Modern analytical techniques can determine a multitude of fungal metabolites contaminating food and feed. In addition to known mycotoxins, for which maximum levels in food are enforced, also currently unregulated, so-called “emerging mycotoxins” were shown to occur frequently in agricultural products. The aim of this review is to critically discuss the relevance of selected emerging mycotoxins to food and feed safety. Acute and chronic toxicity as well as occurrence data are presented for enniatins, beauvericin, moniliformin, fusaproliferin, fusaric acid, culmorin, butenolide, sterigmatocystin, emodin, mycophenolic acid, alternariol, alternariol monomethyl ether, and tenuazonic acid. By far not all of the detected compounds are toxicologically relevant at their naturally occurring levels and are therefore of little or no health concern to consumers. Still, gaps in knowledge have been identified for several compounds. These gaps should be closed by the scientific community in the coming years to allow a pr...

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.jafc.6b03413

Emerging Mycotoxins: Beyond Traditionally Determined Food Contaminants

The crisis of antibiotic resistance necessitates creative and innovative approaches, from chemical identification and analysis to the assessment of bioactivity. Plant natural products (NPs) represent a promising source of antibacterial lead compounds that could help fill the drug discovery pipeline in response to the growing antibiotic resistance crisis. The major strength of plant NPs lies in their rich and unique chemodiversity, their worldwide distribution and ease of access, their various antibacterial modes of action, and the proven clinical effectiveness of plant extracts from which they are isolated. While many studies have tried to summarize NPs with antibacterial activities, a comprehensive review with rigorous selection criteria has never been performed. In this work, the literature from 2012 to 2019 was systematically reviewed to highlight plant-derived compounds with antibacterial activity by focusing on their growth inhibitory activity. A total of 459 compounds are included in this Review, of which 50.8% are phenolic derivatives, 26.6% are terpenoids, 5.7% are alkaloids, and 17% are classified as other metabolites. A selection of 183 compounds is further discussed regarding their antibacterial activity, biosynthesis, structure-activity relationship, mechanism of action, and potential as antibiotics. Emerging trends in the field of antibacterial drug discovery from plants are also discussed. This Review brings to the forefront key findings on the antibacterial potential of plant NPs for consideration in future antibiotic discovery and development efforts.

Ethnobotany and the Role of Plant Natural Products in Antibiotic Drug Discovery.

At the time of writing this review, severe acute respiratory coronavirus syndrome-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected more than 2,355,853 patients and resulted in more than 164,656 deaths worldwide (as of 20 April 2020). This review highlights the preventive measures, available clinical therapies and the potential of vaccine development against SARS-CoV-2 by taking into consideration the strong genetic similarities of the 2003 epidemic SARS-CoV. Recent studies are investigating the repurposing of US FDA-approved drugs as there is no available vaccine yet with many attempts under clinical evaluation. Several antivirals, antimalarials and immunomodulators that have shown activity against SARS-CoV and Middle East coronavirus respiratory syndromes are being evaluated. In particular, hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, favipiravir, arbidol, tocilizumab and bevacizumab have shown promising results. The main aim of this review is to provide an overview of this pandemic and where we currently stand.

/pdf/covid-19-pandemic-an-overview-of-epidemiology-pathogenesis-4owd4s3tyh.pdf

COVID-19 pandemic: an overview of epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnostics and potential vaccines and therapeutics.

Nose to brain drug delivery - A promising strategy for active components from herbal medicine for treating cerebral ischemia reperfusion.

A review on the pharmacokinetics of paeoniflorin and its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects.

/pdf/emodin-a-review-of-its-pharmacology-toxicity-and-1wljf50yfj.pdf

Emodin: A Review of its Pharmacology, Toxicity and Pharmacokinetics: Emodin: Pharmacology, Toxicity and Pharmacokinetics

Ginsenoside Rd was shown to have protective effects against several injuries and efficient for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. Some research studies of ginsenoside Rd in the past mainly focused on the pharmacokinetics after intravenous and oral administration. However, we still lack some basic knowledge about the plasma pharmacokinetics and brain distribution of ginsenoside Rd by any other route, such as intranasal administration. It was found that intranasal administration exhibited good brain-targeting. In this study, a sensitive LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the determination of ginsenoside Rd in rat plasma and brain tissue. Detection was performed on an ACQUITY UPLC™ BEH C18 column using gradient elution with a flow rate of 0.2 mL min−1. Mass spectrometry was operated in selected reaction monitoring mode using a negative electrospray ionization interface. The method was linear over the concentration range of 1.0–1000 ng mL−1, and the lower limit of quantification was 1.0 ng mL−1 for ginsenoside Rd. The method was validated in terms of specificity, linearity, intra- and inter-day precision (<12.39%), accuracy (within ±10.1%), dilution integrity, recovery, matrix effects and stability, and has been successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of ginsenoside Rd in rats after intranasal administration and evaluation of the brain targeting of ginsenoside Rd.

Huyiligeqi

Papers

Emodin: A Review of its Pharmacology, Toxicity and Pharmacokinetics: Emodin: Pharmacology, Toxicity and Pharmacokinetics

Pharmacokinetics and brain distribution studies of ginsenoside Rd in rats via intranasal administration by LC-MS/MS