Preparation of Botanical Samples for Biomedical Research

Abstract

Plants are chemical storehouses, a fact which has driven countless multidisciplinary quests for bioactive compounds. As the very first step of botanical research, the whole desire is to find "hit" plants with specific bioactivities. It is logical to use some strategies that can maximize the chances of finding these "hits" with limited time and resources. In addition to selecting the right plants for screening, how the plant extracts are prepared can also influence the bioactivity screening outcomes. An extract from the same plant material can be quite different in chemical composition having different preparations. Because of the complex mixture nature of plant extracts, it is possible artifact activities may be observed. Thus confirmatory activity tests are often necessary to warrant the next laborious isolation step. A bioassay directed isolation approach may be the most efficient in identifying the bioactive compounds because of the narrowed focus at each isolation step, but a phytochemistry isolation approach is appropriate to characterize a purified bioactive extract. In fact, these two approaches can be taken intermittently whenever efficiency can be improved. Finally, use of the identified active compounds is now broader. In addition to determining a lead compound to continue a drug development path, there is an increasing interest in support for the use of botanical extracts as botanical drugs. Instead of dropping the extract after extracting the lead compound, the natural analogues representing the purified extract now have a chance to become leading compounds in the pursuit of novel therapies for metabolic syndrome and other diseases.

Preliminary Phytochemical Analysis of Berberis goudotii Triana & Planch. ex Wedd. (Berberidaceae) with Anticariogenic and Antiperiodontal Activities

“…Some reports with plant crude active extracts have described biological activity as being lost after the fractioning process, considering that activity is the result of an additive effect of synergy or of structural stabilization between compounds. Thus, at the moment of fractionation, antimicrobial activity is lost [116][117][118].…”

Recent Advancements and Applications in the Analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicines

“…The observed period includes the last five years (2004 to 2008), considering publications in English only. Separation techniques are also involved in sample preparation prior to actual analysis; recent advancements in this area (e.g., MAR, MIP) have been addressed elsewhere already [7][8][9].…”

Content determination of phenylpropanoids and enhancing exercise ability of effective fractions in pedicularis densispica

“…This may be exactly where botanical extracts as novel therapies have an advantage over single entity drugs. [26] On the contrary, there are several conventional methods, such as polyamide chromatography, gel chromatography, and silica gel column, available for the enrichment of active constituents. However, these methods have several disadvantages, including long time consuming poisonous residual solvents and low recoveries.…”