Psychoactive Plant Database - Neuroactive Phytochemical Collection

1. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 2024 Sep 15;1245:124260. doi: 
10.1016/j.jchromb.2024.124260. Epub 2024 Aug 3.

Volatile and non-volatile metabolite profiling of under-explored crop Piper 
colubrinum Link. with chromatography mass spectrometry approach and its 
biochemical diversity from medicinally valued Piper species.

Sruthi D(1), John Zachariah T(2).

Author information:
(1)Division of Crop Production & PHT, ICAR-Indian Institute of Spices Research, 
Kozhikode-673 012, Kerala, India; Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute 
of Science, Bengaluru-560012, Karnataka, India. Electronic address: 
sruthi.skylarks@gmail.com.
(2)Division of Crop Production & PHT, ICAR-Indian Institute of Spices Research, 
Kozhikode-673 012, Kerala, India.

Piper colubrinum Link. is an underexplored crop regarding its metabolites and 
therapeutic attributes. Current study aimed to identify the possible volatile 
and non-volatile metabolites of P. colubrinum fruit and studied its metabolite 
diversity with medicinally valued Piper species viz. P. nigrum L., P. longum L. 
and P. chaba Hunter. The volatile constituents of P. colubrinum essential oil by 
GC-MS revealed the presence of sesquiterpenes as the major contribution. The 
sesquiterpenes α-muurolol (12.5 %) and β-caryophyllene (11.3 %) were the 
predominant volatile components. Few aliphatic compounds like n-heptadecane and 
trace amounts of monoterpenes (α- and β-pinene and α-terpineol) were also 
identified from this crop. The fatty acid profiling by GC-MS revealed mainly 
oleic acid (41.3 %) followed by palmitic and linoleic acids. HPLC analysis 
demonstrated that the major pungent alkaloid piperine was found to be trace 
(0.04 %) in P. colubrinum. The LC-QTOF-MS/MS profiling of the chloroform extract 
of the P. colubrinum revealed the presence of non-volatile constituents 
including phenolic and alkaloid compounds. Ferulic acid, rosmarinic acid, 
salicylic acid, kaempferol-5-glucoside, 5-methoxysalicylic acid, 
apigenin-7-galactoside, kaempferide-3-glucoside, luteolin, kaempferol, apigenin 
and scutellarein-4'-methyl ether were the phenolic compounds whereas 
piperlonguminine was the alkaloid compound identified. Finally, the biochemical 
parameters of this crop were compared with that of P. nigrum, P. longum and P. 
chaba and average linkage cluster dendrogram revealed that P. colubrinum was 
biochemically distinct from other three Piper species.

Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jchromb.2024.124260
PMID: 39178608 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

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.


2. ACS Omega. 2024 Jun 5;9(24):25902-25913. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.4c00391. 
eCollection 2024 Jun 18.

New Essential Oils from Ecuadorian Gynoxys cuicochensis Cuatrec. and Gynoxys 
sancti-antonii Cuatrec. Chemical Compositions and Enantioselective Analyses.

Maldonado YE(1), Betancourt EA(2), León ES(2), Malagón O(1), Cumbicus N(3), 
Gilardoni G(1).

Author information:
(1)Departamento de Química, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), Calle 
Marcelino Champagnat s/n, 110107 Loja, Ecuador.
(2)Carrera de Bioquímica y Farmacia, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja 
(UTPL), Calle Marcelino Champagnat s/n, 110107 Loja, Ecuador.
(3)Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Técnica 
Particular de Loja (UTPL), Calle Marcelino Champagnat s/n, Loja 110107, Ecuador.

The present study belonged to an unfunded project, dealing on the systematic 
description of unprecedented essential oils (EOs), distilled from 12 species of 
genus Gynoxys Cuatrec. In this very case, the aim was the first chemical and 
enantiomeric analyses of two volatile fractions, obtained from the leaves of 
Gynoxys cuicochensis Cuatrec. and Gynoxys sancti-antonii Cuatrec. These EOs were 
analyzed by GC-MS (qualitatively) and GC-FID (quantitatively), detecting 89 and 
60 components from G. cuicochensis and G. sancti-antonii, respectively. Major 
components for G. cuicochensis EO, on a nonpolar and polar stationary phase, 
were α-pinene (29.4-29.6%), p-vinylguaiacol (3.3-3.6%), and germacrene D 
(20.8-19.9%). In G. sancti-antonii EO, the main compounds were α-pinene 
(3.0-2.9%), β-pinene (12.9-12.1%), γ-curcumene (19.7-18.3%), germacrene D (9.0% 
on the polar phase), ar-curcumene (5.3% on the polar phase), δ-cadinene 
(4.1-4.6%), α-muurolol (3.3-2.4%), α-cadinol (3.0% on both columns), and an 
undetermined compound, of molecular weight 220. In addition to chemical 
composition, the enantioselective analysis of the main chiral compounds was 
carried out on two different chiral selectors. In G. cuicochensis EO, 
(1R,5R)-(+)-α-pinene, (S)-(+)-β-phellandrene, (R)-(-)-piperitone, and 
(S)-(-)-germacrene D were enantiomerically pure, whereas β-pinene, sabinene, 
α-phellandrene, limonene, linalool, and terpinen-4-ol were observed as scalemic 
mixtures. On the other hand, in G. sancti-antonii EO, the pure enantiomers were 
(1S,5S)-(-)-α-pinene, (1R,5R)-(+)-sabinene, (R)-(-)-β-phellandrene, 
(S)-(-)-limonene, (1S,2R,6R,7R,8R)-(+)-α-copaene, (R)-(-)-terpinen-4-ol, and 
(S)-(-)-germacrene D, whereas β-pinene, linalool, and α-terpineol were present 
as scalemic mixtures. The principal component analysis demonstrated that G. 
cuicochensis volatile fraction was quite similar to many of the other EOs of the 
same genus, whereas G. sancti-antonii produced the most dissimilar EO. 
Furthermore, the enantioselective analyses showed the usual variable 
enantiomeric distribution, with a greater presence of enantiomerically pure 
compounds in G. sancti-antonii EO.

© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.4c00391
PMCID: PMC11191102
PMID: 38911796

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no competing financial 
interest.


3. Nat Prod Res. 2024 Apr 13:1-6. doi: 10.1080/14786419.2024.2341286. Online
ahead  of print.

Essential oil of the leaves of psychotria asiatica L.: chemical composition, 
antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cytotoxic properties.

Tran TD(1), Le AT(2), Van Tran D(1), Le TQ(1), Pham TV(1).

Author information:
(1)Faculty of Chemistry, University of Education, Hue University, Hue, Vietnam.
(2)Mien Trung Institute for Scientific Research, Vietnam National Museum of 
Nature, VAST, Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam.

This study is focused on investigating the chemical composition and bioactive 
properties of the essential oil extracted from Psychotria asiatica L., a plant 
species known for its medicinal properties. Utilising gas chromatography-mass 
spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, the essential oil from P. asiatica was found to 
contain 53 distinct constituents. Major compounds identified include (E)-citral 
(20.6%), 10-epi-γ-eudesmol (15.9%), (Z)-citral (10.5%), geraniol (7.4%), 
α-cadinol (6.7%), 7-epi-α-eudesmol (4.4%), linalool (3.7%), and α-muurolol 
(3.4%). The essential oil did not exhibit antioxidant activity, as indicated by 
an IC50 value of > 100 µg/mL, whereas the positive control L-Ascorbic acid had 
an IC50 of 7.37 ± 0.27 µg/mL in the DPPH model. Assessment of its 
anti-inflammatory potential revealed an inhibitory effect on NO production, with 
an IC50 value of 29.08 ± 1.54 µg/mL in Lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW264.7 
macrophage cells. Furthermore, the essential oil demonstrated significant 
cytotoxicity against the SK-LU-1 cancer cell line, with an IC50 value of 
39.75 ± 1.79 μg/mL according to the sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay.

DOI: 10.1080/14786419.2024.2341286
PMID: 38613430


4. Molecules. 2024 Jan 23;29(3):562. doi: 10.3390/molecules29030562.

Chemical Composition of the Essential Oils of the Iberian Peninsula Endemic 
Species Eryngium dilatatum Lam.

Palá-Paúl J(1), Pérez-Alonso MJ(1), Soria AC(2), Brophy JJ(3).

Author information:
(1)Departamento de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias 
Biológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
(2)Instituto de Química Orgánica General (IQOG-CSIC), Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 
Madrid, Spain.
(3)School of Chemistry, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, 
Australia.

Eryngium dilatatum Lam. is a thorny Iberian Peninsula endemic species belonging 
to the Apiaceae family that has not been previously analysed from a chemical 
point of view. Following our studies on this genus, we characterized the 
chemical composition of the essential oils from the different parts 
(inflorescences, stems + leaves, and roots) of this species; these parts were 
gathered in Cádiz (Spain). The specimens were collected in July during the 
flowering period and air-dried before the oil extraction by hydro-distillation. 
The essential oils were analysed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography 
coupled with mass spectrometry. The different parts of the plant yielded low 
amounts of pale yellow oil, with the roots being the fraction that provided the 
lowest amount of oil. The chemical characterization of the essential oils showed 
qualitative and quantitative differences between the fractions examined, but all 
of them showed the same principal compound, germacrene D (9.1-46.5%). Similarly, 
all the fractions shared most of their representative constituents, with their 
percentage compositions being different from one sample to the other: α-cadinol 
(3.8%), bicyclogermacrene (3.5%), octanal (3.1%), and spathulenol (2.5%) were 
found in the inflorescences; octanal (8.1%), α-cadinol (3.7%), δ-cadinene 
(3.6%), (E)-caryophyllene (2.6%), bicyclogermacrene (2.5%), and spathulenol 
(2.4%) were found in the stems and leaves; and spathulenol (4.6%), α-cadinol 
(4.4%), khusinol (3.2%), α-muurolol (3.1%), and δ-cadinene (2.6%) were found in 
the roots. As far as we know, this is the first report about the chemical 
composition of this endemic species of the Iberian Peninsula. It contributes to 
the knowledge of this species and to the genus to which it belongs. This species 
could be considered as a natural source of germacrene D, which is a 
sesquiterpene hydrocarbon with active properties.

DOI: 10.3390/molecules29030562
PMCID: PMC10856671
PMID: 38338307 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.


5. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Oct 15;24(20):15203. doi: 10.3390/ijms242015203.

Chemodiversity and Bioactivity of the Essential Oils of Juniperus and 
Implication for Taxonomy.

Hu H(1)(2), Li D(1)(2), Bai R(1)(2), Zhang W(1)(2), Luo H(1)(2), Yu E(1)(2).

Author information:
(1)College of Forestry, Northwest A & F University, Yangling 712100, China.
(2)Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Economic Plant Resources Development and 
Utilization, Yangling 712100, China.

The essential oils of Juniperus are highly beneficial medicinally. The present 
study aimed to assess the chemodiversity and bioactivity of Juniperus formosana, 
Juniperus przewalskii, Juniperus convallium, Juniperus tibetica, Juniperus 
komarovii, and Juniperus sabina essential oils from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. 
The results revealed 92 components in six essential oils: α-pinene 
(2.71-17.31%), sabinene (4.91-19.83%), and sylvestrene (1.84-8.58%) were the 
main components. Twelve components were firstly reported in Juniperus oils, 
indicating that the geographical location and climatic conditions of the 
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau produced the unique characteristics of Juniperus essential 
oils. The chemodiversity of Juniperus essential oils varied greatly, with J. 
sabina having the most recognized components (64) and the highest chemodiversity 
(Shannon-Wiener index of 3.07, Simpson's diversity index of 0.91, and Pielou 
evenness of 0.74). According to the chemodiversity of essential oils, the six 
plants were decided into the α-pinene chemotype (J. formosana), hedycaryol 
chemotype (J. przewalskii, J. komarovii, J. convallium, J. tibetica), and 
sabinene chemotype (J. sabina). PCA, HCA and OPLS-DA showed that J. formosana 
and J. sabina were distantly related to other plants, which provides a chemical 
basis for the classification of Juniperus plants. Furthermore, bioactivity tests 
exhibited certain antioxidant and antibacterial effects in six Juniperus oils. 
And the bioactivities of J. convallium, J. tibetica, and J. komarovvii were 
measured for the first time, broadening the range of applications of Juniperus. 
Correlation analysis of components and bioactivities showed that δ-amorphene, 
β-udesmol, α-muurolol, and 2-nonanone performed well in the determination of 
antioxidant activity, and α-pinene, camphene, β-myrcene, as well as (E)-thujone, 
had strong inhibitory effects on pathogenic bacteria, providing a theoretical 
basis for further research on these components.

DOI: 10.3390/ijms242015203
PMCID: PMC10607841
PMID: 37894884 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Conflict of interest statement: All the authors declare no present or potential 
conflict of interest. All authors are responsible for the content and writing of 
the paper and have approved of its publication.