Pharmacological studies of the genus rice (Oryza L.): a literature review.

Rice (Oryza L.) is an essential food for more than 50 percent of the world's population and is the world's second-largest grain crop. Pigmented rice comes in various colors, such as black, red, brown, and green. Anthocyanins, like cyanidin-3-O-glucoside and peonidin-3-O-glucoside, are the primary color pigments in colored rice, whereas proanthocyanidins and flavan-3-ol oligosaccharides, with catechins as the central synthesis unit, are found in brown rice. This review article's aim is to give information and a summary of rice activities, research methods, also mechanisms of action (Oryza L.). Intake of pigmented rice was already associated with a number of health benefits, including antioxidant activity, anticancer, antitumor, antidiabetic activity, and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Rice contains several bioactive compounds, such as γ-oryzanol, phenolic acid, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, flavonoids, carotenoids, and phytosterols, which have been widely studied and shown to have several pharmacological activities. The use of current herbal compounds is rapidly increasing, including the practice of pharmacological disease prevention and treatment. Herbal remedies have entered the international market as a result of research into plant biopharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. Through a variety of pharmacological activities, it is clear that Oryza L. is a popular herb. As a result, additional research on Oryza L. can be conducted to investigate more recent and comprehensive pharmacological effectiveness, to provide information and an overview of Rice (Oryza L.) activities, research methods, and mechanisms of action. Several natural substances are characterized by low water solubility, low stability, and sensitivity to light and oxygen, and the potential for poor absorption of the active substances requires modification of the formulation. To improve the effectiveness of pharmacologically active substances originating from natural ingredients, drug delivery systems that use lipid-based formulations can be considered innovations.

Classification of Curcuma longa and Curcuma zanthorrhiza using transfer learning.

Curcuma longa (turmeric) and Curcuma zanthorrhiza (temulawak) are members of the Zingiberaceae family that contain curcuminoids, essential oils, starch, protein, fat, cellulose, and minerals. The nutritional content proportion of turmeric is different from temulawak which implies differences in economic value. However, only a few people who understand herbal plants, can identify the difference between them. This study aims to build a model that can distinguish between the two species of Zingiberaceae based on the image captured from a mobile phone camera. A collection of images consisting of both types of rhizomes are used to build a model through a learning process using transfer learning, specifically pre-trained VGG-19 and Inception V3 with ImageNet weight. Experimental results show that the accuracy rates of the models to classify the rhizomes are 92.43% and 94.29%, consecutively. These achievements are quite promising to be used in various practical use.

Positioning Bacillus subtilis as terpenoid cell factory.

Increasing demands for bioactive compounds have motivated researchers to employ micro-organisms to produce complex natural products. Currently, Bacillus subtilis has been attracting lots of attention to be developed into terpenoids cell factories due to its generally recognized safe status and high isoprene precursor biosynthesis capacity by endogenous methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway. In this review, we describe the up-to-date knowledge of each enzyme in MEP pathway and the subsequent steps of isomerization and condensation of C5 isoprene precursors. In addition, several representative terpene synthases expressed in B. subtilis and the engineering steps to improve corresponding terpenoids production are systematically discussed. Furthermore, the current available genetic tools are mentioned as along with promising strategies to improve terpenoids in B. subtilis, hoping to inspire future directions in metabolic engineering of B. subtilis for further terpenoid cell factory development.

Molecular Docking, Synthesis And Biological Evaluation Of Ergosteryl-Ferulate As A Hmg-Coa Reductase Inhibitor.

In the present study, ergosteryl-ferulate (5), oryzanol analog was evaluated for its possibility as the inhibitor of hmg-coa reductase (hmgr), through in silico and in vitro approach. firstly, the study was conducted through molecular docking simulation using autodock tools software to predict the interaction of 5 in complexes with hmgr. in addition, four major compounds of oryzanol (1-4) were employed as a comparison. secondly, 5 was synthesized through esterification using thionyl chloride as an activator. lastly, 5 was evaluated for its capacity to inhibit hmgr activity using hmgr assay kit. molecular docking simulation results suggest that oryzanol (1-4) and 5 exhibited a binding affinity against hmgr. the activity of 5 was predicted to be the best among the oryzanol compounds (1-4), in which, the free binding energy and inhibition constant were -4.17 kcal/mol and 0.88mm. the in vitro assay showed that 5 had inhibitory activity against hmgr 1.93 times higher than oryzanol. in summary, 5 has more potential candidates for hmgr inhibitor than oryzanol.

Transformation of Amorphadiene Synthase and Antisilencing P19 Genes into Artemisia annua L. and its Effect on Antimalarial Artemisinin Production.

Purpose: The low content of artemisinin related to the biosynthetic pathway is influenced by the role of certain enzymes in the formation of artemisinin. The regulation of genes involved in artemisinin biosynthesis through genetic engineering is a choice to enhance the content. This research aims to transform ads and p19 gene as an antisilencing into Artemisia annua and to see their effects on artemisinin production. Methods: The presence of p19 and ads genes was confirmed through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products and sequencing analysis. The plasmids, which contain ads and/or p19 genes, were transformed into Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and then inserted into leaves and hairy roots of A. annua by vacuum and syringe infiltration methods. The successful transformation was checked through the GUS histochemical test and the PCR analysis. Artemisinin levels were measured using HPLC. Results: The percentages of the blue area on leaves by using vacuum and syringe infiltration method and on hairy roots were up to 98, 92.55%, and 99.00% respectively. The ads-p19 sample contained a higher level of artemisinin (0.18%) compared to other samples. Transformed hairy root with co-transformation of ads-p19 contained 0.095% artemisinin, where no artemisinin was found in the control hairy root. The transformation of ads and p19 genes into A. annua plant has been successfully done and could enhance the artemisinin content on the transformed leaves with ads-p19 up to 2.57 folds compared to the untransformed leaves, while for p19, cotransformed and ads were up to 2.25, 1.29, and 1.14 folds respectively. Conclusion: Antisilencing p19 gene could enhance the transformation efficiency of ads and artemisinin level in A. annua.

The diversity of ursodeoxycholic acid precursors from bile waste of commercially available fishes, poultry and livestock in Indonesia

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), a secondary bile acid (BA), has been used as a drug to treat various liver diseases. UDCA is synthesised from cholic or chenodeoxycholic acid (CA/CDCA), two primary BAs frequently used as the starting materials. Nowadays, swine, cattle, and poultry bile are the main sources of those BAs. However, other commercial animals could be promising sources as well. We identified two livestock, two poultries, and eight fishes that are commercially cultivated in Indonesia. Four free BAs including CA, CDCA, deoxycholic acid (DCA), and lithocholic acid (LA) were identified for their occurrences using thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography. CA was detected in cow, duck, red tilapia, gourami, the common carp, and grouper, whereas CDCA was only detected in two poultries and the common carp. The occurrence of DCA was common and abundant in most tested animals. In contrast, the presence of LA was found to be very low in all samples. The biliary bile of tilapia has been found to contain a high abundance of free CA (43% of the total bile). A simple extraction was able to purify CA from biliary bile of tilapia. This is a new promising and competitive source of CA.