Multi-origin Chinese herbal medicines, with herbs originating from more than one species of plants, is a common phenomenon but an important issue in Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs). In the present study, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)—based fatty acid profiling approach to rapidly discriminate multi-origin Chinese medicines in terms of species and medicinal parts was proposed and validated using tuberous roots (Curcumae Radix) and rhizomes (Curcumae Rhizoma and Curcumae Longae Rhizoma) derived from four Curcuma species (e.g., C. wenyujin, C. kwangsiensis, C. phaeocaulis and C. longa) as models. Both type and content of fatty acids varied among different species of either tuberous roots or rhizomes, indicating each species has its own fatty acid pattern. Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) based on dataset of global fatty acid profiling showed that either tuberous roots or rhizomes samples could be clearly classified into four clusters according to their species. Furthermore, those tested samples could also be discriminated in terms of their medicinal parts (e.g., tuberous root and rhizome). Our findings suggest that the proposed GC-MS-based fatty acid profiling followed by multivariate statistical analysis provides a reliable platform to discriminate multi-origin Chinese herbal medicines according to species and medicinal parts, which will be helpful for ensuring their quality, safety and efficacy. Full article

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the major cause of death worldwide. The identification of markers able to detect the early stages of such diseases and/or their progression is fundamental in order to adopt the best actions in order to reduce the worsening of clinical condition. Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and NT-proBNP are the best known markers of heart failure (HF), while troponins ameliorated the diagnosis of acute and chronic coronary artery diseases. Nevertheless, many limitations reduce their accuracy. Physicians have tried to develop further detectable molecules in order to improve the detection of the early moments of CVD and prevent their development. Soluble ST2 (suppression of tumorigenicity 2) is a blood protein confirmed to act as a decoy receptor for interleukin-33. It seems to be markedly induced in mechanically overloaded cardiac myocytes. Thus, HF onset or worsening of a previous chronic HF status, myocardial infarct able to induce scars that make the myocardium unable to stretch well, etc, are all conditions that could be detected by measuring blood levels of soluble ST2. The aim of this review is to explore the possible role of ST2 derived-protein as an early marker of cardiovascular diseases, above all in heart failure and ischemic heart diseases. Full article

Eleven known caged polyprenylated xanthones 1–11 were isolated from the resin of Garcinia hanburyi Hook. f., and their structures were identified by their MS, NMR and UV spectra. These xanthones showed significant cytotoxicities against four human cancer cell lines (HeLa, A549, HCT-116, and HepG-2) and strong inhibition against the proliferation of the HUVEC cell line in vitro by the MTT method. Furthermore, in an in vivo zebrafish model, xanthones 3 (morellic acid), 7 (gambogenin) and 9 (isogambogenic acid) showed comparable antiangiogenic activities with less toxicities than xanthone 1 (gambogic acid), as evaluated by death and heart rates of treated zebrafish. Xanthone 7 exhibited antiangiogenic activity with no toxicity at concentrations ranging from 8 µM to 16 µM. Meanwhile, xanthones 1, 3, 7 and 9 strongly inhibited the migration of HUVEC at a low concentration of 0.5 µM in HUVEC cell migration assay in vitro. Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that xanthone 7 might be a novel angiogenesis inhibitor. Full article

1-O-Hexadecyl-2-O-methyl-3-O-(2'-amino-2'-deoxy-β-D-glucopyranosyl)-sn-glycerol (1) was previously reported to show potent in vitro antitumor activity on a range of cancer cell lines derived from breast, pancreas and prostate cancer. This compound was not toxic to mice and was inactive against breast tumor xenografts in mice. This inactivity was attributed to hydrolysis of the glycosidic linkage by glycosidases. Here three N-linked (glycosylamide) analogs 2–4, one triazole-linked analog 5 of 1 as well as two diglycosylated analogs 6 and 7 with different stereochemistry at the C2-position of the glycerol moiety were synthesized and their antitumor activity against breast (JIMT-1, BT-474, MDA-MB-231), pancreas (MiaPaCa2) and prostrate (DU145, PC3) cancer cell lines was determined. The diglycosylated analogs 1-O-hexadecyl-2(R)-, 3-O-di-(2'-amino-2'-deoxy-β-D-glucopyranosyl)-sn-glycerol (7) and the 1:1 diastereomeric mixture of 1-O-hexadecyl-2(R/S), 3-O-di-(2'-amino-2'-deoxy-β-D-glucopyranosyl)-sn-glycerol (6) showed the most potent cytotoxic activity at CC₅₀ values of 17.5 µM against PC3 cell lines. The replacement of the O-glycosidic linkage by a glycosylamide or a glycosyltriazole linkage showed little or no activity at highest concentration tested (30 µM), whereas the replacement of the glycerol moiety by triazole resulted in CC₅₀ values in the range of 20 to 30 µM. In conclusion, the replacement of the O-glycosidic linkage by an N-glycosidic linkage or triazole-linkage resulted in about a two to three fold loss in activity, whereas the replacement of the methoxy group on the glycerol backbone by a second glucosamine moiety did not improve the activity. The stereochemistry at the C2-position of the glycero backbone has minimal effect on the anticancer activities of these diglycosylated analogs. Full article

Herein, we report the antimalarial activity of nine 4-methoxychalcone derivatives 1a–i and an initial analysis of their ADMET properties. All compounds showed potent activity against the P. falciparum chloroquine-resistant clone W2, with IC₅₀ values ranging from 1.96 µM to 10.99 µM, with moderate or low cytotoxicity against the HeLa cell line. The compound 1a (IC₅₀ = 2.06 µM) had the best selectivity index (9.0). All the sulfonamide 4-metychalcone derivatives synthesized had cLogP values between 2 and 5 (mean value 3.79) and molecular weights (MWs) below 500. The substitution of the pyrrolidine group in 1i by a morpholine group in 1a reduced the cLogP value from 3.05 in compound 1i to 2.34 in compound 1a. Indeed, compound 1a had the highest LipE value. The binding free energy of compound 1a showed it to be the most optimal chalcone derivative for plasmepsin-2 (−7.3 Kcal/mol). The physicochemical properties and LipE analysis of the dataset allowed us to establish that compound 1a is the highest quality compound of the series and a potential oral lead candidate. Full article

Ecdysteroids, molting hormones of insects, can exert several mild, non-hormonal bioactivities in mammals, including humans. In a previous study, we have found a significant effect of certain derivatives on the ABCB1 transporter mediated multi-drug resistance of a transfected murine leukemia cell line. In this paper, we present a structure-activity relationship study focused on the apolar dioxolane derivatives of 20-hydroxyecdysone. Semi-synthesis and bioactivity of a total of 32 ecdysteroids, including 20 new compounds, is presented, supplemented with their complete ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR signal assignment. Full article

Quinochalcone C-glycosides are regarded as characteristic components that have only been isolated from the florets of Carthamus tinctorius. Recently, quinochalcone C-glycosides were found to have multiple pharmacological activities, which has attracted the attention of many researchers to explore these compounds. This review aims to summarize quinochalcone C-glycosides’ physicochemical properties, chromatographic behavior, spectroscopic characteristics, as well as their biological activities, which will be helpful for further study and development of quinochalcone C-glycosides. Full article

A repetitive two-step method involving the Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura coupling of hydroxyterphenylboronic acid and the subsequent nonaflation of the hydroxy group has been developed for the synthesis of oligophenylenes. This method readily afforded o,o,p- and o,p-oligophenylenes with defined chain lengths. X-ray crystallography was employed to obtain the structure of the o,p-oligophenylene 9-mer. Full article

The first chemical synthesis of the natural triterpenoid saponin Patrinia-glycoside B-II, namely oleanolic acid 3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-[β-D-gluco-pyranosyl-(1→3)]-α-L-arabinopyranoside, has been accomplished in a linear 11-step sequence 11 with 9.4% overall yield. The abnormal ¹C₄ conformation of the arabinose residue was found to occur via conformational fluctuation during preparation of the intermediates. Molecular mechanism and quantum chemistry calculations showed that Patrinia-glycoside B-II and its conformer 1 cannot interconvert under normal conditions. Preliminary structure-activity relationships studies indicated that the ⁴C₁ chair conformation of the arabinose residue in the unique α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-α-L-arabinopyranosyl disaccharide moiety is one of the chief positive factors responsible for its cytotoxic activity against tumors. Full article

An efficient method has been developed for the synthesis of β-enaminones under solvent-free reaction conditions using PPA-SiO₂ as catalyst. The reaction yields were good to excellent (up to 90%). This methodology affords high selectivity and good tolerance of a variety of different functional groups present on both aromatic and aliphatic amines. In addition, the methodology is environmentally benign and cost-effective due to absence of solvent and easy work-up. Full article

The development of a novel cyclic glucosyl ceramide cassette acceptor for efficient glycolipid syntheses was investigated. p-Methoxybenzyl (PMB) groups were selected as protecting groups at C2 and C3 of the glucose residue with the aim of improving the functionality of the cassette acceptor. The choice of the PMB group resulted in a loss of β-selectivity, which was corrected by using an appropriate tether to control the spatial arrangement and the nitrile solvent effect. To investigate the effect of linker structure on the β-selectivity of intramolecular glycosylation, several linkers for tethering the glucose and ceramide moiety were designed and prepared, namely, succinyl, glutaryl, dimethylmalonyl, and phthaloyl esters. The succinyl ester linker was the best for accessing the cassette form. The newly designed glucosyl ceramide cassette acceptor was then applied in the total synthesis of ganglioside GalNAc-GM1b. Full article

Fordiae Cauliflorae Radix (FC, the root of Fordia cauliflora Hemsl) and Millettiae Pulchrae Radix [MP, the root of Millettia pulchra (Benth.) Kurz var. laxior (Dunn) Z. Wei], which go under the same local name of “Daluosan”, have long been used in Southern China for the treatment of stroke, paralysis, dementia in children, Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases. The same local name and similar functions always confuse users. To further utilize these two ethnodrugs and identify them unambiguously, an HPLC-DAD-ESI-IT-TOF-MSⁿ method was developed to separate and characterize the flavonoids in FC and MP. A total of 41 flavonoids were detected, of which six compounds were identified by comparing their retention time and MS data with those of the reference standards, and the others were tentatively identified based on their tandem mass spectrometry data obtained in the positive ion detection mode. Nineteen of these characterized compounds are reported from these two plants for the first time. Full article

Two new polyketides, myrothecol (1) and 5-hydroxy-3-methyl-4-(1- hydroxylethyl)-furan-2(5H)-one (2), were isolated from the fermentation broth of the halotolerant fungus Myrothecium sp. GS-17 along with three known compounds, 5-hydroxyl-3-[(1S)-1-hydroxyethyl]-4-methylfuran-2(5H)-one (3), 3,5-dimethyl-4- hydroxylmethyl-5-methoxyfuran-2(5H)-one (4), and 3,5-dimethyl-4-hydroxymethyl-5- hydroxyfuran-2(5H)-one (5). Compound 1 is the first natural occurring polyketide with a unique furylisobenzofuran skeleton. The structures of these compounds were established via extensive spectroscopic analyses including 1D-, 2D-NMR, HRESI-MS, and crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Full article

This paper deals with the conjugation of durian seed gum (DSG) with whey protein isolate (WPI) through Maillard reactions. Subsequently, the functional properties of durian seed gum in the non-conjugated (control sample) and conjugated forms were compared with several commercial gums (i.e., Arabic gum, sodium alginate, kappa carrageenan, guar gum, and pectin). The current study revealed that the conjugation of durian seed gum with whey protein isolate significantly (p < 0.05) improved its foaming properties. In this study, the conjugated durian seed gum produced the most stable foam among all samples. On the other hand, the emulsion stabilized with the conjugated durian seed gum also showed more uniform particles with a larger specific surface area than the emulsion containing the non-conjugated durian seed gum. The conjugated durian seed gum showed significant different foaming properties, specific surface area, particle uniformity and water holding capacity (WHC) as compared to the target polysaccharide gums. The conjugated durian seed gum showed more similar functional properties to Arabic gum rather than other studied gums. Full article

High fat diets adversely affect body composition, bone mineral and strength, and alter bone fatty acid composition. It is unclear if maternal high fat (HF) feeding permanently alters offspring body composition and bone health. Female rats were fed control (CON) or HF diet for 10 weeks, bred, and continued their diets throughout pregnancy and lactation. Male and female offspring were studied at weaning and 3 months, following consumption of CON diet. At weaning, but not 3 months of age, male and female offspring from dams fed HF diet had lower lean mass and higher fat and bone mass, and higher femur bone mineral density (females only) than offspring of dams fed CON diet. Male and female offspring femurs from dams fed HF diet had higher monounsaturates and lower n6 polyunsaturates at weaning than offspring from dams fed CON diet, where females from dams fed HF diet had higher saturates and lower n6 polyunsaturates at 3 months of age. There were no differences in strength of femurs or lumbar vertebrae at 3 months of age in either male or female offspring. In conclusion, maternal HF feeding did not permanently affect body composition and bone health at young adulthood in offspring. Full article