Seasonal variation in the chemical composition of two chemotypes of Lippia alba.

Lippia alba is a popular Brazilian herb known as 'cidreira' that presents several chemotypes which exhibit different chemical profile and they are widely used as seasonings and traditional medicine. This work describes the seasonal variation of metabolites of polar extracts of carvone and linalool chemotypes, identified by GC-MS analyses of the essential oils. A methodology was elaborated in order to obtain a seasonal variation in the chemical composition of leaf employing HPLC-DAD. Acteoside, isoacteoside, geneposidic acid, 8-epi-loganin, mussaenoside, luteolin 7-O-glucoside, apigenin 7-O-glucuronide and tricin 7-O-diglucuronide have been isolated and identified for validation procedures and chromatographic analysis. Geneposidic acid was presented in all samples, in contrast to the 8-epi-loganin and, mussaenoside which were presented only in the carvone-chemotype. Acteoside was the major metabolite detected from July to November while tricin-7-O-diglucuronide was the major compound in all other months. Besides, phenylpropanoids are predominant in winter and flavonoids in summer season.

Cistanches Herba: An overview of its chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacokinetics property.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Cistanches Herba is an Orobanchaceae parasitic plant. As a commonly used Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), its traditional functions include treating kidney deficiency, impotence, female infertility and senile constipation. Chemical analysis of Cistanches Herba revealed that phenylethanoid glycosides, iridoids, lignans, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides were the main constituents. Pharmacological studies demonstrated that Cistanches Herba exhibited neuroprotective, immunomodulatory, hormonal balancing, anti-fatigue, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotection, anti-oxidative, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-tumor effects, etc. The aim of this review is to provide updated, comprehensive and categorized information on the phytochemistry, pharmacological research and pharmacokinetics studies of the major constituents of Cistanches Herba. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The literature search was conducted by systematic searching multiple electronic databases including SciFinder, ISI Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar and CNKI. Information was also collected from journals, local magazines, books, monographs. RESULTS: To date, more than 100 compounds have been isolated from this genus, include phenylethanoid glycosides, carbohydrates, lignans, iridoids, etc. The crude extracts and isolated compounds have exhibited a wide range of in vitro and in vivo pharmacologic effects, such as neuroprotective, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotection, anti-oxidative, anti-bacterial, and anti-tumor effects. The phenylethanoid glycosides, echinacoside and acteoside have attracted the most attention for their significantly neuropharmacology effects. Pharmacokinetic studies of echinacoside and acteoside also have also been summarized. CONCLUSION: Phenylethanoid glycosides have demonstrated wide pharmacological actions and have great clinical value if challenges such as poor bioavailability, fast and extensive metabolism are addressed. Apart from phenylethanoid glycosides, other constituents of Cistanches Herba, their pharmacological activities and underlying mechanisms are also need to be studied further.

Rational quality assessment procedure for less-investigated herbal medicines: Case of a Congolese antimalarial drug with an analytical report.

Herbal medicines are the most globally used type of medical drugs. Their high cultural acceptability is due to the experienced safety and efficiency over centuries of use. Many of them are still phytochemically less-investigated, and are used without standardization or quality control. Choosing SIROP KILMA, an authorized Congolese antimalarial phytomedicine, as a model case, our study describes an interdisciplinary approach for a rational quality assessment of herbal drugs in general. It combines an authentication step of the herbal remedy prior to any fingerprinting, the isolation of the major constituents, the development and validation of an HPLC-DAD analytical method with internal markers, and the application of the method to several batches of the herbal medicine (here KILMA) thus permitting the establishment of a quantitative fingerprint. From the constitutive plants of KILMA, acteoside, isoacteoside, stachannin A, and pectolinarigenin-7-O-glucoside were isolated, and acteoside was used as the prime marker for the validation of an analytical method. This study contributes to the efforts of the WHO for the establishment of standards enabling the analytical evaluation of herbal materials. Moreover, the paper describes the first phytochemical and analytical report on a marketed Congolese phytomedicine.