Recent Advances in the Isolation, Chemical and Biological Characterization and Synthesis of Bioactive Metabolites from Plants

A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural and Bio-inspired Molecules".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 766

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Sciences of Food Production, National Research Council, Via Amendola 122/O, 70125 Bari, Italy
Interests: chemistry of natural substance; spectroscopy; biosynthesis; structure activity relationships
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Guest Editor
Department of Sciences, University of Basilicata, Viale Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Interests: stereochemical characterization of chiral molecules via chiroptical spectroscopy; the total synthesis of bioactive natural products; enantioselective catalysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Although thousands of compounds have been discovered and often studied in depth, plants still constitute an almost inexhaustible reserve for the discovery of new bioactive metabolites with potential agricultural, medicinal, nutraceutical, and cosmetic applications. These metabolites belong to all classes of natural compounds such as alkaloids, amino acids, peptides, poliketides, phenyl propanoids, terpenes, etc., and often show original structures that overcome resistance developed by pathogens responsible for serious diseases of plants, animals and humans. Unfortunately, the quantities of these metabolites isolated from plants are not sufficient for their industrial production and thus for their practical use in different fields. Therefore, their enantioselective total synthesis represents a fundamental tool for their large-scale production using convenient and eco-friendly strategies. A fundamental prerequisite for developing such synthetic processes is the determination of the absolute configuration of the metabolites of interest due to its close relationship with their biological activity. The use of specific reactions also allows researchers to prepare derivatives of natural metabolites with increased and more specific biological activity for studying the structure–activity correlation and mechanism of action using synthetic intermediates.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Evidente
Prof. Dr. Stefano Superchi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • plants
  • bioactive metabolite
  • natural analogues
  • chemical and biological characterization
  • synthesis
  • synthetic intermediates and derivatives

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 3021 KiB  
Article
Metabolites from Aerial Parts of Glycyrrhiza foetida as Modulators of Targets Related to Metabolic Syndrome
by Hekmat B. Al-Hmadi, Elena Serino, Arianna Pastore, Giuseppina Chianese, Saoussen Hammami, Mariano Stornaiuolo and Orazio Taglialatela-Scafati
Biomolecules 2024, 14(4), 467; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom14040467 - 11 Apr 2024
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Abstract
A detailed phytochemical investigation has been carried out on the aerial parts of G. foetida leading to the isolation of 29 pure compounds, mainly belonging to the amorfrutin and polyphenol classes. Among them, the new amorfrutin N (5) and exiguaflavone L [...] Read more.
A detailed phytochemical investigation has been carried out on the aerial parts of G. foetida leading to the isolation of 29 pure compounds, mainly belonging to the amorfrutin and polyphenol classes. Among them, the new amorfrutin N (5) and exiguaflavone L (21) were isolated and their structures elucidated by means of HR-ESIMS and NMR. All the isolated compounds were investigated for modulation of mitochondrial activity and stimulation of glucose uptake via GLUT transporters, two metabolic processes involved in intracellular glucose homeostasis, which, therefore, correlate with the incidence of metabolic syndrome. These experiments revealed that amorfrutins were active on both targets, with amorfrutin M (17) and decarboxyamorfrutin A (2) emerging as mitochondrial stimulators, and amorfrutin 2 (12) as a glucose uptake promoter. However, members of the rich chalcone/flavonoid fraction also proved to contribute to this activity. Full article
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