Selective extraction of Cyclopia for enhanced in vitro phytoestrogenicity and benchmarking against commercial phytoestrogen extracts

South African herbal teas: Aspalathus linearis, Cyclopia spp. and Athrixia phylicoides—A review

“…Water extract-10 g leaves/100 ml freshly boiled water, steeped for 5 min; freezedried Some Cyclopia genistoides (West Coast type) and Cyclopia subternata water extracts (1.5 g/ml) bound only to ER␤ in whole cell binding assays in COS-1 cells transiently transfected with either ER␣ or ER␤, while some methanol extracts (1.5 g/ml) bound to both receptor subtypes with a higher affinity for ER␤ Verhoog et al (2007a) Methanol extract-defatted leaves extracted twice with methanol (1:2 ratio) for 20 h; evaporated, freeze-dried Cyclopia intermedia and Cyclopia sessiliflora water and methanol extracts did not show significant binding to either ER isoform , and E-screen (proliferation in MCF-7-BUS cells) assays Mfenyana (2008) Methanol extracts from two other Cyclopia subternata harvestings showed no to very little activity in all assays SMet and SEAc had the highest potency and efficacy of all extracts (alkaline phosphatase and E-screen), respectively "Cup-of-tea" extract showed appreciable oestrogenicity (alkaline phosphatase and E-screen) Water extracts prepared at room temperature had no activity (alkaline phosphatase and E-screen) Benchmarking against commercial nutraceuticals (Phytopause Forte, Promesil, Remifemin, and Femolene Ultra) indicated that SMet has comparable potency and SEAc comparable efficacy (whole cell binding, promoter reporter assay, alkaline phoshatase assay, and E-screen)…”

Development of HPLC method for Cyclopia subternata phenolic compound analysis and application to other Cyclopia spp.

“…Several in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated antioxidant, antimutagenic, anticancer and phytoestrogenic properties for Cyclopia (Joubert et al, 2008a). C. genistoides and C. subternata, in particular, received attention as a source of phytoestrogens as determined using in vitro phytoestrogenicity assays (Mfenyana et al, 2008;Verhoog et al, 2007a,b), while C. intermedia showed potential as an anticancer agent in an in vivo mouse skin model (Marnewick et al, 2005). Some of the major phenolic compounds identified in C. subternata and C. intermedia include the xanthones, mangiferin (Ferreira et al, Analysis of phenolic compounds in Cyclopia spp.…”

“…Minor compounds include luteolin and eriodictyol. Luteolin has been shown to correlate with the phytoestrogenic activity of C. subternata extracts (Mfenyana et al, 2008). Screening of a number of Cyclopia species, viz.…”

“…Improved separation was achieved by changing the selectivity of the column. The method was subsequently employed to quantify polyphenols in phytoestrogen extracts of C. subternata and C. genistoides (Mfenyana et al, 2008).…”

“…The aim of the present paper is to describe the development of the HPLC method as used by Mfenyana et al (2008). This included evaluation of a number of columns with different functionalities for optimum separation of the major Cyclopia compounds, including eriocitrin.…”