Psychoactive Plant Database - Neuroactive Phytochemical Collection

1. J Sci Food Agric. 2024 Nov 7. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.14013. Online ahead of print.

Effect of electron beam irradiation treatment on microstructure, physicochemical 
properties, and bioactive content of areca nut.

Dai J(1)(2), Kang X(1)(2)(3), Zhang J(3), Dai W(1)(2), Wang Y(4), Sun Y(5), Wang 
Y(5), Qin H(5), Ji J(1)(2)(3), Wang S(1)(2).

Author information:
(1)Institute of Agro-products processing and design, Hainan Academy of 
Agricultural Sciences, Haikou Key Laboratory of Areca Processing Research, 
Haikou, China.
(2)Key Laboratory of Tropical Fruit and Vegetable Cold-chain of Hainan Province, 
Haikou, China.
(3)Sanya Institute of Hainan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Sanya, China.
(4)China Inspection Division (Beijing) Testing Technology Co., LTD, Beijing, 
China.
(5)Guodian Zheda (Hainan) Green Energy Technology Co., LTD, Chengmai, China.

BACKGROUND: Electron beam irradiation treatment is a novel technology that uses 
low-dose ionizing radiation for the treatment of crops or food to enhance their 
quality. This study investigated the effects of electron beam irradiation on the 
microstructure, physicochemical properties, and bioactive compounds of areca 
nuts.
RESULTS: As the irradiation dose increased, the cellulose, hemicellulose, and 
lignin content in the areca nuts decreased significantly, whereas the 
polysaccharide and pectin content increased gradually. The hardness, chewiness, 
and adhesiveness of areca nuts reached their lowest values when the irradiation 
dose was within the range of 6-9 kGy, indicating that irradiation effectively 
reduced the hardness of the areca nut fibers. The decrease in crystallinity led 
to the formation of loose structures in the fibers upon irradiation, thereby 
improving their water retention, expansion, and oil-holding capacity, which are 
beneficial for the subsequent processing of areca nut-based chewable products. 
The water- and oil-holding capacities of the areca nuts peaked when the 
irradiation dose was within the 6-9 kGy range. Electron irradiation also 
affected the content of active substances in the areca nuts, particularly 
alkaloids, flavonoids, and polyphenols, showing an overall trend of initial 
increase followed by subsequent decrease.
CONCLUSION: Electron irradiation was not only effective in softening the fibers 
but it also impacted the overall quality of the areca nuts significantly. The 
results provide valuable reference data for improving the quality of areca nuts 
through electron beam irradiation technology. © 2024 Society of Chemical 
Industry.

© 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.14013
PMID: 39506906


2. Protoplasma. 2024 Nov 7. doi: 10.1007/s00709-024-02003-3. Online ahead of
print.

Anti-microtubular activity of total alkaloids and aqueous extract of Detarium 
microcarpum a medicinal plant harvested in Mali.

Dembele N(1), Somboro AA(2), Traore N(2), Badiaga M(3), Cisse S(2), Cisse M(4), 
Nick P(5).

Author information:
(1)Institute of Applied Sciences, USTTB, Bamako, Mali. d.niaboula@gmail.com.
(2)Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, USTTB, Bamako, Mali.
(3)Institute of Applied Sciences, USTTB, Bamako, Mali.
(4)Faculty of Pharmacy, USTTB, Bamako, Mali.
(5)Karlsruhe Institute for Technologies, KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Detarium microcarpum, is a species confined to drier regions of west and central 
Africa used to treat various diseases including cancer. Phytochemical screening 
revealed the presence of secondary metabolites (alkaloids) The aim of this work 
is to study the effect of total aqueous extracts and alkaloid fractions from D. 
microcarpum leaves, bark and roots on Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. 'Bright Yellow 2' 
(BY-2) tobacco cell line GFP-TuA3 expressing a N-terminal fusion of GFP. The 
plant was harvested in two different regions of Mali with a contrasting climate. 
The effects of the extracts on the microtubules was followed by spinning disc 
confocal microscopy. We showed that the anti-microtubular effect of the extracts 
is dose-dependent, depends of the sampling site and the part of the plant used. 
Total alkaloids extracted of D. microcarpum bark have more effect on 
microtubules than leaf and root. The bioactivity-guided fractionation should be 
used to screen out the biologically active compounds of the total alkaloid 
extracts of the bark of D. microcarpum.

© 2024. The Author(s).

DOI: 10.1007/s00709-024-02003-3
PMID: 39505773


3. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2024 Oct 24;253:116520. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2024.116520. 
Online ahead of print.

Metabolomics of Withania somnifera L. extracts by an integrated LC-MS and NMR 
approach and evaluation of their tyrosinase inhibitory activity.

Polcaro LM(1), Cerulli A(2), Masullo M(3), Piacente S(2).

Author information:
(1)Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università degli Studi di Salerno, via Giovanni 
Paolo II n. 132, Fisciano, SA 84084, Italy; PhD Program in Drug Discovery and 
Development, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, Fisciano, SA 
84084, Italy.
(2)Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università degli Studi di Salerno, via Giovanni 
Paolo II n. 132, Fisciano, SA 84084, Italy.
(3)Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università degli Studi di Salerno, via Giovanni 
Paolo II n. 132, Fisciano, SA 84084, Italy. Electronic address: 
mmasullo@unisa.it.

Withania somnifera L. (Solanaceae), for over 3000 years, has been considered an 
essential herb in Ayurvedic medicine. The roots of W. somnifera contain 
metabolites mainly belonging to steroidal lactones called withanolides, which 
possess various pharmacological activities such as neuroprotective, 
cardioprotective, anti-diabetic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Since the 
demand on the market for W. somnifera extracts is increasing, with the aim to 
find an ecological and environmentally friendly strategy of extraction, the 
roots were submitted to different extraction techniques (macerations, 
ultrasound-assisted extraction and solid-liquid dynamic extraction) using 
EtOH:H2O 50:50, 75:25, 100:0. W. somnifera extracts were investigated by an 
integrated LC-ESI/QExactive/MS/MS and NMR approach to obtain comprehensive 
metabolite profiles. Principal Component Analysis of LC-MS and NMR data revealed 
how the extraction method and the solvent can affect the chemical profile of the 
extracts. Extracts obtained by maceration exhibited the highest amount of 
withanolides and withanosides, while the SLDE-Naviglio EtOH extract showed the 
highest amount of metabolites as benzoic acid, tropane alkaloids and sarcosine, 
reported for their CNS activity. Moreover, based on the use of this plant in the 
treatment of neurological disorders, the tyrosinase inhibitory activity of all 
the extracts was herein tested by spectrophotometric assay, showing IC50 values 
in a range of 32.86-85.36 µg/ml.

Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpba.2024.116520
PMID: 39504741

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


4. Org Biomol Chem. 2024 Nov 6. doi: 10.1039/d4ob01552e. Online ahead of print.

Synthesis of the 5/5-spiroindimicin alkaloids: development of a general 
synthetic approach and biological investigations.

Banerjee A(1), Brisco TA(1), Ray S(1), Datta A(2), Zhang X(1), Zhang Z(1), Busse 
AA(1), Niederstrasser H(1), Sumida K(1), Posner BA(1), Wetzel DM(1)(2), Phillips 
MA(1), Smith MW(1).

Author information:
(1)Department of Biochemistry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 
75390, USA. myles.smith@utsouthwestern.edu.
(2)Department of Pediatrics, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 
75390, USA.

We describe the development of a unified synthetic strategy for the preparation 
of all known 5/5-spirocyclic spiroindimicin (SPM) alkaloids, namely 
spiroindimicins B-G. The present synthetic route relies on four fundamental 
transformations: Grignard-based fragment coupling between halogenated 
pyrrolemetal and isatin partners, Suzuki coupling to generate a triaryl scaffold 
encompassing all requisite skeletal atoms of the natural products, Lewis 
acid-mediated spirocyclization to construct the 5/5-spirocyclic core, and 
chemoselective lactam reduction. The developed syntheses are step-economic (6-7 
steps from commercial materials), scalable, and amenable to analogue synthesis. 
Preliminary investigations into a catalytic asymmetric spirocyclization towards 
an enantioselective SPM synthesis are also described. Further studies of the 
antiparasitic properties of this class have revealed promising activity against 
T. brucei for certain congeners. Together with our prior approach to the 
6/5-family members, our work constitutes a synthetic solution to all known 
spiroindimicin natural products.

DOI: 10.1039/d4ob01552e
PMID: 39504114


5. J Sep Sci. 2024 Nov;47(21):e202400366. doi: 10.1002/jssc.202400366.

Rapid Identification of Chemical Constituents of Sanhua Decoction in Vivo and in 
Vitro and the Metabolites of Rhubarb Anthraquinone Aglycone by Ultra-High 
Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Tandem 
Mass Spectrometry.

Wang X(1)(2)(3)(4), Ma J(1)(2)(3)(4), Qian Q(1)(2)(3)(4), Gao L(1)(2)(3)(4), 
Zhen Y(1)(2)(3)(4), Tian Y(1)(2)(3)(4), Niu L(1)(2)(3)(4), Wang X(1)(2)(3)(4).

Author information:
(1)School of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Hebei 
University of Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang, P. R. China.
(2)Hebei Traditional Chinese Medicine Formula Granule Engineering and Technology 
Innovate Center, Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang, P. R. 
China.
(3)Quality Evaluation and Standardization Hebei Province Engineering Research 
Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, 
Shijiazhuang, P. R. China.
(4)TCM Formula Granule Research Center of Hebei Province University, Hebei 
University of Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang, P. R. China.

Sanhua Decoction (SHD) is a classic prescription for the treatment of stroke in 
the clinic. Based on the combination strategy in vitro and in vivo, the chemical 
constituents of SHD were characterized by ultra-high-performance liquid 
chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry, 
and the metabolites of five effective anthraquinone aglycones (emodin, 
chrysophanol, rhein, aloe-emodin, and physcion) of rhubarb in SHD were studied. 
A total of 222 compounds were isolated and identified in vitro, including 50 
flavonoids and their glycosides, 41 coumarins, 22 anthraquinones, 22 tannins, 14 
phenylpropanoids, 16 alkaloids, 18 organic acids and their esters, 14 lignans, 
six anthrones, and 19 other compounds. A total of 111 prototype components were 
isolated and identified in vivo. Among them, 26, 82, 101, and 46 prototype 
components and 87 metabolites were detected in plasma, urine, feces, and bile 
for the first time. This study provides a basis for the identification of 
chemical components in vivo and in vitro and the analysis of potential 
pharmacodynamic components of SHD, and provides a basis for further study of 
pharmacodynamic mechanism.

© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.

DOI: 10.1002/jssc.202400366
PMID: 39503378 [Indexed for MEDLINE]