Therapeutic orchids: traditional uses and recent advances--an overview.

Background
Wild orchids are illegally harvested and traded in Nepal for use in local traditional medicine, horticulture, and international trade. This study aims to: 1) identify the diversity of species of wild orchids in trade in Nepal; 2) study the chain of commercialization from collector to client and/or export; 3) map traditional knowledge and medicinal use of orchids; and 4) integrate the collected data to propose a more sustainable approach to orchid conservation in Nepal.

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Collection and trade of wild-harvested orchids in Nepal

This review provides an informative and broad overview of orchid biotechnology, addressing several important aspects such as molecular systematics, modern breeding, in vitro morphogenesis, protoplast culture, flowering control, flower color, somaclonal variation, orchid mycorrhiza, pathogen resistance, virus diagnosis and production of virus-free plants, functional genomics, genetic transformation, conservation biotechnology and pharmaceutical biotechnology. This resource will provide valuable insight to researchers who are involved in orchid biology and floriculture, using biotechnology to advance research objectives. Producing an improved orchid through biotechnology for industrial purposes or to serve as a model plant for pure and applied sciences is well within reach and many of the current techniques and systems are already employed at the commercial production level.

The Application of Biotechnology to Orchids

Although phenanthrenes are considered to constitute a relatively small group of natural products, discovering new phenanthrene derivatives and evaluating their prospective biological activities have become of great interest to many research groups worldwide. Based on 160 references, this review covers the phytochemistry and pharmacology of 213 naturally occurring phenanthrenes that have been isolated between 2008 and 2016. More than 40% of the 450 currently known naturally occurring phenanthrenes were identified during this period. The family Orchidaceae is the most abundant source of these compounds, although several new plant families and genera have been involved in the search for phenanthrenes. The presence of certain substituent patterns may be restricted to specific families; vinyl-substituted phenanthrenes were reported only from Juncaceae plants, and prenylated derivatives occur mainly in Euphorbiaceae species. Therefore, these compounds also can serve as chemotaxonomic markers. Almost all of the ...

Phenanthrenes: A Promising Group of Plant Secondary Metabolites

Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer death due to its high metastasis potential. The process of cancer migration is an early step that is required for successful metastasis. The discovery and development of natural compounds for cancer therapy have garnered increasing attention in recent years. Gigantol (1) is a bibenzyl compound derived from the Thai orchid, Dendrobium draconis. It exhibits significant cytotoxic activity against several cancer cell lines; however, until recently, the role of 1 on tumor metastasis has not been characterized. This study demonstrates that 1 suppresses the migratory behavior of non-small cell lung cancer H460 cells. Western blot analysis reveals that 1 down-regulates caveolin-1 (Cav-1), activates ATP-dependent tyrosine kinase (phosphorylated Akt at Ser 473), and cell division cycle 42 (Cdc42), thereby suppressing filopodia formation. The inhibitory effect of 1 on cell movement is also exhibited in another lung cancer cell line, H292, but not in normal human...

Gigantol, a bibenzyl from Dendrobium draconis, inhibits the migratory behavior of non-small cell lung cancer cells.

Cytotoxic phenolics from Bulbophyllum odoratissimum

Compounds from viburnum species and their biological activities.

Two new biphenanthrenes with cytotoxic activity from Bulbophyllum odoratissimum

A new phenanthrene derivative 3,7-dihydroxy-2,4,6-trimethoxyphenanthrene was isolated from the all plant of Bulbophyllum odoratissimum, and its structure was elucidated by extensive spectral studies and chemical transformation. The compound displayed cytotoxicity against the growth of human leukemia cell lines K562 and HL-60, human lung adenocarcinoma A549, human hepatoma BEL-7402 and human stomach cancer cell lines SGC-7901 with IC 50 values of 14.23, 10.02, 3.42, 15.36 and 1.13 mg/ml respectively.

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3,7-Dihydroxy-2,4,6-trimethoxyphenanthrene, A New Phenanthrene from Bulbophyllum Odoratissimum

0009-3130/10/4605-0792 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 1) Department of Chemistry, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650092, P. R. China, fax: +86 871 5516061, e-mail: ygchen48@gmail.com; 2) Engineering Research Center of Sustainable Development and Utilization of Biomass Energy, Ministry of Education, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650092, P. R. China; 3) Yunnan Key Laboratory of Pharmacology for Natural Products Research, Kunming Medical College, Kunming 650031, P. R. China. Published in Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 5, pp. 667–668, September–October, 2010. Original article submitted April 13, 2009. Chemistry of Natural Compounds, Vol. 46, No. 5, 2010

Jun-Ju Xu

Papers

Cytotoxic phenolics from Bulbophyllum odoratissimum

Compounds from viburnum species and their biological activities.

Two new biphenanthrenes with cytotoxic activity from Bulbophyllum odoratissimum

3,7-Dihydroxy-2,4,6-trimethoxyphenanthrene, A New Phenanthrene from Bulbophyllum Odoratissimum

Cytotoxic rotenoids from Mirabilis jalapa