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PeerJ 2023Unlike conventional drug substances, herbal medicines are composed of a complex of biologically active compounds. Therefore, the potential occurrence of herb-drug... (Review)
Review
Unlike conventional drug substances, herbal medicines are composed of a complex of biologically active compounds. Therefore, the potential occurrence of herb-drug interactions is even more probable than for drug-drug interactions. Interactions can occur on both the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic level. Herbal medicines may affect the resulting efficacy of the concomitantly used (synthetic) drugs, mainly on the pharmacokinetic level, by changing their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. Studies on the pharmacodynamic interactions of herbal medicines and conventional drugs are still very limited. This interaction level is related to the mechanism of action of different plant constituents. Herb-drug interactions can cause changes in drug levels and activities and lead to therapeutic failure and/or side effects (sometimes toxicities, even fatal). This review aims to provide a summary of recent information on the potential drug interactions involving commonly used herbal medicines that affect the central nervous system () and conventional drugs. The survey databases were used to identify primary scientific publications, case reports, and secondary databases on interactions were used later on as well. Search keywords were based on plant names (botanical genera), officinal herbal drugs, herbal drug preparations, herbal drug extracts.
Topics: Herb-Drug Interactions; Plants, Medicinal; Plant Extracts; Phytotherapy; Central Nervous System
PubMed: 38025741
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16149 -
Endocrine, Metabolic & Immune Disorders... 2024The species L. ( L.) belongs to the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and the genus . It has been traditionally used in food,... (Review)
Review
The species L. ( L.) belongs to the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and the genus . It has been traditionally used in food, cosmetics, and medicines. It is a perennial, fragrant, well-liked, herbaceous plant that can grow up to half a meter tall. It is extensively used as a food flavoring, particularly for Moroccan traditional drinks. Chewing mint and , a relaxing and refreshing plant, can be used to treat hiccups and act as an anticonvulsant and nerve relaxant. Pennyroyal leaves that have been crushed have a pungent, spearmint-like scent. Pennyroyal is used to make herbal teas, which, while not proven to be harmful to healthy adults in small doses, are not recommended due to their liver toxicity. Infants and children can die if they consume it. Pennyroyal leaves, both fresh and dried, are particularly effective at repelling insects. Pennyroyal essential oil should never be taken internally because it is highly toxic, even in small doses, it can be fatal. This plant is used in traditional Moroccan medicine to treat a wide range of conditions, including influenza, rheumatism, migraine, infertility, ulcer, pain, gastrointestinal problems, fever, diabetes, obesity, mental and cardiac disorders, constipation, respiratory ailments, and cough. is a great candidate for contemporary therapeutic usage since it contains a wide variety of biologically active compounds, including terpenoids, flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, and saponins in all its parts. Among the different parts used are the whole plant, the aerial part, the stem, and the leaves. More interestingly, the entire plant contains a variety of compounds including Pulegone, Isomenthone, Carvone, Menthofuran, Menthol, 1,8-Cineole, Piperitone, Piperitenone, Neomenthol, -humulene, and 3-octanol. Eriocitrin, Hesperidin, Narirutin, Luteolin, Isorhoifolin, Galic acid, and Rosmarinic acid are found in the leaves. p-hydroxybenzoic acid, Ferulic acid, Caffeic acid, Vanillic acid, Syringic acid, Protocatechuic acid, Cinnamic acid, Phloretic acid, o-coumaric acid, p-coumaric acid, Catechin, Epicatechin, Chrysin, Quercetin, Naringenin, Carvacrol are all found in the areal part. Alterporriol G, Atropisomer, Alterporriol H, Altersolanol K, Altersolanol L, Stemphypyrone, 6-O-methylalaternin, Macrosporin, Altersolanol A, Alterporriol E, Alterporriol D, Alterporriol A, Alterporriol B, and Altersolanol J are also found in the stem of fungus. Pulegone, Piperitone, p-Menthane-1,2,3- triol, β-elemenene, guanine (cis-), Carvacrol acetate, and Phenyl ethyl alcohol are all components of this plant's essential oils. Moreover, the study also sought to investigate and document all currently available evidence and information on the nutritional composition and therapeutic uses of this plant ornamental. Its pharmacological applications include antimicrobial, antioxidant, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, antifungal, anticancer, burn wound healing, antispasmodic, and hepatotoxicity. Finally, toxicological studies have revealed that while low doses of extracts of the plant are not toxic, however, its essential oils of it are extremely toxic. In order to evaluate future research needs and investigate its pharmacological applications through clinical trials, the current assessment focuses on the distribution, chemical composition, biological activities, and primary uses of the plant.
Topics: Humans; Animals; Mentha pulegium; Plant Extracts; Phytotherapy; Medicine, Traditional; Plants, Medicinal
PubMed: 37711001
DOI: 10.2174/1871530323666230914103731 -
Current Opinion in Biotechnology Apr 2022Plants have been used as sources of food, feed and medicine for millennia. The ever-increasing population has, however, dramatically increased the burden on our arable... (Review)
Review
Plants have been used as sources of food, feed and medicine for millennia. The ever-increasing population has, however, dramatically increased the burden on our arable land to meet nutritional demand. Concomitantly, and in part due to poor nutrition, we are faced with massive increases in chronic diseases, meaning the need for medicine has also increased. Here, we look back on research in these areas, surveying the polyphenols as a case study for health-conferring metabolites. We conclude that the tools that will allow us to breed more nutritious crops are all at hand. We stress that collaboration between plant and medical research needs to be intensified in order to improve our understanding of the bioactivities. In doing so, we attempt to draw a roadmap for the use of plants for mid-21st Century human health.
Topics: Crops, Agricultural; Humans; Nutritional Status; Plant Breeding; Prospective Studies
PubMed: 34942505
DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2021.11.010 -
Environmental Geochemistry and Health Jan 2023
Topics: Soil; Environmental Restoration and Remediation; Biodegradation, Environmental; Plants; Soil Pollutants
PubMed: 36169762
DOI: 10.1007/s10653-022-01370-1 -
The New Phytologist Mar 2023The terrestrial biota is a crucial part of the long-term carbon cycle via the deposition of biomass as coal and other sedimentary organic matter and the impact of... (Review)
Review
The terrestrial biota is a crucial part of the long-term carbon cycle via the deposition of biomass as coal and other sedimentary organic matter and the impact of plants, fungi, and microbial life on the weathering of silicate minerals. Understanding these processes and their changes through time requires both geochemical modeling of the system as well as expertise in the living and fossil biotas and their ecological interactions, but details of these components are often lost in translation between disciplines. Here, we highlight misconceptions of the long-term carbon cycle that most frequently infiltrate the literature and hamper progress: mass balance requirements, the nature and duration of perturbations, opposing timescale constraints on biological and geological processes, and the role of models.
Topics: Silicates; Minerals; Plants; Biomass; Carbon Cycle; Carbon
PubMed: 36484141
DOI: 10.1111/nph.18665 -
The New Phytologist Mar 2020Canonical plant phytochromes are master regulators of photomorphogenesis and the shade avoidance response. They are also part of a widespread superfamily of... (Review)
Review
Canonical plant phytochromes are master regulators of photomorphogenesis and the shade avoidance response. They are also part of a widespread superfamily of photoreceptors with diverse spectral and biochemical properties. Plant phytochromes belong to a clade including other phytochromes from glaucophyte, prasinophyte, and streptophyte algae (all members of the Archaeplastida) and those from cryptophyte algae. This is consistent with recent analyses supporting the existence of an AC (Archaeplastida + Cryptista) clade. AC phytochromes have been proposed to arise from ancestral cyanobacterial genes via endosymbiotic gene transfer (EGT), but most recent studies instead support multiple horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events to generate extant eukaryotic phytochromes. In principle, this scenario would be compared to the emerging understanding of early events in eukaryotic evolution to generate a coherent picture. Unfortunately, there is currently a major discrepancy between the evolution of phytochromes and the evolution of eukaryotes; phytochrome evolution is thus not a solved problem. We therefore examine phytochrome evolution in a broader context. Within this context, we can identify three important themes in phytochrome evolution: deletion, duplication, and diversification. These themes drive phytochrome evolution as organisms evolve in response to environmental challenges.
Topics: Biological Evolution; Cyanobacteria; Gene Duplication; Gene Transfer, Horizontal; Genes, Plant; Phylogeny; Phytochrome; Plant Physiological Phenomena; Plants; Sequence Deletion; Symbiosis
PubMed: 31595505
DOI: 10.1111/nph.16240 -
Plant, Cell & Environment Apr 2021Plant population density is an important variable in agronomy and forestry and offers an experimental way to better understand plant-plant competition. We made a... (Review)
Review
Plant population density is an important variable in agronomy and forestry and offers an experimental way to better understand plant-plant competition. We made a meta-analysis of responses of even-aged mono-specific stands to population density by quantifying for 3 stand and 33 individual plant variables in 334 experiments how much both plant biomass and phenotypic traits change with a doubling in density. Increasing density increases standing crop per area, but decreases the mean size of its individuals, mostly through reduced tillering and branching. Among the phenotypic traits, stem diameter is negatively affected, but plant height remains remarkably similar, partly due to an increased stem length-to-mass ratio and partly by increased allocation to stems. The reduction in biomass is caused by a lower photosynthetic rate, mainly due to shading of part of the foliage. Total seed mass per plant is also strongly reduced, marginally by lower mass per seed, but mainly because of lower seed numbers. Plants generally have fewer shoot-born roots, but their overall rooting depth seems hardly affected. The phenotypic plasticity responses to high densities correlate strongly with those to low light, and less with those to low nutrients, suggesting that at high density, shading affects plants more than nutrient depletion.
Topics: Biomass; Plant Development; Plant Physiological Phenomena; Plants; Population Density
PubMed: 33280135
DOI: 10.1111/pce.13968 -
Plant Signaling & Behavior Dec 2021The global electric circuit and the marine layer in coastal regions result in the presence of atmospheric negative polarity ions within the canopy of plants. This leads...
The global electric circuit and the marine layer in coastal regions result in the presence of atmospheric negative polarity ions within the canopy of plants. This leads to the hypothesis:In the presence of negative polarity atmospheric ions plants activate a plant wide system to absorb and utilize these negative polarity ions.This plant wide system, termed Extracellular Transport System (ETS), is focused on nitrate movement. The object of this paper is to verify the existence of ETS by characterizing 1) how ETS absorbs ion from the atmosphere and 2) within the plant how ETS moves ions from source to destination. Over the past 2-years characteristics of ETS were examined in pecans, pistachios, lemons, wine grapes, cotton, corn, avocados and chili peppers in production agriculture fields in Arizona and California. Nitrate movement was separated into three physical locations: Location I, in the atmosphere outside the plant; Location II, in the interfacial volume between the atmosphere and the plant surface; Location III, in the plant itself. The paper is divided into three parts. Each part is concerned with a particular location of nitrate movement. The major tool of verification is presentation of simultaneous patterns of nitrate ion arrival rate on a simulated plant surface and subsequent movement of nitrate within the extracellular region of the plant. Use of this tool is illustrated in corn, lemons, chili peppers and avocados.A base functionality of ETS has been developed: ETS is a transient, plant wide system wherein 1) nitrate ions are putatively absorbed by a variety of epidermal structures including trichomes and transferred into the extracellular region, 2) hydrated pathways are produced in the extracellular region through which these nitrate ions pass 3) electrical potential gradients are created in the extracellular region which provide a force field to provoke movement of nitrate ions through these pathways. Anthropomorphic climate has three dimensions: light, temperature and moisture. Phytomorphic climate has five dimensions: light, temperature, moisture, earth tides and atmospheric ion presence. ETS is a natural adaptation of plants to the transient nature of atmospheric negative polarity ion presence. It provides a mechanism for plants to utilize this ubiquitous and renewable source of nitrate.
Topics: Atmosphere; Nitrates; Plants
PubMed: 34554051
DOI: 10.1080/15592324.2021.1890431 -
Biological Trace Element Research May 2022Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for diverse organisms such as mammals, bacteria, some insects and nematodes, archaea, and algae, as it is involved in a large... (Review)
Review
Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient for diverse organisms such as mammals, bacteria, some insects and nematodes, archaea, and algae, as it is involved in a large number of physiological and metabolic processes and is part of approximately 25 selenoproteins in mammals. In plants, Se has no essential metabolic role, high concentrations of inorganic Se can lead to the formation of Se-amino acids, and its incorporation into selenoproteins can generate toxicity. Conversely, low doses of Se can trigger a variety of beneficial effects as an antioxidant, antimicrobial, or stress-modulating agent without being an essential element. Therefore, Se can generate toxicity depending on the dose and the chemical form in which it is supplied. Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have emerged as an approach to reduce this negative effect and improve its biological properties. In turn, SeNPs have a wide range of potential advantages, making them an alternative for areas such as agriculture and food technology. This review focuses on the use of SeNPs and their different applications as antimicrobial agents, growth promoters, crop biofortification, and nutraceuticals in agriculture. In addition, the utilization of SeNPs in the generation of packaging with antioxidant and antimicrobial traits and Se enrichment of animal source foods for human consumption as part of food technology is addressed. Additionally, possible action mechanisms and potential adverse effects are discussed. The concentration, size, and synthesis method of SeNPs are determining factors of their biological properties.
Topics: Animals; Antioxidants; Biofortification; Food Technology; Mammals; Nanoparticles; Plants; Selenium; Selenoproteins
PubMed: 34328614
DOI: 10.1007/s12011-021-02847-3 -
PeerJ 2022As forested natural habitats disappear in the world, traditional, shade-coffee plantations offer an opportunity to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services....
BACKGROUND
As forested natural habitats disappear in the world, traditional, shade-coffee plantations offer an opportunity to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. Traditional coffee plantations maintain a diversity of tree species that provide shade for coffee bushes and, at the same time, are important repositories for plants and animals that inhabited the original cloud forest. However, there is still little information about shade-coffee plantation's fungal diversity despite their relevance for ecosystem functioning as decomposers, symbionts and pathogens. Specifically, it is unknown if and what mycorrhizae-forming fungi can be found on the branches and trunks of coffee bushes and trees, which hold a diversity of epiphytes. Here, we evaluate fungal communities on specific plant microsites on both coffee bushes and shade trees. We investigate the ecological roles played by this diversity, with a special focus on mycorrhizae-forming fungi that may enable the establishment and development of epiphytic plants.
METHODS
We collected 48 bark samples from coffee bushes and shade trees (coffee; tree), from four plant microsites (upper and lower trunks, branches and twigs), in two shade-coffee plantations in the Soconusco region in southern Mexico, at different altitudes. We obtained ITS amplicon sequences that served to estimate alpha and beta diversity, to assign taxonomy and to infer the potential ecological role played by the detected taxa.
RESULTS
The bark of shade trees and coffee bushes supported high fungal diversity (3,783 amplicon sequence variants). There were no strong associations between community species richness and collection site, plant type or microsite. However, we detected differences in beta diversity between collection sites. All trophic modes defined by FUNGuild database were represented in both plant types. However, when looking into guilds that involve mycorrhizae formation, the CLAM test suggests that coffee bushes are more likely to host taxa that may function as mycorrhizae.
DISCUSSION
We detected high fungal diversity in shade-coffee plantations in Soconusco, Chiapas, possibly remnants of the original cloud forest ecosystem. Several mycorrhiza forming fungi guilds occur on the bark of coffee bushes and shade trees in this agroecosystem, with the potential of supporting epiphyte establishment and development. Thus, traditional coffee cultivation could be part of an integrated strategy for restoration and conservation of epiphytic populations. This is particularly relevant for conservation of threatened species of Orchidaceae that are highly dependent on mycorrhizae formation.
Topics: Animals; Ecosystem; Mexico; Biodiversity; Forests; Trees; Plants; Mycorrhizae
PubMed: 35789660
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13610