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. Nat Prod Res. 2024 Apr 29:1-6. doi: 10.1080/14786419.2024.2349254. Online ahead of print. Secondary metabolites from the stem bark of Alstonia boonei and the seeds of Picralima nitida with antibacterial activities. Adepiti AO(1)(2), Nyamboki DK(1)(3), Kibrom GB(4), Elujoba AA(2), Spiteller M(1), Matasyoh JC(1)(3). Author information: (1)Institute of Environmental Research (INFU), Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany. (2)Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. (3)Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Egerton University, Egerton, Kenya. (4)Department of Chemistry, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The methanol stem bark extract of A. boonei and methanol seed extract of P. nitida, were subjected to purification using chromatographic techniques. A. boonei yielded loganic acid (1), sweroside (2) and secoxyloganin (3), while P. nitida afforded (1), akuammidine (4), akuammicine (5) and alstonine (6). The structures of the compounds were elucidated based on their nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) profiles and comparison with literature data. The antibacterial activities of the compounds were evaluated using the disc diffusion assay with chloramphenicol as the positive control. Alstonine (6) demonstrated weak activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus agalactiae with zones of inhibition of 9.3 ± 0.6 and 10.0 ± 0.0 mm, respectively. This is the first report of sweroside (2) and secoxyloganin (3) in A. boonei. DOI: 10.1080/14786419.2024.2349254 PMID: 38684042 2. Fitoterapia. 2024 Apr;174:105873. doi: 10.1016/j.fitote.2024.105873. Epub 2024 Feb 28. Chemodiverse monoterpene indole alkaloids from Kopsia teoi, inhibitory potential against α-amylase, and their molecular docking studies. Muhammad MT(1), Beniddir MA(2), Phongphane L(3), Abu Bakar MH(4), Hussin MH(5), Awang K(6), Litaudon M(7), Supratman U(8), Azmi MN(9). Author information: (1)Natural Products and Synthesis Organic Research Laboratory (NPSO), School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia; Nursing department, Darbandikhan Technical Institute (DATI), Sulaimani Polytechnic University, Kurdistan Region, Sulaimani 46001, Iraq. (2)Équipe Chimie des Substances Naturelles, BioCIS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France. (3)Natural Products and Synthesis Organic Research Laboratory (NPSO), School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia. (4)Bioprocess Technology Division, School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia. (5)Materials Technology Research Group (MaTReC), School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia. (6)Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (7)Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, CNRS-ICSN UPR 01, Univ. Paris-Sud 11, Av. de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France. (8)Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, 45363 Jatinangor, Indonesia. (9)Natural Products and Synthesis Organic Research Laboratory (NPSO), School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia. Electronic address: mnazmi@usm.my. Diabetes mellitus stands as a metabolic ailment marked by heightened blood glucose levels due to inadequate insulin secretion. The primary aims of this investigative inquiry encompassed the isolation of phytochemical components from the bark of Kopsia teoi, followed by the assessment of their α-amylase inhibition. The phytochemical composition of the K. teoi culminated in the discovery of a pair of new indole alkaloids; which are 16-epi-deacetylakuammiline N(4)-methylene chloride (akuammiline) (1), and N(1)-methoxycarbonyl-11-methoxy-12-hydroxy-Δ14-17-kopsinine (aspidofractinine) (2), together with five known compounds i.e. kopsiloscine G (aspidofractinine) (3), akuammidine (sarpagine) (4), leuconolam (aspidosperma) (5), N-methoxycarbonyl-12-methoxy-Δ16, 17-kopsinine (aspidofractinine) (6), and kopsininate (aspidofractinine) (7). All compounds were determined via spectroscopic analyses. The in vitro evaluation against α-amylase showed good inhibitory activities for compounds 5-7 with the inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 21.7 ± 1.2, 34.1 ± 0.1, and 30.0 ± 0.8 μM, respectively compared with the reference acarbose (IC50 = 34.4 ± 0.1 μM). The molecular docking outputs underscored the binding interactions of compounds 5-7 ranging from -8.1 to -8.8 kcal/mol with the binding sites of α-amylase. Consequently, the outcomes highlighted the anti-hyperglycemic attributes of isolates from K. teoi. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1016/j.fitote.2024.105873 PMID: 38417682 [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. 3. ACS Omega. 2023 Jul 18;8(30):27190-27205. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c02464. eCollection 2023 Aug 1. Investigation of Small-Molecule Constituents in Voacanga africana Seeds and Mapping of Their Spatial Distributions Using Laser Ablation Direct Analysis in Real-Time Imaging-Mass Spectrometry (LADI-MS). Coon AM(1), Musah RA(1). Author information: (1)Department of Chemistry, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, New York 12222, United States. Plant seeds are a renewable resource that can furnish access to medicinal natural products that can only otherwise be isolated from aerial or root parts, the harvest of which may be destructive to the plant or threaten its viability. However, optimization of the isolation of such compounds from seeds would be greatly assisted if the spatial distribution of the molecules of interest within the plant tissue were known. For example, iboga alkaloids that hold promise for the treatment of opioid use disorder are typically isolated from the leaves, bark, or roots of Tabernanthe or Voacanga spp. trees, but it would be more environmentally sustainable to isolate such compounds from their seeds. Here, we leveraged the unique capabilities of the ambient mass spectral imaging technique termed laser ablation direct analysis in real-time imaging-mass spectrometry (LADI-MS) to reveal the spatial distributions of a range of molecules, including alkaloids within V. africana seeds. In addition to six compounds previously reported in these seeds, namely, tetradecanoic acid, n-hexadecanoic acid, (Z,Z)-9,12-octadecadienoic acid, (Z)-9-octadecenoic acid, octadecanoic acid, and Δ14-vincamine, an additional 31 compounds were newly identified in V. africana seeds. The compound classes included alkaloids, terpenes, and fatty acids. The ion images showed that the fatty acids were localized in the embryo of the seed. The alkaloids, which were mainly localized in the seed endosperm, included strictamine, akuammidine, polyneruidine, vobasine, and Δ14-vincamine. This information can be exploited to enhance the efficiency of secondary metabolite isolation from V. africana seeds while eliminating the destruction of other plant parts. © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society. DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c02464 PMCID: PMC10399170 PMID: 37546641 Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no competing financial interest. 4. PLoS One. 2023 Mar 21;18(3):e0283147. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283147. eCollection 2023. Comparative metabolomics analysis reveals alkaloid repertoires in young and mature Mitragyna speciosa (Korth.) Havil. Leaves. Veeramohan R(1), Zamani AI(1)(2), Azizan KA(1), Goh HH(1), Aizat WM(1), Razak MFA(1), Yusof NSM(3), Mansor SM(3), Baharum SN(1), Ng CL(1). Author information: (1)Institute of Systems Biology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. (2)Leave a Nest Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia. (3)Centre for Drug Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden, Penang, Malaysia. The fresh leaves of Mitragyna speciosa (Korth.) Havil. have been traditionally consumed for centuries in Southeast Asia for its healing properties. Although the alkaloids of M. speciosa have been studied since the 1920s, comparative and systematic studies of metabolite composition based on different leaf maturity levels are still lacking. This study assessed the secondary metabolite composition in two different leaf stages (young and mature) of M. speciosa, using an untargeted liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-TOF-MS) metabolite profiling. The results revealed 86 putatively annotated metabolite features (RT:m/z value) comprising 63 alkaloids, 10 flavonoids, 6 terpenoids, 3 phenylpropanoids, and 1 of each carboxylic acid, glucoside, phenol, and phenolic aldehyde. The alkaloid features were further categorised into 14 subclasses, i.e., the most abundant class of secondary metabolites identified. As per previous reports, indole alkaloids are the most abundant alkaloid subclass in M. speciosa. The result of multivariate analysis (MVA) using principal component analysis (PCA) showed a clear separation of 92.8% between the young and mature leaf samples, indicating a high variance in metabolite levels between them. Akuammidine, alstonine, tryptamine, and yohimbine were tentatively identified among the many new alkaloids reported in this study, depicting the diverse biological activities of M. speciosa. Besides delving into the knowledge of metabolite distribution in different leaf stages, these findings have extended the current alkaloid repository of M. speciosa for a better understanding of its pharmaceutical potential. Copyright: © 2023 Veeramohan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283147 PMCID: PMC10030037 PMID: 36943850 [Indexed for MEDLINE] Conflict of interest statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. 5. Phytochemistry. 2023 May;209:113639. doi: 10.1016/j.phytochem.2023.113639. Epub 2023 Mar 6. A molecular networking-based isolation of gardneria alkaloids from Gardneria distincta and their anti-inflammatory activity. Teng S(1), He J(2), Wang X(1), Li Y(1), Khan A(3), Zhao T(1), Wang Y(4), Cheng G(5), Liu Y(6). Author information: (1)Faculty of Food Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China. (2)Zhejiang Starry Pharmaceutical Cp., LTD, Taizhou, 317306, China. (3)Department of Chemistry, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Abbottabad, 22060, Pakistan. (4)Faculty of Food Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China; Key Laboratory of Chemistry in Ethnic Medicinal Resources, State Ethnic Affairs Commission and Ministry of Education, Yunnan Minzu University, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan, China. (5)Faculty of Food Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China. Electronic address: ggcheng@kust.edu.cn. (6)Faculty of Food Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China. Electronic address: liuyaping@kust.edu.cn. Gardneria distincta P. T. Li is traditionally applied as a herbal medicine for treatment various ailments, and is mainly distributed in Southwestern China. Under the guided separation of MS/MS-based molecular networking, eight undescribed oxindole alkaloids, gardistines A-H, as well as 17 known alkaloids were discovered from the whole parts of Gardneria distincta. Structural elucidation of these undescribed alkaloids was performed by various spectroscopic methods. Gardistine A is a rare oxindole gardneria alkaloid bearing an ester carbonyl group attached to C-18, which is the second reported alkaloid of oxindole gardneria-type. All of the identified monoterpene indole alkaloids were investigated for their anti-inflammatory activity in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. Gardistines A-B and akuammidine demonstrated significant inhibitory effects on the expressions of nitric oxide, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and interleukin-6 at 20 μM. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1016/j.phytochem.2023.113639 PMID: 36889562 [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.