Naturally Occurring Bioactive Compound‐Derived Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Bioactive, small molecular compounds from a variety of plants and organisms have tremendous potential for use as treatments for cancer, microbial infections, inflammatory diseases, and other medical conditions. There have also been attempts to use naturally occurring bioactive compounds as delivery carriers. Such bioactive, natural compound-derived nanocarriers are expected to have better biocompatibility than synthetic material-derived drug-delivery systems and also exhibit intrinsic therapeutic efficacy. Despite these expectations, however, research on the topic is limited and thus has been the subject of very few reviews. Here, the authors describe carriers derived from four typical naturally occurring bioactive compounds-curcumin, resveratrol, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) (an active ingredient in green tea), and bilirubin-that have been used for biomedical applications. In this review, the pros and cons of each bioactive small molecular compound and processes for synthesizing and preparing these compound-derived delivery carriers are discussed. A number of examples that show the potential of these delivery carriers as disease treatments are considered, and their future prospects for biomedical applications are assessed. Nanoparticles that simply encapsulate or encase such bioactive compounds are outside the scope of this review and thus are not considered.

Transforming Tea Catechins into Potent Anticancer Compound: Analysis of Three Boronated-PEG Delivery System

“…Simply having a slightly targeted system that would increase the accumulation of the drug at the cancer site compared to chemotherapy would prove to be beneficial and required. A nanoparticle system should be stable, have the ability to carry large loads of cargo, and most importantly, could be accumulated to the tumor site through an enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect [5,9,15]. The drug must maintain its toxic effects and as a result should be stable in the sense that it does not break open, releasing its contents and should only do so at the cancer site.…”

“…Through the aid of a nanocarrier, a drug can be safely administered, with long systemic circulation; which could effectively increase drug bioavailability while reducing its systemic toxicity [4]. Additionally, using a naturally occurring phenolic compound may have a less negative toxic effect on healthy cells and as a result the entire body, but with the difficulty of forming a stable nanoparticle that can still administer the contents of the nanoparticle [5,6].…”

“…L-epicatechin (EPI), (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), and piceatannol (PIC) are the three phenolic compounds analyzed in section [7]. Each solution is a phenolic compound and has hydroxyl groups attached to the benzene rings in the compound which result in strong intermolecular interactions due to hydrogen bonding [5,13]. The three solutions are also made up of at least one benzene ring and also have intermolecular interactions through pi stacking.…”

Rheum rhaponticum and Rheum rhabarbarum: a review of phytochemistry, biological activities and therapeutic potential

“…Modern strategies are particularly focused on ecofriendly nanosize materials, produced during the greener synthesis/the green chemistry processes (Kharissova et al 2019). Such attempts have been successfully undertaken with other substances of plant origin (Park et al 2016;Saw et al 2019). The R. rhabarbarum-based silver nanoparticles were found to possess significant antibacterial activity both against E. coli (CCM 4517) and Staphylococcus aureus (CCM 4516).…”

Diosgenin a steroidal compound: An emerging way to cancer management

“…The extraction of a bioactive compound always brings focus areas toward microbes, plant, and animal matrices. Bioactive compounds are used as a carrier agent in the treatment of various emerging diseases (Saw et al., 2019). The bioactive compounds extraction becomes focused toward a spice recognized as fenugreek.…”