COVID-19 pandemic sheds a new research spotlight on antiviral potential of essential oils - A bibliometric study.

Background: Essential oils are thought as potential therapies in managing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Many researchers have put their efforts to tackle the pandemic by exploring antiviral candidates which consequently changes the research landscape. Herein, we aimed to assess the effect of COVID-19 pandemic toward the landscape of essential oil research. Methods: This study employed bibliometric analysis based on the metadata of published literature indexed in the Scopus database. The search was performed on December 15th, 2022 by using keyword 'essential oil' and its synonyms. We grouped the data based on publication year; pre-COVID-19 (2014-2019) and during COVID-19 (2020-2024, some studies have been published earlier). Further, we separated the COVID-19-focused research from COVID-19 (2020-2024) by introducing a new keyword 'COVID-19' during the search. All metadata were processed using VoSviewer and Biblioshiny for network visualization analysis. Selections of frequently occurring keywords, clusters of keyword co-occurrence, and the list of most impactful papers were performed by two independent reviewers. Results: Metadata from a total of 35,262 publications were included for bibliometric analysis, comprised of three groups of datasets namely pre-COVID-19 (n = 18,670), COVID-19 (n = 16,592), and COVID-19-focused (n = 281). Five research topics clusters were found from pre-COVID-19 dataset, eight - from COVID-19 dataset, and nine - from COVID-19-focused dataset. COVID-19 cluster containing the keyword 'antiviral' emerged in the COVID-19 dataset, whereas none of the previous research topic clusters contained the keyword 'antiviral'. Antiviral, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) inhibitory, and anti-inflammation activities were among the top occurring keywords in studies covering both essential oil and COVID-19. Studies on essential oil used for managing COVID-19 were most reported by authors from the United States (documents = 37, citations = 405), Australia (documents = 16, citations = 115) and Italy (documents = 23, citations = 366). Conclusion: A significant increase was found during COVID-19 pandemic for publications covering essential oil themes, but only a small portion was occupied by COVID-19 research. The COVID-19 pandemic does not alter the ongoing progress of essential oil research but rather offers a new spotlight on the antiviral potential of essential oils. Hence, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to investigate deeper the antiviral potential of essential oils.

Antibacterial activities of seven ethnomedicinal plants from family Annonaceae.

Serious threat to human health caused by bacterial infection persists as a global concern. It becomes more serious when the burden of multidrug-resistance bacteria is in the increasing trend. To overcome, researches have been conducted to develop antibacterial agents from plant-derived bioactive compounds. This review article focuses on the antibacterial activities of plant extracts from seven Annonaceae members, namely Annona muricata, Annona reticulata, Annona squamosa, Cananga odorata, Annona hypoglauca, Polyalthia longifolia, and Xylopia aethiopica. First, ethnomedical uses of the aforementioned plants are discussed and followed by the screening results of related phytochemicals. Among many secondary metabolites contained in the extracts of Annonaceae spp., anonaine, nornuciferine, and liriodenine are common and bioactive. The extracts were reported to have bacteriostatic and bactericidal properties against a wide spectrum of bacteria, including multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Enterococcus faecalis, Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterobacter cloacae, Salmonella choleraesuis, Salmonella typhimurium, and Shigella dysenteriae. We conclude that investigation on the extracts from Annonaceae spp. could contribute to the development of antibacterial agents that could be used against multidrug-resistant bacteria.

Molecular docking investigation of calotropone as a potential natural therapeutic agent against pancreatic cancer.

A natural bioactive compound named calotropone has been reported as a drug candidate for several cancers, including pancreatic cancers. Herein, we used molecular docking approach to test the possible mechanisms of action of calotropone in inhibiting the growth of pancreatic cell cancer with gemcitabine as the positive control. By employing AutoDock Vina, we studied the molecular interaction between calotropone and pancreatic cancer-associated proteins, namely Glucosaminyl (N-Acetyl) Transferase 3, Glutamic-Oxaloacetic Transaminase 1, Tyrosine-protein kinase Met (c-Met), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ, Budding Uninhibited by Benzimidazole 1, A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase 10, Sex-determining region Y and Nuclear Factor kappa Beta (Nf-Kß). Higher affinity energies of calotropone toward the aforementioned proteins (ranging from ‒7.3 to ‒9.3 kcal/mol) indicate that calotropone may work in the same manner as anticancer drug gemcitabine. Highest docking score was found at the interaction of calotropone and Nf-Kß (‒9.3 kcal/mol).

Molecular docking of two cytotoxic compounds from Calotropis gigantea leaves against therapeutic molecular target of pancreatic cancer.

The utilization of natural compounds as therapeutic agents to treat pancreatic cancer has recently focused on natural drug research. Calotropis gigantea has long been believed to be a medicinal plant that helps in treating various diseases. The bioactive compounds 9-metoxipinoresinol and isoliquiritigenin isolated from C. gigantea leaves are proven to act as therapeutic agents by inhibiting the cancer cell growth of Panc-1 cells. This study aimed to screen the potential molecular inhibition mechanisms of 9-metoxipinoresinol and isoliquiritigenin against pancreatic cancer development in-silico. We analyzed the activity of the aforementioned two compounds as inhibitors of several proteins that play a role in the growth of pancreatic cancer cells, such as GCNT3, GOT1, c-Met, PPARγ, BUB1, and NF-κß, through molecular docking investigation. Our data suggested that 9-metoxipinoresinol and isoliquiritigenin were able to have well interaction with the target proteins, in which the predicted affinity energy ranged between -6.8 and 8.7 kcal/mol. The docking scores of 9-metoxipinoresinol and isoliquiritigenin were higher than the standard drug used (gemcitabine). Based on the binding affinity energy, GCNT3 and BUB1 are potentially to be used as target molecules for cancer therapy using 9-metoxipinoresinol and isoliquiritigenin, respectively.