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Pharmacological actions of chemical constituents
Published in C. P. Khare, Evidence-based Ayurveda, 2019
Polysaccharides are polymers based on sugars and uronic acids. They are found as a component of a plant’s cell wall. In experimental studies, plant polysaccharides have been shown to possess anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation, cell viability promotion, immune-regulation and antitumor functions in a number of disease models. The natural sources of several common plant polysaccharides include Aloe vera, Angelica sinensis, Astragalus membranaceus, Bupleurum falcutum, Dendrobium spp., Dimocarpus longan, Ginkgo biloba, Lycium barbarum, Panax ginseng, Zizyphus Jujuba and cactus fruits.
Fruits, Vegetables and Tubers
Published in Bill Pritchard, Rodomiro Ortiz, Meera Shekar, Routledge Handbook of Food and Nutrition Security, 2016
Amongst the scores of minor fruit crops commonly found and consumed locally in many tropical countries, some have become popular in specialty cuisines and in boutique markets around the world. These include: guava (Psidium guajava); durian (Durio zibethinus); carambola (Averrhoa carambola); acerola (Malpighia punicifolia); feijoa (Acca sellowiana); passion fruit and sweet granadilla (Passiflora edulis and P. ligularis); white sapote (Casimiroa edulis); lychee (Litchi chinensis); longan (Dimocarpus longan); rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum); mamey sapote (Pouteria sapota); sapodilla (Manildara zapota); star apple (Chrysophyllum cainito); cherimoya, sugar apple and soursop (Annona spp.); mangosteen (Garcina mangostana); and tamarind (Tamarindus indica).
Medicinal Plant Product-Based Fabrication Nanoparticles (Au and Ag) and Their Anticancer Effects
Published in Spyridon E. Kintzios, Maria G. Barberaki, Evangelia A. Flampouri, Plants That Fight Cancer, 2019
Ag-NPs fabricated from various medical plants have also shown anticancer properties due to structurally diverse chemical constituents present in them. They have shown an effective cytotoxic effect against several cancer cell lines. Some researchers have proposed that due to the higher concentration of NPs, cell viability is reduced. This was explained on the basis of the active physiochemical interaction of Ag ions with the functional groups of intracellular proteins, along with nitrogenous bases and phosphate groups as well (Mata et al. 2015, Nalavothula et al. 2015, Varghese et al. 2015, Sreekanth et al. 2016). Ag-NPs obtained from petal extract of Rosa indica have shown anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties (Manikandan et al. 2015). Those produced from leaf extracts of Piper longum and Melia azedarch were also shown to have a cytotoxic effect on HEp-2 (Jacob et al. 2012) and HeLa cell lines (Sukirtha et al. 2012). Ag ions can produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) which may cause apoptosis or necrosis in human cancer cells through nuclear condensation and fragmentation. The toxicity of plant-latex-capped Ag-NPs towards human lung carcinoma cells in vitro was tested, and authors have suggested that these particles are toxic to A549 cells in a concentration-dependent manner (Valodkar et al. 2011). They also suggested that plant latex can solubilize Ag-NPs in water and act as a potential biocompatible vehicle for transport of Ag-NPs to target tumor cells. Nonetheless, a detailed study of biocompatibility of these plant-latex-mediated NPs is still pending. Ag-NPs have also been observed to cure breast cancer (Franco-Molina et al. 2010, Gurunathan et al. 2013a, b), lung cancer (Foldbjerg et al. 2011), and skin and/or oral carcinoma (Austin et al. 2011). Jeyaraj et al. (2013) have fabricated Ag-NPs from Podophyllum hexandrum. Authors have found enhanced anticancer activity in comparison to Cisplatin, the standard anticancer drug. He et al. (2016) used Dimocarpus longan peel’s aqueous extract to fabricate Ag-NPs, which showed cytotoxicity in a concentration-dependent manner against prostate cancer (PC-3) cells through a decrease of stat 3, bcl-2, and survivin, as well as an increase in caspase-3. He et al. (2016) have proposed that these particles could be used for prostate cancer treatments, although a complete investigation to understand the molecular mechanism and in vivo effects of Ag-NPs on prostate cancer is still required. Ag-NPs obtained from several other medicinal plants such as Allium sativum (Ahamed et al. 2011), Annona squamosa (Vivek et al. 2012), Citrullus colocynthis (Satyavani et al. 2011a, b), Piper longum (Reddy et al. 2014), Melia dubia (Kathiravan, Ravi, and Kumar 2014), Mentha arvensis (Banerjee et al. 2017), and Pimpinella anisum (Devanesan et al. 2017), among others, have been reported against various human cancer cell lines.
Synergistic Effect of Combined Treatment with Longan Flower Extract and 5-Fluorouracil on Colorectal Cancer Cells
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2020
Szu-Jung Chen, Yuan-Chiang Chung, Han-Lung Chang, Hsin-Ping Chang, Jui-Ling Chou, Chih-Cheng Lin, Chih-Hsien Chen, Chih-Ping Hsu
5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is the first-line chemotherapy drug for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Recent advanced research has increased our knowledge of the mechanism of action of 5-FU, and has led to the development of strategies that increase its anticancer activity. However, drug resistance remains a major limitation of the clinical use of 5-FU in anticancer treatment, including the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) (1). Previously, we and other researchers reported that polyphenols such as ellagic acid may be potential candidates that increase the sensitivity of CRC to 5-FU (2–5). Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.), a well-known summer fruit tree that grows in Asian subtropical areas including Thailand, Taiwan, and China, possesses commercial roles both as a fruit and a medicine (6–9). Longan flowers have been used to make a medical drink for the treatment of urinary tract inflammation and micturition dysfunction (10). Recently, high levels of polyphenolics, including flavonoids and proanthocyanidins, have been obtained from longan flowers by a hot-water reflux method, and have been demonstrated to exhibit activity preventing damage from oxidant species (11, 12). Polyphenol-rich longan flower extract (LFE) is associated with many health benefits, including regulation of markers of metabolic syndrome (13), anti-obesity (14), neuroprotection (15), and anticancer effects (9). Our previous report confirmed that LFE inhibited the growth of CRC cell lines SW480 and Colo 320DM by inducing S-phase arrest in the cell cycle, concomitantly suppressing CRC cell growth from single cells to colonies in soft agar, implying a role of LFE in the treatment of CRC (16). However, it is still not fully understood whether LFE can sensitize the response of CRC cells to 5-FU. In this study, we identified synergistic combination effects of LFE and 5-FU on CRC cell viability, apoptosis and cell-cycle arrest, which revealed a potential role of LFE as an adjuvant agent for CRC chemotherapy.