The Genus Cryptocarya: A Review on Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Activities

Abstract

Cryptocarya (the laurel family) is a large genus of great economic plants found in tropics and subtropics. Plants of this genus are a rich resource of essential oils, and pharmacological compounds. An overview of phytochemistry and pharmacological aspect is not yet available. This review aims to establish insightful information on phytochemistry, and pharmacological values. The literature collection is based on keywords 'Cryptocarya', 'phytochemistry', and 'pharmacology' using a broad panel of scientific sources, such as Google Scholar, Sciencedirect, and Wiley. Since the 1950s, Cryptocarya plants have been the main object in various phytochemical studies, by which about 390 metabolite compounds were isolated. Alkaloids, α-pyrones, and flavonoids could be seen as the main classes of Cryptocarya isolates. Cryptocarya constituents displayed potential pharmacological values such as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidative, antiviral, vasorelaxant activities, especially cytotoxicity.

Essential Oils of the Leaves of Epaltes australis Less. and Lindera myrrha (Lour.) Merr.: Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial, Anti‐inflammatory, Tyrosinase Inhibitory, and Molecular Docking Studies

“…It is hypothesized that the notable anti‐inflammatory activity of L. myrrha might be attributed to the major compounds ( E )‐caryophyllene, ledene, selina‐1,3,7(11)‐trien‐8‐one, and α ‐pinene (Figure 1). Tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) and cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) are the main proteins that play essential roles in immune cell activation, especially in inflammatory syndromes [23–25] . In this section, we employ a molecular docking model to assess the ability of these agents against the inflammatory mediator proteins COX‐2 (PDB IDs: 5KIR) and TNF‐α (PDB IDs: 2AZ5) [26,27] …”

“…Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) are the main proteins that play essential roles in immune cell activation, especially in inflammatory syndromes. [23][24][25] In this section, we employ a molecular docking model to assess the ability of these agents against the inflammatory mediator proteins COX-2 (PDB IDs: 5KIR) and TNF-α (PDB IDs: 2AZ5). [26,27] Before performing the molecular docking simulations of the compounds with the selected proteins, we validated the current docking protocol by re-docking the co-crystallized ligands obtained from the protein data bank.…”

Baeckea frutescens L.: A Review on Phytochemistry, Biosynthesis, Synthesis, and Pharmacology

“…Flavonoids are low-molecular-weight phenolic compounds that are found in a variety of higher plants. 35–37 As shown in Table 1 and Figure 2, flavonoids derived from B frutescens can be divided into flavones 69-94 5–11,28–30,32 and flavanones 95-102 . 9,12,13,21,24,29,31…”

“…Flavonoids are low-molecular-weight phenolic compounds that are found in a variety of higher plants. [35][36][37] As shown in Table 1 and Figure 2, flavonoids derived from B frutescens can be divided into flavones 69-94 [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][28][29][30]32 and flavanones 95-102. 9,12,13,21,24,29,31 Regarding flavones, 13 new derivatives, baeckeins A-M (69-81), were isolated from the roots and structurally determined from spectroscopic and mass spectrometric evidence.…”

Determination of the chemical composition and evaluation of the antimicrobial and antioxidant potential of the essential oil from Cryptocarya ovalifolia van der Werff leaves (Lauraceae)

“…It has a wide distribution, growing in all humid and subhumid evergreen forest on the middle and upper slopes of the East between 900 to 1500 m altitude. The genus Cryptocarya has a wide range of pharmacological activities, such as antiinflammatory, cytotoxicity, antimicrobial, anti-insect, anticancer and antioxidative activities [7] and several species have been used as traditional herbal medicines [8]. Cryptocarya ovalifolia has not yet been the subject of study other than botanical.…”