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Phytochemicals for Plant and Human Health
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Phytochemicals for Plant and Human Health

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 14195

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jose Luis Perez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
United States Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Research Service; Insect Control and Cotton Disease Research Unit, College Station, TX 77845, USA
Interests: plant metabolites; phytonutrients; entomology; plant microbiome; fungal plant diseases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over millions of years of evolution, plants have developed mechanisms to respond to biotic and abiotic stressors. Phytochemicals are secondary metabolites in plants that are involved in the response to these exogenous stressors. As a protection mechanism, plants have evolved various classes of phytochemicals to mitigate pests and diseases. Additionally, phytochemical levels have been reported to fluctuate in response to various environmental conditions and cultural practices. Interestingly, some of the phytochemicals that protect plants from pests and diseases have been shown to have medicinal properties against human diseases. The goal of this Special Issue is to collect current and novel scientific findings in the areas of plant chemistry. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, works dealing with plants as functional foods, plant–insect interactions, isolation and purification of bioactive compounds, the study of underutilized plants as a source of bioactive compounds, and novel plant-derived biopesticides. Original research articles, reviews, and short communications are welcome.  

Dr. Jose Luis Perez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bioactive compounds
  • bio-pesticides
  • functional foods
  • secondary metabolites
  • plant kairomones’ plant metabolomics
  • essential oils
  • isolation and purification
  • analytical techniques
  • plant breeding
  • bioactivity screening

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 2069 KiB  
Article
Health Beneficial Phytochemicals in Dioscorea caucasica Lipsky Leaves and Tubers and Their Inhibitory Effects on Physiologically Important Enzymes
by Aušra Adomėnienė, Audrius Pukalskas, Ona Ragažinskienė and Petras Rimantas Venskutonis
Plants 2022, 11(10), 1341; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11101341 - 18 May 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1987
Abstract
Dioscorea caucasica Lipsky is a tertiary relict endemic plant naturally growing in the western part of the trans-Caucasus regions; it has adapted and successfully grows in the temperate region of the Baltic countries. Information about its phytochemical composition and bioactivities is rather scarce. [...] Read more.
Dioscorea caucasica Lipsky is a tertiary relict endemic plant naturally growing in the western part of the trans-Caucasus regions; it has adapted and successfully grows in the temperate region of the Baltic countries. Information about its phytochemical composition and bioactivities is rather scarce. This study reports the results of the identification of 41 compounds in D. caucasica leaf and tuber hydroethanolic extracts using UPLC-QTOF/MS. Organic acids were found in both extracts; hydroxycinnamates and flavonoids were the main phytochemicals in the leaves, while steroidal glycosides, fatty acids (mainly hydroxylated) and carbohydrates were found in the tubers. Leaf extracts inhibited enzymes in a dose-dependent manner and were remarkably stronger inhibitors of physiologically important enzymes, namely α-amylase (48.6% at 480 µg/mL), α-glucosidase (IC50 = 41.99 and 47.95 µg/mL with and without 0.1 M Na2CO3), acetylcholinesterase (45.85% at 100 µg/mL) and angiotensin-converting enzyme (IC50 = 829.7 µg/mL), most likely due to the presence of some quantified polyphenolic antioxidants. The mode of inhibition of α-glucosidase and acetylcholinesterase was assessed via kinetic studies based on Lineweaver–Burk inhibition plots. Leaf and tuber extracts acted as mixed-type and competitive inhibitors of α-glucosidase, respectively; the leaf extract demonstrated an uncompetitive inhibition mode of acetylcholinesterase. It is expected that this new knowledge of D. caucasica will serve for its valorization in developing new health beneficial ingredients for functional foods and nutraceuticals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phytochemicals for Plant and Human Health)
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15 pages, 1001 KiB  
Article
Polyoxypregnane Ester Derivatives and Lignans from Euphorbia gossypina var. coccinea Pax.
by Reham Hammadi, Norbert Kúsz, Csilla Zsuzsanna Dávid, Peter Waweru Mwangi, Róbert Berkecz, Nikoletta Szemerédi, Gabriella Spengler, Judit Hohmann and Andrea Vasas
Plants 2022, 11(10), 1299; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11101299 - 13 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1952
Abstract
From the aerial parts of Euphorbiagossypina var. coccinea Pax., eight new pregnane glycosides (euphogossypins A–H, 1–8) of the cynanforidine and deacetylmetaplexigenin aglycons, two new lignans (gossypilignans A and B, 9 and 10), and four known compounds, namely, the [...] Read more.
From the aerial parts of Euphorbiagossypina var. coccinea Pax., eight new pregnane glycosides (euphogossypins A–H, 1–8) of the cynanforidine and deacetylmetaplexigenin aglycons, two new lignans (gossypilignans A and B, 9 and 10), and four known compounds, namely, the pregnane 12-O-benzoyldeaxcylmetaplexigenin (11), the lignan 9α-hydroxypinoresinol (12), and the flavonoids naringenin (13) and quercitrin (14) were isolated. The structure elucidation of the new compounds was carried out by a spectroscopic analysis, including HRMS, 1D (1H, 13C JMOD), and 2D NMR (HSQC, 1H–1H COSY, HMBC, and NOESY) experiments. The obtained pregnane glycosides were substituted with acetyl and benzoyl ester moieties, and sugar chains containing thevetose, cymarose, digitoxose, and glucose monosaccharides. All of the compounds are described for the first time from E. gossypina var. coccinea. The isolated pregnanes and lignans were tested for their antiproliferative activity on HeLa cells using the MTT assay; the compounds exerted no significant effect against the tumor cells. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phytochemicals for Plant and Human Health)
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14 pages, 2840 KiB  
Article
A Comparative Metabolomic Analysis Reveals the Nutritional and Therapeutic Potential of Grains of the Traditional Rice Variety Mappillai Samba
by Veera Ranjani Rajagopalan, Sudha Manickam and Raveendran Muthurajan
Plants 2022, 11(4), 543; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11040543 - 18 Feb 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5908
Abstract
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food of the majority of the population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Enriching rice with nutritional and therapeutic contents can improve its benefits for patients with lifestyle disorders. This study aimed to profile the phytochemical [...] Read more.
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food of the majority of the population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Enriching rice with nutritional and therapeutic contents can improve its benefits for patients with lifestyle disorders. This study aimed to profile the phytochemical contents of the therapeutically known traditional rice Mappillai Samba against white rice CBMAS 14065 using non-targeted gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). An analysis of the data using a mass spectrometry–data independent analysis (MS-DIAL) and MetaboAnalyst identified 113 metabolites belonging to 21 different classes of metabolites. A partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) revealed 43 variable importance in projection (VIP) metabolites. This study identified therapeutically important metabolites, including phenylpropanoids, phytosterols, flavonoids, and polyamines, in the grains of Mappillai Samba. Three significant metabolic pathways, viz., phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, ubiquinone and other terpenoid-quinone biosynthesis, and steroid biosynthesis, were responsible for the grain metabolome variation between CBMAS 14065 and Mappillai Samba. Overall, the results of this study unravelled the biochemical complexity of Mappillai Samba, paving the way for the genetic mapping of the therapeutic compound accumulation in rice and the development of similar therapeutic rice varieties through molecular breeding. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phytochemicals for Plant and Human Health)
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31 pages, 3919 KiB  
Article
Metabolites of Prickly Rose: Chemodiversity and Digestive-Enzyme-Inhibiting Potential of Rosa acicularis and the Main Ellagitannin Rugosin D
by Daniil N. Olennikov, Vladimir V. Chemposov and Nadezhda K. Chirikova
Plants 2021, 10(11), 2525; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10112525 - 20 Nov 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3140
Abstract
Prickly rose (Rosaacicularis Lindl.) is the most distributed rose species in the Northern Hemisphere, used by indigenous people for various food purposes. The lack of detailed information about the chemical composition of R. acicularis has led us to study the phytochemical [...] Read more.
Prickly rose (Rosaacicularis Lindl.) is the most distributed rose species in the Northern Hemisphere, used by indigenous people for various food purposes. The lack of detailed information about the chemical composition of R. acicularis has led us to study the phytochemical composition and metabolic profile of prickly rose extracts using chromatographic techniques. Many groups of phenolic and non-phenolic compounds were quantified in the leaves, flowers, roots and fruits of R. acicularis. Phenolic compounds were the dominant phytochemicals in the aerial parts and roots of R. acicularis. A precise study by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection and electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometric detection showed the presence of 123 compounds, among which ellagic acid derivatives, ellagitannins, gallotannins, catechins, catechin oligomers, hydroxycinnamates and flavonoid glycosides of kaempferol, quercetin and dihydroquercetin were all identified for the first time. The most abundant phenolic compounds were ellagitannins and flavonoid glycosides, with a maximal content of 70.04 mg/g in leaves and 66.72 mg/g in flowers, respectively, indicating the great ability of R. acicularis organs to accumulate phenolic compounds. By applying a standardized static, simulated gastrointestinal digestion method, we found the inhibitory potential of the leaf extract against digestive α-amylases. A pancreatic α-amylase activity-inhibiting assay coupled with HPLC microfractionation demonstrated high inhibition of enzyme activity by ellagitannin rugosin D, which was later confirmed by a microplate reaction with mammalian α-amylases and the simulated digestion method. This study clearly demonstrates that R. acicularis leaf extract and its main component, ellagitannin rugosin D, strongly inhibit digestive α-amylase, and may be a prospective antidiabetic agent. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phytochemicals for Plant and Human Health)
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