Hao Fan

Isodon rubescens (I. rubescens), a plant of the family Lamiaceae, is the dried aerial part of I. rubescens (Hemsl.) Hara. It has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, relieving pain, promoting blood circulation, and reducing swelling. As a highly valued traditional Chinese medicine, it contains a variety of chemical components. Among them, oridonin (ORI) exhibits antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties, garnering significant attention in pharmacological research. Furthermore, ORI serves as a crucial quality control marker for I. rubescens. It can exert biological effects on the nervous, cardiovascular, and visceral organ systems via multiple signaling pathways, thereby conferring potential therapeutic value for related diseases. To improve the efficacy and safety of its applications and ensure that the isolated monomer compounds exhibit high purity and favorable stability, the extraction and purification processes have been optimized. Synthetic ORI-derived products exhibit anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activities, which are widely used as dietary supplements and functional beverages in daily life. Therefore, this paper reviews the source, extraction and purification, pharmacological effects, derivatives, content determination, toxicity and product applications of ORI. This has updated and deepened the understanding of ORI, thereby providing a theoretical foundation for its further research.

Guided by an integrated GNPS molecular networking strategy, the chemical investigation of endophytic fungus Aspergillus sp. FH-1 (isolated from Valeriana officinalis L.) led to the discovery of four butenolides (1-4). Their structures were elucidated through comprehensive spectroscopic data analysis, including HRESIMS, 1D/2D NMR and ECD, revealing two new congeners, asperianas A (1) and B (2), along with the known analogues 3 and 4. Notably, compounds 1 and 3 exhibited significant antifungal activity against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, with EC50 values of 19.23 ± 1.14 and 43.36 ± 1.12 μg/mL, respectively.

Nerium oleander L. is part of the Apocynaceae family and Nerium genus. Primarily found in subtropical areas, this plant is indigenous to the Mediterranean coast. It is also widely cultivated in China. To date, more than 146 compounds have been obtained from the plant, chiefly including cardiac glycosides, triterpenoids, phytosterols and other chemical constituents, of which cardiac glycosides are the main type of compounds with good pharmacological activity. Pharmacological studies have shown that N. oleander has anti-tumor, anti-diabetic, cardiotonic, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and other activities. This article provides important insights for future research, development, and use of this plant by summarizing the chemical contents, pharmacological properties, toxicity, and structure-activity connections of N. oleander over the previous 50 years.

Aframomum belongs to the ginger family Zingiberaceae, a group of perennial herbaceous plants found mainly in tropical Africa, including many countries in West, Central and East Africa. Aframomum spp has a long history of medicinal use in African traditional medicine. It has been used to treat a variety of ailments such as digestive disorders (for relief of indigestion, stomach pains, etc.), respiratory disorders (to alleviate symptoms of coughs and colds), and inflammatory diseases. However, there is a lack of current literature summarizing this area. Therefore, the present review aims to comprehensively organize the botanical, phytochemical, and pharmacological studies of Aframomum spp to provide reference studies for further discovery of its therapeutic value. For this purpose, relevant information on Aframomum spp was searched from scientific databases including Science Direct, Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed. Modern studies have shown that Aframomum spp contains a variety of chemical constituents containing terpenoids, diarylheptanoids, flavonoids, and lignans, which have various pharmacological effects such as antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and analgesic. The phytoconstituents and various pharmacological activities of Aframomum spp. reported in this paper can provide valuable references for further studies.

Two new disubstituted maleimides, aspergteroids G–H (1–2), and two trisubstituted butenolides aspergteroids I–J (3–4), along with four known analogs, were isolated and structurally identified from the fermentation extract of soft-coral-associated symbiotic and epiphytic fungus Aspergillus terreus EGF7-0-1. The structures of the new compounds were established mainly via spectroscopic data analyses, and their absolute configurations were determined via X-ray diffraction analysis and comparison of the calculated and experimental electronic circular dichroism. Myocardial protection assays showed that compounds 1, 2, 5, and 6 possess protective effects against tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP)-induced H9c2 (rat myocardial cells) apoptosis at low concentrations. Based on the analyses of the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network and Western blotting, compound 1 may inhibit the apoptosis and inflammatory response of cardiomyocytes after TBHP induction and improve the antioxidant capacity of cardiomyocytes. We speculate that the anti-inflammatory response of compound 1 is suppressed by the glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK-3β), downregulated by the NOD-like receptor thermal protein domain associated protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation, and suppressed by the expression of cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase-3 (caspase-3) and B-cell lymphoma-2 associated X protein (Bax).

Four novel, rare carbon-bridged citrinin dimers, namely dicitrinones G–J (1–4), and five known analogs (5–9) were isolated from the starfish-derived fungus Penicillium sp. GGF 16-1-2. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis and quantum chemical calculations. Compounds 1–9 exhibited strong antifungal activities against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides with LD₅₀ values from 0.61 μg/mL to 16.14 μg/mL. Meanwhile, all compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against human pancreatic cancer BXPC-3 and PANC-1 cell lines; as a result, compound 1 showed more significant cytotoxicities than the positive control against both cell lines. In addition, based on the analyses of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and Western blot, 1 could induce apoptosis by activating caspase 3 proteins (CASP3).

A new iridoid glycoside, (5S,7S,8S,9R)-7- hydroxy-∆4,11-dihyronepeta-1,3-diol-8-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl (1), along with 5 known compounds, dioscoridin A (2), jatamanin J (3), longiflorone (4), apigenin-8-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (5), isosakuranetin-5-O-rutinoside (6), were isolated from the Valeriana officinalis L. Their structures were determined by extensive analysis using various spectroscopic techniques. Moreover, the cytotoxic activity assay toward three human tumor cell (A549, HCT116 and SW620) lines were evaluated by the MTT method in vitro for compounds 1-2, using cisplatin as positive control. Experimental results showed that these compounds displayed weak cytotoxicity in the human cancer cell lines. Notably, compounds 2, 3 and 6 were firstly isolated from this plant, compound 4 was isolated from the genus Valeriana for the first time, compound 5 was isolated for the first time from Valerianaceae family.