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Increasing the Sensitivity of Adipocytes and Skeletal Muscle Cells to Insulin
Published in Christophe Wiart, Medicinal Plants in Asia for Metabolic Syndrome, 2017
Ethanol extract of fruits of Zanthoxylum piperitum (L.) DC. at a concentration of 0.75 μg/mL inhibited the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes in vitro by 80%.164 This extract inhibited the expression of adipogenic transcription factors peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-α as well as sterol regulatory element-binding protein-2 and fatty acid synthetase.164 In C57BL/6 mice on high-fat diet with 0.5% of extract for 6 weeks a lower weight gain was observed, food intake was unchanged and epididimal white adipose tissue weight was lowered from 1.4 to 1.2 g (normal diet: 0.6 g).164 This regimen lowered serum triglycerides to normal values, reduced plasma cholesterol from 166.7 to 155.7 mg/dL (normal: 91 mg/dL), lowered low-density lipoprotein–cholesterol from 95.1 to 75.5 mg/dL (normal: 30 mg/dL).164 This treatment lowered (but not normalized) glycemia by 11%, reduced insulinemia by 59%, and reduced serum leptin by 54%.164 This treatment reduced triglyceride accumulation and cholesterol levels in the liver as well as liver weight.164 In the liver of treated animals, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-α, sterol regulatory element-binding protein-2, fatty acid synthetase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase expression were inhibited when compared with untreated group.164
Sources of Essential Oils
Published in K. Hüsnü Can Başer, Gerhard Buchbauer, Handbook of Essential Oils, 2020
Chlodwig Franz, Johannes Novak
The ability to accumulate essential oils is not omnipresent in plants but scattered throughout the plant kingdom, in many cases, however, very frequent within—or a typical character of—certain plant families. From the taxonomical and systematic point of view, not the production of essential oils is the distinctive feature since this is a quite heterogeneous group of substances, but either the type of secretory containers (trichomes, oil glands, lysogenic cavities, or schizogenic oil ducts) or the biosynthetically specific group of substances, for example, mono- or sesquiterpenes and phenylpropenes; the more a substance is deduced in the biosynthetic pathway, the more specific it is for certain taxa: monoterpenes are typical for the genus Mentha, but menthol is characteristic for M. piperita and Mentha arvensis ssp. piperascens only; sesquiterpenes are common in the Achillea–millefolium complex, but only Achillea roseoalba (2×) and Achillea collina (4×) are able to produce matricine as precursor of (the artifact) chamazulene (Vetter et al., 1997). On the other hand, the phenylpropanoid eugenol, typical for cloves (S. aromaticum, Myrtaceae), can also be found in large amounts in distant species, for example, cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Lauraceae) or basil (Ocimum basilicum, Lamiaceae); as sources for anethole are known not only aniseed (Pimpinella anisum) and fennel (F. vulgare), which are both Apiaceae, but also star anise (Illicium verum, Illiciaceae), Clausena anisata (Rutaceae), Croton zehntneri (Euphorbiaceae), or Tagetes lucida (Asteraceae). Finally, eucalyptol (1,8-cineole)—named after its occurrence in Eucalyptus sp. (Myrtaceae)—may also be a main compound of the essential oil of galangal (Alpinia officinarum, Zingiberaceae), bay laurel (Laurus nobilis, Lauraceae), Japan pepper (Zanthoxylum piperitum, Rutaceae), and a number of plants of the mint family, for example, sage (S. officinalis, Salvia fruticosa, Salvia lavandulifolia), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), and mints (Mentha sp.). Taking the aforementioned facts into consideration, chemotaxonomically relevant are (therefore) common or distinct pathways, typical fingerprints, and either main compounds or very specific even minor or trace substances (e.g., δ-3-carene to separate Citrus grandis from other Citrus sp. [Gonzalez et al., 2002]).
An Overview of Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Emphasis on Dietary Products and Herbal Remedies
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2022
Deepa S. Mandlik, Satish K. Mandlik
Pepper extracts decreased cell viability of rat hepatoma McA-RH7777 cells in an In Vitro study though showing no cytotoxicity. The intracellular accumulation of ROS was blamed for the selective cytotoxicity (89). By immunomodulation and promoting apoptosis, the glycoprotein isolated from Zanthoxylum piperitum may be able to prevent chemical-induced liver carcinogenesis. The glycoprotein (20 mg/kg) increased the expression of granzyme B, perforin and natural killer cell activities, as well as pro-apoptotic factors (caspase-3, bid and cytochrome c) in the liver of DEN-treated Balb/c mice (90). In Vitro experiments with the cancer cell line revealed that administration of Zanthoxylum avicennae extract in rats inhibited cell proliferation by inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, as well as preventing cell metastasis and invasion by downregulating MMP-2/-9 (91). Following that, mechanistic research showed that phosphatase 2 A activation was responsible for the anti-tumor effects. The dried pericarp of Zanthoxylum schinifolium was used to extract the essential oil, which contained geranyl acetate, sabinene and citronella. In HepG2 cells, this volatile extract stimulated ROS production in a dose-dependent manner, resulting in increased apoptotic cell death (92).
Design of hydroxy-α-sanshool loaded nanostructured lipid carriers as a potential local anesthetic
Published in Drug Delivery, 2022
Fengming Tan, Lulu Xu, Yanling Liu, Huan Li, Dahan Zhang, Cuiying Qin, Yang Han, Jing Han
Local anesthetic is widely used to lessen pain in the oral procedure (Boyce et al., 2016) by binding to voltage gated Na+ (Nav) channels to block influx of sodium into axons (Dib-Hajj et al., 2009). In fact, local anesthetic is basically divided into amides and ester (Wang et al., 2021), such as lidocaine (Zhao et al., 2018) and benzocaine (Lamey, 2005). Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum piperitum), also known as ‘toothache trees’, is widely used to treat toothache and rheumatoid arthritis in native cultures such as African, Native American, and Asian. Previous studies have shown that an active alkylamide constituent extracted from Zanthoxylum piperitum is hydroxy-α-sanshool (HAS), which causes numbness (Bryant & Mezine, 1999) and analgesia (Sugai et al., 2005) during treatment of toothache. HAS not only could induce tingly numbness by targeting and inhibiting two-pore KCNK channels (KCNK3, KCNK9, and KCNK18) (Bautista et al., 2008), but also could act on distinct somatosensory neuron subtypes to mediate sensitivity to pain by blocking various Nav channels such as Nav1.7 (Tsunozaki et al., 2012, 2013). Among the Nav channels subtypes, HAS has strong inhibitory effect on Nav1.3 and Nav1.7 channels, which predominantly expressed in somatosensory neurons such as dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons (Black et al., 1996), Aδ mechanical nociceptors (Michael et al., 2012), etc. Besides, HAS can be absorbed rapidly after oral administration or subcutaneous injection (Iwabu et al., 2010; Munekage et al., 2011; Rong et al., 2016), suggesting that HAS might serve as a potential local anesthetic for oral surgery. However, HAS is extremely unstable against oxygen, light, and heat, which restricts its applications in local anesthetic.