106, PR China. (2)Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, 266100, PR China; Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, PR China. (3)Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, 266100, PR China. (4)Yunnan Academy of Tobacco Science, Kunming, 650106, PR China. Electronic address: wangqian01@caas.cn. (5)Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, 266100, PR China. Electronic address: casexhy@126.com. In plants, cytochrome P450s are monooxygenase that play key roles in the synthesis and degradation of intracellular substances. In tobacco, the majority of studies examining the P450 superfamily have concentrated on the CYP82E subfamily, where multiple family members function as demethylases, facilitating the synthesis of nornicotine. In this study, NtCYP82C4, a tobacco P450 superfamily member, was identified from a gene-edited tobacco mutant that nicotine biosynthesis in tobacco leaves is evidently reduced. Compared to the wild-type plants, the knockout of NtCYP82C4 resulted in a significantly lower nicotine content and biomass in tobacco leaves. Transcriptome and metabolome analyses indicated that the knockout of NtCYP82C4 inhibites secondary metabolic processes in tobacco plants, leading to the accumulation of some important precursors in the nicotine synthesis process, including aspartic acid and nicotinic acid, and increases nitrogen partitioning associated with those processes such as amino acid synthesis and utilization. It is speculated that NtCYP82C4 may function as an important catalase downstream of the nicotine synthesis. Currently, most of the steps and enzymes involved in the nicotine biosynthesis process in tobacco have been elucidated. Here, our study deepens the current understanding of nicotine biosynthesis process and provides new enzyme targets for nicotine synthesis in tobacco plants. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2024.150550 PMID: 39181070 Conflict of interest statement: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare neither competing interests nor conflict of financial interest. 5. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Jul 16:2024.07.12.603310. doi: 10.1101/2024.07.12.603310. The role of β-Nicotyrine in E-Cigarette abuse liability I: Drug Discrimination. Smethells JR(1)(2), S W(1), P M(1), Mg L(1)(2)(3)(4), Ap H(1)(2)(3). Author information: (1)Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, Minneapolis, MN, USA. (2)Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. (3)Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. (4)Department of Pharmacology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. BACKGROUND: β-Nicotyrine (β-Nic) is a unique minor alkaloid constituent in electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) that is derived from nicotine (Nic) degradation and can reach 25% of Nic concentrations in ENDS aerosol. β-Nic slows Nic metabolism and prolongs systemic Nic exposure, which may alter the discriminability of Nic. The present study sought to examine β-Nic has interoceptive effects itself, and if it alters the subjective effects ENDS products within a drug-discrimination paradigm. METHODS: The pharmacodynamics of β-Nic were examined in vitro, and a nicotine discrimination paradigm was used to determine if β-Nic (0 - 5.0 mg/kg) shares discriminative stimulus properties with Nic (0.2 mg/kg) in male (n = 13) and female (n = 14) rats after 10- & 60-min β-Nic pretreatment delays. A second group of rats was trained to discriminate β-Nic and Nornicotine (Nornic) from saline to determine if β-Nic alone has interoceptive properties and whether they are similar to Nornic. RESULTS: β-Nic had similar binding affinity and efficacy at the α4β2 nicotinic receptor subtype as Nornic, ~50% of Nic efficacy. However, β-Nic only weakly substituted for Nic during substitution testing in female rats, but not males, whereas Nornic fully substituted for Nic. Combination testing at the 10 and 60-min pretreatment intervals showed that β-Nic dose-dependently increased the duration of nicotine's discriminative stimulus effects, especially at the 60-min delay. Drug naïve rats could reliably discriminate Nornic, but not β-Nic, from Sal. CONCLUSION: β-Nic increased and prolonged the interoceptive stimulus properties of Nic, suggesting it may alter to the abuse liability of ENDS through its ability to slow Nic metabolism. DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.12.603310 PMCID: PMC11275838 PMID: 39071347 Conflict of interest statement: Conflict of Interest No conflict declared.