Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is characterized by excessive fat accumulation in the liver of patients who consume little or no alcohol, becomes increasingly common with rapid economic development. Long-term excess fat accumulation leads to NAFLD and represents a global health problem with no effective therapeutic approach. NAFLD is considered to be a series of complex, multifaceted pathological processes involving oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, and metabolism. Over the past decades, herbal medicines have garnered growing attention as potential therapeutic agents to prevent and treat NAFLD, due to their high efficacy and low risk of side effects. In this review, we evaluate the use of herbal medicines (including traditional Chinese herbal formulas, crude extracts from medicinal plants, and pure natural products) to treat NAFLD. These herbal medicines are natural resources that can inform innovative drug research and the development of treatments for NAFLD in the future.

Herbal medicines and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Background Cancer continues to be a global burden, despite the advancement of various technological and pharmaceutical improvements over the past two decades. Methods for treating cancer include surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy in addition to other specialized techniques. On the other hand, medicinal plants have been traditionally employed either as the complementary medicine or dietary agents in the treatment and management of cancer. Medicinal plants are a rich source of secondary metabolites with interesting biological and pharmacological activities. Among these metabolites, glycosides are naturally occurring substances and have outstanding therapeutic potential and clinical utility. Methods Different medical research engines such as, GoogleScholar, PubMed, SpringerLink, ScienceDirect were used to collect related literature on the subject matter. In this regard, only peer-reviewed journals were considered. Results Emerging results showed that numerous glycosides isolated from various plants possessed marked anticancer activity against a variety of cancer cell lines. Accordingly, the aim of the present review is to shed light on the anticancer effects of glycosides, analyze possible mechanisms of action, and highlight the role of these natural agents as complementary and alternative medicine in combating and managing cancer. Conclusion The glycosides isolated from different plants demonstrated potent cytotoxic effects against various cancer cell lines in initial preclinical studies. The anticancer effect was mediated through multiple mechanisms; however further detailed studies are needed to understand the full potential of glycosides for clinical utility.

Glycosides from Medicinal Plants as Potential Anticancer Agents: Emerging Trends Towards Future Drugs.

Steroidal saponins exhibited numerous pharmacological activities due to the modification of their backbone by different cytochrome P450s (P450) and UDP glycosyltransferases (UGTs). Plant-derived steroidal saponins are not sufficient for utilizing them for commercial purpose so in vitro production of saponin by tissue culture, root culture, embryo culture, etc, is necessary for its large-scale production. Saponin glycosides are the important class of plant secondary metabolites, which consists of either steroidal or terpenoidal backbone. Due to the existence of a wide range of medicinal properties, saponin glycosides are pharmacologically very important. This review is focused on important medicinal properties of steroidal saponin, its occurrence, and biosynthesis. In addition to this, some recently identified plants containing steroidal saponins in different parts were summarized. The high throughput transcriptome sequencing approach elaborates our understanding related to the secondary metabolic pathway and its regulation even in the absence of adequate genomic information of non-model plants. The aim of this review is to encapsulate the information related to applications of steroidal saponin and its biosynthetic enzymes specially P450s and UGTs that are involved at later stage modifications of saponin backbone. Lastly, we discussed the in vitro production of steroidal saponin as the plant-based production of saponin is time-consuming and yield a limited amount of saponins. A large amount of plant material has been used to increase the production of steroidal saponin by employing in vitro culture technique, which has received a lot of attention in past two decades and provides a way to conserve medicinal plants as well as to escape them for being endangered.

Recent advances in steroidal saponins biosynthesis and in vitro production.

Steroidal saponins are a group of glycosides widely distributed among monocotyledonous families. They exert a wide spectrum of biological effects including cytotoxic and antitumor properties which are the most studied. This review is an update of our previous paper—Saponins as cytotoxic agents (Podolak et al. in Phytochem Rev 9:425–474, 2010) and covers studies that were since published (2010–2018). In this paper we refer to steroidal saponins presenting results of cytotoxicity studies, mechanisms of action and structure–activity relationships.

/pdf/saponins-as-cytotoxic-agents-an-update-2010-2018-part-i-3vse5gcjj3.pdf

Saponins as cytotoxic agents: an update (2010-2018). Part I-steroidal saponins

Tupistra chinensis is widely distributed in southwestern China and its rhizome is a famous folk medicine for the treatment of carbuncles and pharyngitis. Its chemical identity of potent antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory constituents has been carried out in this study. Twenty-three polyhydroxylated spirostanol saponins, including nine novels, were isolated and identified. The new spirostanol saponins were elucidated as spirost-25(27)-en-1β,2β,3β,4β,5β-pentol-2-O-β-D-xylopyranoside (1), spirost-25(27)- en-1β,2β,3β,4β,5β-pentol-2-O-α-L-arabinopyranoside (2), spirost-25(27)-en- 1β,3α,5β-triol (12), spirost-25(27)-en-1β,3α,4β,5β,6β-pentol (13), spirost-25(27)-en- 1β,2β,3β,5β-tetraol-5-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (16), 5β-spirost-25(27)-en-1β,3β-diol- 3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 → 4)-β-D-glucopyranoside (17), (25R)-5β-spirostan- 1β,3β-diol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 → 6)-β-D-glucopyranoside (18), (25R)-5β- spirostan-1β,3β-diol-3-O-β-D-fructofuranosyl-(2 → 6)-β-D-glucopyranoside (19), 5β-spirost-25(27)-en-3β-ol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 → 4)-β-D-glucopyranoside (20). The antiproliferative effects against seven human cancer cell lines and inhibitory activities on nitric oxide (NO) production induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in a macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 were assayed for all the isolated compounds. Compounds 17, 19 and 21 exhibited potential antiproliferative activities against all of human cancer cell lines tested. Compounds 21 showed significant inhibition on NO production with IC50 values of 11.5 μM. These results showed that the spirostanol saponins isolated from the dried rhizomes of T. chinensis have potent antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory activities and T. chinensis might be used as anticancer and.anti-inflammatory supplement.

/pdf/antiproliferative-and-anti-inflammatory-polyhydroxylated-1rv9a7cp1w.pdf

Antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory polyhydroxylated spirostanol saponins from Tupistra chinensis

Steroidal glycosides from Reineckia carnea

Two new furostanol saponins 1–2 and a new spirostanol saponin 3 were isolated together with two known furostanol saponins 4–5 from the roots and rhizomes of Tupistra chinensis. Their structures were characterized as 1β,2β,3β,4β,5β,26-hexahydroxyfurost-20(22), 25(27)-dien-5,26-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (1), 1β,2β,3β,4β,5β,6β,7α,23ξ,26-nona-hydroxyfurost- 20(22),25(27)-dien-26-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (2), (20S,22R)-spirost-25 (27)-en-1β,3β,5β- trihydroxy-1-O-β-d-xyloside (3), tupisteroide B (4) and 5β-furost-Δ25(27)-en-1β,2β,3β,4β,5β,7α, 22ξ,26-octahydroxy-6-one-26-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (5), respectively, by extensive use of spectroscopic techniques and chemical evidence. Additionally, the in vitro cytotoxic activity of 1–4 was evaluated on human A549 and H1299 tumor cell lines, and compound 3 exhibited cytotoxicity against A549 cells (IC50 86.63 ± 2.33 μmol·L−1) and H1299 cells (IC50 88.21 ± 1.34 μmol·L−1).

Steroidal Saponins from the Roots and Rhizomes of Tupistra chinensis

Two new pregnane glycosides from Reineckia carnea

Two new spirostanol saponins from the the roots and rhizomes of Tupistra chinensis

Schisandra sphenanthera Rehd. et Wils (S. sphenanthera) is a single species of Schisandra genus, Magnoliaceae family, and it is a famous medicinal herb mostly growing in southern China, China Taiwa...

Dongdong Zhang

Papers

Steroidal glycosides from Reineckia carnea

Steroidal Saponins from the Roots and Rhizomes of Tupistra chinensis

Two new pregnane glycosides from Reineckia carnea

Two new spirostanol saponins from the the roots and rhizomes of Tupistra chinensis

Schisandra sphenanthera: A Comprehensive Review of its Botany, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Clinical Applications.