A Metabolic Perspective and Opportunities in Pharmacologically Important Safflower

Abstract

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) has long been grown as a crop due to its commercial utility as oil, animal feed, and pharmacologically significant secondary metabolites. The integration of omics approaches, including genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics datasets, has provided more comprehensive knowledge of the chemical composition of crop plants for multiple applications. Knowledge of a metabolome of plant is crucial to optimize the evolution of crop traits, improve crop yields and quality, and ensure nutritional and health factors that provide the opportunity to produce functional food or feedstuffs. Safflower contains numerous chemical components that possess many pharmacological activities including central nervous, cardiac, vascular, anticoagulant, reproductive, gastrointestinal, antioxidant, hypolipidemic, and metabolic activities, providing many other human health benefits. In addition to classical metabolite studies, this review focuses on several metabolite-based working techniques and updates to provide a summary of the current medical applications of safflower.

Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of bZIP gene family in Carthamus tinctorius L.

“…In terms of tolerance for abiotic stresses such as water deficit, it is a tough plant however, for increasing demand of edible oil as well its vast pharmaceutical properties, its improvement seeks comprehensive understanding through omics. Omics by combining genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics (as solving a puzzle) attempts to obtain a clear picture of molecular and biochemical circuitries underlying primary and secondary metabolites/products 33 . In the same race, we tried to unravel an important class of transcription factors in Carthamus tinctorius L. Transcription factors express genes thus are essentially present in all organisms.…”

Recovery of phytochemical from three safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius L.) by‐products: Antioxidant properties, protective effect of human erythrocytes and profile by UPLC‐DAD‐MS

“…The safflower leaf extract presented a principal peak at retention time of 6.93 min, which was identified as a glycosylated flavonoid named luteolin 7-Oβ-D-glucoside, and with a common name of cynaroside. Other studies that have identified this compound in different anatomical parts of safflower were Kim et al (2006) in ethanolic seed extract, Mani et al (2020) in extract methanolic-water (80% v/v), in the extract of safflowers.…”

Safflower Extract Inhibits ADP-Induced Human Platelet Aggregation

“…In addition, 200 mg/kg/d safflower yellow or hydroxysafflor yellow A in diet-induced obese mice can effectively inhibit fat mass by 57.8-61.6% [32]. Although it has been documented that safflower extract can be converted into substances in liver metabolism [3,4], the concentrations of either safflower extract or these compounds found in safflower extract in the blood and their half-life in the blood after administration are still unknown. In any case, the concentration of the compounds used in the in vitro experiment was similar to the dose used in this study [31].…”

“…The safflower extract is obtained from the dried flowers of Carthamustinctorius L., a plant of the Asteraceae family, by removing impurities, drying in the shade, or drying under low heat. Safflower is often used as a traditional Chinese medicine to promote hormone balance, remove blemishes, regenerate new cells, circulate blood, remove bruises, and relieve pain [2][3][4].…”

“…The biological activity of the extract of safflower is related to the various compounds in the extract. Previous studies have indicated that the extract of safflower could be divided into lipophilic compounds and hydrophilic compounds due to different extraction methods [3]. The lipophilic compounds of safflower include fatty acids, tocopherols such as vitamin E, carotenoids, and phytosterols.…”