Recent advances and effective strategies in the discovery and applications of natural products

Abstract

Natural products are the most representative form of conventional therapy as compared to any other traditional or alternative medicine systems. They have numerous active components, either primary or secondary metabolites, which are associated with the diverse, intricate, and distinct characteristics of natural products and result in various pharmacological effects in clinic. However, some problems are associated with research on herb quality, which is the core of the drug industry, and restrict the development of this field to a certain extent. Quality-markers (Q-markers), a novel concept for quality assessment, open up a new avenue for promotion of healthy development of traditional medicine industry and improvement of the quality standard system to enhance traditional medicine or product quality standards. In this study, we first summarized the main factors affecting the quality of traditional medicines and natural products and importance for safety and then presented the concept of background and relevant factors of Q-markers. Moreover, the modern science technology and related methods used to identify the chemical composition have been discussed. Especially, based on the systematic analysis and discussion of the basic properties and clinical features of natural products, we have discussed new trends and effective strategies for identifying relevant Q-markers from herbs and probed the future research directions and challenges.

Use of Acetic Acid to Partially Replace Lactic Acid for Decontamination against Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Fresh Produce and Mechanism of Action

“…In this work, the proteins associated with glycerophospholipid metabolism were located in the cytoplasm and belonged to the major intrinsic protein family (Table 2), which includes transmembrane protein channels, e.g., aquaporins, aquaglyceroporins, and S-aquaporins [50]. According to a previous study, after microorganisms sense a drug, phospholipid synthesis is accelerated for drug transport [51,52], suggesting that the AM applied to the E. coli O157:H7 may induce glycerophospholipid metabolism in the cytoplasm. Homologous recombination and DNA repair (Table 2) are involved in the response to stress and particularly the SOS response.…”

Novel applications of mass spectrometry‐based metabolomics in herbal medicines and its active ingredients: Current evidence

“…In addition, metabolomics can indicate potential targets for therapeutic intervention, especially promising enzymatic targets. Understanding of the molecular targets is important for toxicology studies and the optimization of lead compounds (Isgut et al, ), all of which are important sections of drug discovery and development (Wang, Zhang, & Sun, ; Song et al, ; Xie et al, ).…”

Gut microbiota as important modulator of metabolism in health and disease

“…Metabolomics analyzed all the nal products of the host metabolism and microbial metabolism, which revealed the regulation and mechanism of metabolism in the host and gut microbiota. [102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113] In the future, there will be more research devoted to the exploration of the complex relationship between intestinal microora and host metabolism and disease pathogenesis to maintain human health through intestinal microbiota. 114…”