Honey bees and honey, have been the subject of study for decades due to their importance in improving health. At times, some of the probiotics may be transferred to the honey stored in the honeycomb. Consumers may benefit from consuming live-probiotics honey, which can aid in suppressing the reproduction of pathogens in their digestive system. Prebiotics, on the other hand, are mainly carbohydrates that promote the growth of native microflora probiotics in the digestive tract to maintain a healthy environment and improve the gut performance of the host. Therefore, this narrative review aims to present and analyze ten years’ worth of information on the probiotic and prebiotic potential of honey bees and honey since not many review articles were found discussing this topic. Results showed that not many studies have been performed on the probiotic and prebiotic aspects of honey bees and honey. If further research is conducted, isolated probiotics from the bee’s gut combined with honey’s prebiotic properties can be manipulated as potential sources of probiotics and prebiotics for human and animal benefits since they appear to be interrelated and function in symbiosis.
Recently, we reported the isolation of a novel flavonoid named uncariechin along with epicatechin and epiafzelechin from the leaf extract of Uncaria longiflora variety pteropoda (Miq.) Ridsd. of the family Rubiaceae. Continuing our investigation on the Uncaria genus, the identification and quantification of its phytoconstituents was carried out. The species of particular interest is the Malaysian Uncaria gambir. This species is distributed mainly in Malaysia and Indonesia and has been cultivated for the flavonoid catechin in Indonesia. Hence, the objective of this study is to determine the quantity of catechin in hexane (Hx), dichloromethane (DCM) and methanol (MeOH) extracts in both stem and leaf parts of the plant via HPLC-DAD. Our findings indicate that catechin is present in higher amounts in the MeOH extract [8.64 % (leaves); 5.12 % (stems)] compared to the DCM extract [0.77 % (leaves); 0.92 % (stems)] with no catechin found in the hexane extract. This is the first report of the quantification of catechin from Malaysian U. gambir using HPLC-DAD. The method can be used for the quantification of flavonoids from other Uncaria and related genus and is useful for targeted isolation of interest flavonoids. Keywords: Uncaria gambir, catechin, flavonoid, HPLC-DAD AbstrakKami telah melaporkan pengasingan satu flavonoid novel iaitu unkariekin bersama-sama dengan epikatekin dan epiafzelekin daripada ekstrak daun Uncaria longiflora var. pteropoda (Miq.) Ridsd. yang tergolong dalam famili Rubiaceae. Lanjutan terhadap penyelidikan genus ini, pengenalpastian fitokonstituen serta kuantifikasinya telah dijalankan, khususnya terhadap species Uncaria gambir dari Malaysia. Spesies ini banyak dijumpai di Malaysia dan Indonesia dan telah ditanam di Indonesia untuk flavonoid katekin. Maka, objektif penyelidikan ini adalah penentuan kuantiti katekin dalam ekstrak heksana (Hx), diklorometana (DCM) dan metanol (MeOH) dari batang dan juga daun Uncaria gambir dengan menggunakan KCPT-PSD. Hasil penyelidikan mendapati bahawa katekin banyak dijumpai di dalam ekstrak metanol [8.64 % (daun); 5.12 % (batang)] berbanding di dalam ekstrak diklorometana [0.77 % (daun); 0.92 % (batang)] tetapi tidak dikesan dalam ekstrak heksana. Ini merupakan laporan pertama bagi kuantifikasi katekin daripada U. gambir tempatan melalui KCPT-PSD. Kaedah ini boleh digunakan untuk kuantifikasi flavonoid dari spesies Uncaria lain dan genus berkaitan, malah berguna untuk pengasingan flavonoid sasaran.
Uncaria gambir of the family Rubiaceae is a well-known plant in Southeast Asia and can be commonly found in Malaysia and Indonesia. It has been traditionally used for skin tanning, colouring in textile and as an alternative medicine for treatment of diarrheae, sore throat and spongy gums. Recent studies have reported flavonoids (mostly catechin) to be most abundant constituents of U.gambir (collected from Indonesia). Similarly, the compound has been reported to be present in the local species via thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis. With the aim of investigating the flavonoid contents of local U.gambir, the methanol extract of the leaves were redissolved in diethyl ether to remove unwanted tannins. The tannin-free extract was subjected to HPLC profiling on Agilent 1200 system (DAD) using an RP-C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm i.d. × 5 µm) with gradient elution. The flavonoid constituents were identified by matching their retention time against the standards, catechin and epicatechin. The LC profiles obtained indicate the presence of the two flavonoids and provide information on the distribution of other constituents in the leaves of the plant.
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