Being secondary plant metabolites, polyphenols represent a large and diverse group of substances abundantly present in a majority of fruits, herbs and vegetables. The current contribution is focused on their bioavailability, antioxidative and anticarcinogenic properties. An overview of extraction methods is also given, with supercritical fluid extraction highlighted as a promising eco-friendly alternative providing exceptional separation and protection from degradation of unstable polyphenols. The protective role of polyphenols against reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, UV light, plant pathogens, parasites and predators results in several beneficial biological activities giving rise to prophylaxis or possibly even to a cure for several prevailing human diseases, especially various cancer types. Omnipresence, specificity of the response and the absence of or low toxicity are crucial advantages of polyphenols as anticancer agents. The main problem represents their low bioavailability and rapid metabolism. One of the promising solutions lies in nanoformulation of polyphenols that prevents their degradation and thus enables significantly higher concentrations to reach the target cells. Another, more practiced, solution is the use of mixtures of various polyphenols that bring synergistic effects, resulting in lowering of the required therapeutic dose and in multitargeted action. The combination of polyphenols with existing drugs and therapies also shows promising results and significantly reduces their toxicity.

https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/21/7/901/pdf

Polyphenols: Extraction Methods, Antioxidative Action, Bioavailability and Anticarcinogenic Effects

The simultaneous entrapment of biological macromolecules and nanostructured silica-coated magnetite in sol-gel materials using a reverse-micelle technique leads to a bioactive, mechanically stable, nanometer-sized, and magnetically separable particles. These spherical particles have a typical diameter of 53 +/- 4 nm, a large surface area of 330 m(2)/g, an average pore diameter of 1.5 nm, a total pore volume of 1.427 cm(3)/g and a saturated magnetization (M(S)) of 3.2 emu/g. Peroxidase entrapped in these particles shows Michaelis-Mentan kinetics and high activity. The catalytic reaction will take place immediately after adding these particles to the reaction solution. These enzyme entrapping particles catalysts can be easily separated from the reaction mixture by simply using an external magnetic field. Experiments have proved that these catalysts have a long-term stability toward temperature and pH change, as compared to free enzyme molecules. To further prove the application of this novel magnetic biomaterial in analytical chemistry, a magnetic-separation immunoassay system was also developed for the quantitative determination of gentamicin. The calibration for gentamicin has a working range of 200-4000 ng/mL, with a detection limit of 160 ng/mL, which is close to that of the fluorescent polarization immunoassay (FPIA) using the same reactants.

Magnetite-containing spherical silica nanoparticles for biocatalysis and bioseparations （vol 76, pg 1316, 2004）

Moringa oleifera is an interesting plant for its use in bioactive compounds. In this manuscript, we review studies concerning the cultivation and production of moringa along with genetic diversity among different accessions and populations. Different methods of propagation, establishment and cultivation are discussed. Moringa oleifera shows diversity in many characters and extensive morphological variability, which may provide a resource for its improvement. Great genetic variability is present in the natural and cultivated accessions, but no collection of cultivated and wild accessions currently exists. A germplasm bank encompassing the genetic variability present in Moringa is needed to perform breeding programmes and develop elite varieties adapted to local conditions. Alimentary and medicinal uses of moringa are reviewed, alongside the production of biodiesel. Finally, being that the leaves are the most used part of the plant, their contents in terms of bioactive compounds and their pharmacological properties are discussed. Many studies conducted on cell lines and animals seem concordant in their support for these properties. However, there are still too few studies on humans to recommend Moringa leaves as medication in the prevention or treatment of diseases. Therefore, further studies on humans are recommended.

https://blog.baca-villa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Moringa-Oleifera-Leaves-an-Overview.pdf

Cultivation, Genetic, Ethnopharmacology, Phytochemistry and Pharmacology of Moringa oleifera Leaves: An Overview

Recent advances in the treatment of dye-containing wastewater from textile industries: Overview and perspectives

Moringa Oleifera (MO), a plant from the family Moringacea is a major crop in Asia and Africa. MO has been studied for its health properties, attributed to the numerous bioactive components, including vitamins, phenolic acids, flavonoids, isothiocyanates, tannins and saponins, which are present in significant amounts in various components of the plant. Moringa Oleifera leaves are the most widely studied and they have shown to be beneficial in several chronic conditions, including hypercholesterolemia, high blood pressure, diabetes, insulin resistance, non-alcoholic liver disease, cancer and overall inflammation. In this review, we present information on the beneficial results that have been reported on the prevention and alleviation of these chronic conditions in various animal models and in cell studies. The existing limited information on human studies and Moringa Oleifera leaves is also presented. Overall, it has been well documented that Moringa Oleifera leaves are a good strategic for various conditions associated with heart disease, diabetes, cancer and fatty liver.

Bioactive Components in Moringa Oleifera Leaves Protect against Chronic Disease

Gallic acid: Molecular rival of cancer

This article reports the production of high levels of L-asparaginase from a new isolate of Aspergillus niger in solid state fermentation (SSF) using agro-wastes from three leguminous crops (bran of Cajanus cajan, Phaseolus mungo, and Glycine max). When used as the sole source for growth in SSF, bran of G. max showed maximum enzyme production followed by that of P. mungo and C. cajan. A 96-h fermentation time under aerobic condition with moisture content of 70%, 30 min of cooking time and 1205-1405 micro range of particle size in SSF appeared optimal for enzyme production. Enzyme yield was maximum (40.9 +/- 3.35 U/g of dry substrate) at pH 6.5 and temperature 30 +/- 2 degrees C. The optimum temperature and pH for enzyme activity were 40 degrees C and 6.5, respectively. The study suggests that choosing an appropriate substrate when coupled with process level optimization improves enzyme production markedly. Developing an asparaginase production process based on bran of G. max as a substrate in SSF is economically attractive as it is a cheap and readily available raw material in agriculture-based countries.

Production of L-asparaginase, an anticancer agent, from Aspergillus niger using agricultural waste in solid state fermentation.



Engineering of biocatalysts with the help of immobilization techniques is a worthy approach
for the advancement of enzyme function and stability and is finer to the other chemical as
well as biological methods. These biocatalysts encapsulation methods actually use very gentle
method conditions that hardly affect biocatalysts internal specific biocatalytic activity and this leads
to its internment without losing its freedom but restrict the movements related to unfolding. Additionally,
enzyme encapsulation somehow imitates their mode of normal incidence within the cells
and it also provides secured surroundings for enzymes to the operating parameter changes. According
to these advantages, enzyme encapsulation finds enhanced applications in a wide variety of fields
such as medicine and sustained or continuous release delivery systems, biosensing, clinic diagnostic,
biocatalysts in the manufacture of high-value yield correlated to pharmaceuticals especially in cancer
cure, fragrances as well as flavors. This review mainly focuses on the current status of enzyme immobilization
using nanocarriers, nanoparticles or polymeric matrix materials, which aim to summarize
the latest research on the natural polymer, chitosan based nanoparticles in various enzyme immobilizations.


Nanotechnology in Enzyme Immobilization: An Overview on Enzyme Immobilization with Nanoparticle Matrix

Hsp90 (heat shock protein 90), a molecular chaperone, stabilizes more than 200 mutated and over expressed oncogenic proteins in cancer development. Cdc37 (cell division cycle protein 37), a co-chaperone of Hsp90, has been found to facilitate the maturation of protein kinases by acting as an adaptor and load these kinases onto the Hsp90 complex. Taxifolin (a natural phytochemical) was found to bind at ATP-binding site of Hsp90 and stabilized the inactive "open" or "lid-up" conformation as evidenced by molecular dynamic simulation. Furthermore, taxifolin was found to bind to interface of Hsp90 and Cdc37 complex and disrupt the interaction of residues of both proteins which were essential for the formation of active super-chaperone complex. Thus, taxifolin was found to act as an inhibitor of chaperoning process and may play a potential role in the cancer chemotherapeutics.

Dual inhibition of chaperoning process by taxifolin: Molecular dynamics simulation study

Despite different existing potential antimicrobial agents, microbial (bacterial and viral) infections are still an important challenge to the pharmaceutical industry today. Therefore, it is required to develop another bactericidal route to destroy some microorganisms that have become resistant toward antibiotics and antiviral infections. Accordingly, attention is concentrating especially on novel as well as emerging nanotechnology-based materials in the field of antimicrobial therapy. This chapter discusses the antimicrobial activities of numerous nanoparticles such as carbon-based nanoparticles like carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, graphene oxides, and metallic nanoparticles together with polymeric chitosan nanoparticles as an antimicrobial agent, their mode of action, nanoparticle effect on drug-resistant bacteria, and the risks attendant with their use as antimicrobial agents to tissues of human cells. The importance of metallic nanoparticles such as silver nanoparticles as an antiviral agent was also investigated.

Abha Mishra

Papers

Gallic acid: Molecular rival of cancer

Production of L-asparaginase, an anticancer agent, from Aspergillus niger using agricultural waste in solid state fermentation.

Nanotechnology in Enzyme Immobilization: An Overview on Enzyme Immobilization with Nanoparticle Matrix

Dual inhibition of chaperoning process by taxifolin: Molecular dynamics simulation study

Antiviral and Antimicrobial Potentiality of Nano Drugs