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Gymnema sylvestre and Combretum micranthum are well known for their ethno-medicinal uses in the northwest of Nigeria. In our recent study, we demonstrated the antidiabetic and antioxidant activities of the aqueous-methanol extracts of the two plants and identified some potentially active compounds. The present study aimed to conduct molecular docking and ADME/drug-likeness screening of the identified potentially active candidate compounds from aqueous-methanol extracts of G. sylvestre and C. micranthum leaves by using in silico techniques. Molecular docking of compounds on target proteins (α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and phosphorylated insulin receptor tyrosine kinase) was performed using Molsoft ICM-pro 3.8-3. The physicochemical, ADME, and drug-likeness parameters were computed using the SwissADME online program. The result corroborated the antidiabetic activities of the plants with significant binding interactions between compounds A (2,2-dimethyl-3-[4-(acetyloxy)phenyl]-4-ethy-l2H-1-benzopyran-7-ol acetate), D (9,13-di-cis-retinoic acid), E (4-hydroxycinnamic acid), F ((-)-11-hydroxy-9,10-dihydrojasmonic acid), G (colnelenic acid), H (glyinflanin A), I (6,8a-seco-6,8a-deoxy-5-oxoavermectin “2a” aglycone), and J (3-deshydroxysappanol trimethyl ether) and at least one of the three target proteins. Four compounds, namely A (2,2-dimethyl-3-[4-(acetyloxy)phenyl]-4-ethyl-2H-1-benzopyran-7-ol acetate), E (4-hydroxycinnamic acid), H (glyinflanin A), and J (3-deshydroxysappanol trimethyl ether), yielded the best docking scores with respect to the target proteins, of which three (E (4-hydroxycinnamic acid), H (glyinflanin A), and J (3-deshydroxysappanol trimethyl ether)) were identified to have relatively optimal drug-likeness and medicinal chemistry characteristics. Thus, the present study concluded that these compounds may have contributed to the observed antidiabetic properties of these plants and can be investigated further as drugs or drug-like compound candidates.

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Summary Cultivated jute, which comprises the two species Corchorus capsularis and C. olitorius, is the second most important natural fibre source after cotton. Here we describe chromosome‐level assemblies of the genomes of both cultivated species. The C. capsularis and C. olitorius assemblies are each comprised of seven pseudo‐chromosomes, with the C. capsularis assembly consisting of 336 Mb with 25,874 genes and the C. olitorius assembly containing 361 Mb with 28 479 genes. Although the two Corchorus genomes exhibit collinearity, the genome of C. olitorius contains 25 Mb of additional sequences than that of C. capsularis with 13 putative inversions, which might give a hint to the difference of phenotypic variants between the two cultivated jute species. Analysis of gene expression in isolated fibre tissues reveals candidate genes involved in fibre development. Our analysis of the population structures of 242 cultivars from C. capsularis and 57 cultivars from C. olitorius by whole‐genome resequencing resulted in post‐domestication bottlenecks occurred ~2000 years ago in these species. We identified hundreds of putative significant marker‐trait associations (MTAs) controlling fibre fineness, cellulose content and lignin content of fibre by integrating data from genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) with data from analyses of selective sweeps due to natural and artificial selection in these two jute species. Among them, we further validated that CcCOBRA1 and CcC4H1 regulate fibre quality in transgenic plants via improving the biosynthesis of the secondary cell wall. Our results yielded important new resources for functional genomics research and genetic improvement in jute and allied fibre crops.

The present study evaluated the antidiabetic and antioxidant potential of the methanolic extract/solvent fractions of the leaves of Dacryodes edulis using a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic Albino Wistar rat model. The fasting blood glucose/insulin levels and inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase were determined. Antioxidant activity was assessed in vitro by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, hydroxyl, superoxide scavenging, reducing power, and total antioxidant capacity assays and in vivo by monitoring catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities and reduced glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. The aqueous-methanol fraction exhibited the highest and significant ( P < .05) reduction in fasting blood glucose (FBG; 54.03%) with a concomitant inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase activities. The ethyl acetate fraction also exhibited a significant ( P < .05) reduction in FBG and an increase in insulin levels in the treated diabetic Wistar rats. A significantly ( P < .05) higher reducing power and radical scavenging activity was observed in the aqueous-methanol and ethyl acetate fractions. The aqueous-methanol and ethyl acetate fractions also significantly ( P < .05) reversed the alterations in oxidative stress markers (GSH, MDA, CAT, and SOD) observed in the diabetic control group. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that the methanol extract of Dacryodes edulis ameliorates hyperglycemia and the associated oxidative stress in STZ-induced diabetic Wistar rats. These observed activities are largely due to the compounds that partitions into the aqueous-methanol (55:45) solvent fraction. This provides scientific evidence for the use of this plant extract in folk medicine and also a baseline data for its further characterization. Further work should be carried out to characterize the aqueous-methanol solvent fractions for the active compounds.