Natural products continue to be a source for the discovery of drugs and drug leads even from ancient period. 80% of drug molecules have been obtained from either natural products or derivatives of the natural product. It has been found that the concept of a single drug for treating single disease may become outdated in the near future and the need of polyherbal formulations, as an alternate remedy is under investigation. Medicinal and aromatic plants contain biologically important phytochemicals, which have known curative properties. They are found as secondary metabolites in plants. Plants also contain certain other compounds that moderate the effects of the active ingredients. Medicinal and aromatic plants have their own contribution toward the treatment of both noncommunicable and communicable diseases. A survey done by the WHO indicates that a majority of the world population tends to use plants for treating diseases. Cancer, the second largest cause of death after cardiovascular disease accounts for about 3500 million people globally. Due to the serious side effects of synthetic chemopreventive agents, research is going onto investigate the nature derived chemopreventive agents. In addition to the plant-derived compounds, marine, and animal resources also play an important role as clinically beneficial anticancer agents with minimal or no toxicity. The best examples for plant-derived compounds include vincristine, vinblastine, irinotecan, etoposide, and paclitaxel; they have a different mode of action against cancer such as interaction with microtubules, inhibition of topoisomerases I or II, alkylation of DNA, and interference with tumor signal transduction. The natural products from marine sources such as bryostatin, squalamine exhibit a significant antimitotic, and anti-angiogenic activities. The benefits of various anticancer drugs derived from natural products are the fact that it can have its effect on cancer cells alone without harming healthy cells, which is unlikely to be the case with other conventional chemotherapeutics. In this review, various natural products and their anticancer properties have been discussed briefly.
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) is normally used for direct analysis of chemical components existing in herbal medicines. The medicinal plants are having numerous bioactive components which are identified even at less than 1ng by using GC-MS or LC-MS analysis. The aim of this study is to identify the secondary metabolites present in the leaves of B. tomentosa using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. In the present study the ethanol extract of the leaves of Bauhinia tomentosa has been subjected to GC-MS analysis, while the mass spectra of the compounds found in the extract was matched with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library. GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of 14 secondary metabolites. These compounds were identified by comparing their retention times and peak areas with those from the literature and by interpretation of the mass spectra. The major secondary metabolites were DL-.alpha.-tocopherol (14.84%), 2-[(trimethylsilyl oxy]-, methyl ester, 1-alpha,2-alpha.-epoxy-1-beta-methylcholesta-4,6-dien-3-one (12.93%), pentacosenoic acid (12.71%), phytol (10.28%), Ethyl Isoallocholate (8.197%), Spirost-8-en-11-one-3-hydroxy-,(3-beta,5 alpha,14 beta,20 beta, 22 beta,25R)-(8.162%), Urs-12-en-28-ol (6.675%), 1-Octadecyne (5.702%) and Cholest-8-en-3-beta-ol,Acetate (5.426%). The compounds having area less that 5% were considered of no significance. These findings suggest that the presence of these secondary metabolites may be the cause for the properties exhibited by Bauhinia tomentosa. Thus, presence of various bioactive compounds justifies the use of the leaf for various ailments by traditional practitioners.
Introduction and Aim: Plants and plant derived products are used for human healthcare since the dawn of human civilization. About 80% of modern drugs are from natural origin. Many dreadful diseases like cancer are treated using drugs of natural origin. In the present study, a medicinal plant B. tomentosa Linn. leaves were investigated for its anticancer activity using A549 (Human Adenocarcinomic Alveolar Basal Epithelial Cells) cell lines. The active components were identified using GC-MS (Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrophotometry) analysis. The aim of the present study was to identify potential lead compounds against various protein targets that are involved in lung carcinogenesis using molecular docking approach.
Materials and Methods: 3D structures of compounds reported from GCMS analysis of B. tomentosa were built using Chemsketch software. All the compounds analyzed exhibited antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and chemo preventive properties. Docking studies were performed using Molegro virtual docker (MVD).
Results: The docking studies revealed that the ligands either activate or inhibit the selected target proteins appropriately. This shows that the phytochemicals of B. tomentosa leaf was found to have appreciable anticancer activity.
Conclusion: The presence of various bioactive phytoconstituents justifies the use of the leaf for various ailments by traditional practitioners.
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