Context:Ferulago (Apiaceae) species have been used since ancient times for the treatment of intestinal worms, hemorrhoids, and as a tonic, digestive, aphrodisiac, or sedative, as well as in salads or as a spice due to their special odors.Objectives: This study reports the α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities of dichloromethane extract and bioactive compounds isolated from Ferulago bracteata Boiss. & Hausskn. roots.Materials and methods: The isolated compounds obtained from dichloromethane extract of Ferulago bracteata roots through bioassay-guided fractionation and isolation process were evaluated for their in vitro α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities at 5000–400 µg/mL concentrations. Compound structures were elucidated by detailed analyses (NMR and MS).Results: A new coumarin, peucedanol-2′-benzoate (1), along with nine known ones, osthole (2), imperatorin (3), bergapten (4), prantschimgin (5), grandivitinol (6), suberosin (7), xanthotoxin (8), felamidin (9), umbelliferone (10), and a sterol mixture consisted of stigmasterol (11), β-sitosterol (12) was isolated from the roots of F. bracteata. Felamidin and suberosin showed significant α-glucosidase inhibitory activity (IC50 0.42 and 0.89 mg/mL, respectively) when compared to the reference standard acarbose (IC50 4.95 mg/mL). However, none of the tested extracts were found to be active on α-amylase inhibition.Discussion and conclusions: The present study demonstrated that among the compounds isolated from CH2Cl2 fraction of F. bracteata roots, coumarins were determined as the main chemical constituents of this fraction. This is the first report on isolation and characterization of the bioactive compounds from root extracts of F. bracteata and on their α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities.

No abstract

and the disease is officially named as Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) by World Health Organization (WHO). 2 According to WHO's COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update Report released on May 11, 2021, the number of confirmed cases reached 157,362,408 including 3,277,834 deaths in the world as of May 9, 2021. 3Currently, there are several vaccines for COVID-19, but no antiviral drugs are available for specific treatment of COVID-19. However, some antiviral drugs such as lopinavir, ritonavir, remdesivir, and nelfinavir have been using to prevent further complications and organ damage caused by COVID-19. 4 Among all these drugs, nelfinavir, which has been used in clinics, was found as the most potential inhibitor drug against COVID-19 main protease (M pro ) based on its docking score according to the docking studies conducted by Xu et al. 5 In docking studies, M pro is used as a potential drug target to combat 2019-CoV. [6][7][8] Secondary metabolites obtained from medicinal plants and their semi-synthetic derivatives have been widely used in new

No abstract

Obesity is a serious disease that can be due to genetic and environmental reasons and is defined by the World Health Organization as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health. There is an increasing trend towards herbal slimming products in obesity treatment. The quality control analysis of these products is important for public health. In this study, new, simple, and sensitive high performance liquid chromatography methods were developed for qualitative and quantitative determination of arbutin, hydroquinone, ursolic acid, chlorogenic acid, epigallocatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate, and catechin in eleven herbal slimming products in Turkey containing Camellia sinensis, Ilex paraguariensis, and Calluna vulgaris. The intra-and interday precisions, stated as the relative standard deviation, were less than 2% and accuracy, based on relative error, was less than 10%. The limits of detection and quantification for arbutin and hydroquinone were 0.80 and 2.40 µg/mL and for the other compounds were 0.30 and 0.90 µg/mL, respectively. The methods developed can be used for routine quality control analysis of these effective compounds in different herbal slimming products.