ABSTRACT
"People-Forest-Miang" communities are villages located in the cultivated area of Camellia sinensis var. assamica, or Cha Miang, in northern Thailand. Cha Miang forests are a form of agriculture relying on forest-rich bioresources. This study focuses on a survey of the diversity of medicinal plants used by "People-Forest-Miang" communities in Mae Kampong Village, Chiang Mai, Thailand. The results demonstrated that 73 species of medicinal plants were used to prevent and treat various ailments. The highest number of species (30.14%) was used for musculoskeletal system disorders, followed by digestive system disorders (21.92%) and unspecified medicinal disorders (15.07%). The alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is the most widely recognized biochemical marker for osteoblast activity. The ALP activity of ethanol and deionized water extracts of the nine selected medicinal plants used for musculoskeletal system disorders were examined in the MG63 cell line. The results showed that the numerous water extracts, including MKP1, MKP2, MKP5, MKP6, MKP7, MKP8, and MKP9, and the ethanolic extracts-namely, MKP2, MKP3, MKP7, and MKP9-significantly increased ALP activity in the MG-63 cell line. The findings indicate that some medicinal plants may be further studied for active chemicals and developed as natural active pharmaceutical ingredients for osteoprotective products.
ABSTRACT
High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for catechins and related compounds in Miang (traditional Lanna fermented tea leaf) was developed to overcome the matrices during the fermentation process. We investigated a variety of columns and elution conditions to determine seven catechins, namely (+)-catechin, (-)-gallocatechin, (-)-epigallocatechin, (-)-epicatechin, (-)-epigallocatechin gallate, (-)-gallocatechin gallate, (-)-epicatechin gallate, as well as gallic acid and caffeine, resulting in the development of reproducible systems for analyses that overcome sample matrices. Among the three reversed-phase columns, column C (deactivated, with extra dense bonding, double endcapped monomeric C18, high-purity silica at 3.0 mm × 250 mm and a 5 µm particle size) significantly improved the separation between Miang catechins in the presence of acid in the mobile phase within a shorter analysis time. The validation method showed effective linearity, precision, accuracy, and limits of detection and quantitation. The validated system was adequate for the qualitative and quantitative measurement of seven active catechins, including gallic acid and caffeine in Miang, during the fermentation process and standardization of Miang extracts. The latter contain catechins and related compounds that are further developed into natural active pharmaceutical ingredients (natural APIs) for cosmeceutical and nutraceutical products.