The rising predominance of type 2 diabetes, combined with the poor medical effects seen with commercially available anti-diabetic medications, has motivated the development of innovative treatment approaches for regulating postprandial glucose levels. Natural carbohydrate digestion enzyme inhibitors might be a viable option for blocking dietary carbohydrate absorption with fewer side effects than manufactured medicines. Alpha-amylase is a metalloenzyme that facilitates digestion by breaking down polysaccharides into smaller molecules such as maltose and maltotriose. It also contributes to elevated blood glucose levels and postprandial hyperglycemia. As a result, scientists are being urged to target α-amylase and create inhibitors that can slow down the release of glucose from carbohydrate chains and prolong its absorption, thereby resulting in lower postprandial plasma glucose levels. Natural α-amylase inhibitors derived from plants have gained popularity as safe and cost-effective alternatives. The bioactive components responsible for the inhibitory actions of various plant extracts have been identified through phytochemical research, paving the way for further development and application. The majority of the findings, however, are based on in vitro investigations. Only a few animal experiments and very few human investigations have confirmed these findings. Despite some promising results, additional investigation is needed to develop feasible anti-diabetic drugs based on plant-derived pancreatic α-amylase inhibitors. This review summarizes the most recent findings from research on plant-derived pancreatic α-amylase inhibitors, including plant extracts and plant-derived bioactive compounds. Furthermore, it offers insights into the structural aspects of the crucial therapeutic target, α-amylases, in addition to their interactions with inhibitors.

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The prevalence of fungal infections is growing at an alarming pace and the pathogenesis is still not clearly understood. Recurrence of these fungal diseases is often due to their evolutionary avoidance of antifungal resistance. The development of suitable novel antimicrobial agents for fungal diseases continues to be a major problem in the current clinical field. Hence, it is urgently necessary to develop surrogate agents that are more effective than conventional available drugs. Among the remarkable innovations from earlier investigations on natural-drugs, flavonoids are a group of plant-derived substances capable of promoting many valuable effects on humans. The identification of flavonoids with possible antifungal effects at small concentrations or in synergistic combinations could help to overcome this problem. A combination of flavonoids with available drugs is an excellent approach to reduce the side effects and toxicity. This review focuses on various naturally occurring flavonoids and their antifungal activities, modes of action, and synergetic use in combination with conventional drugs.

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Melatonin ( N -acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine) is a universal molecule that is present in animals and plants. It has been detected in different kinds of plants and organs in different levels. Melatonin in plants shares the same initial biosynthesis compound with auxin, and therefore functions as indole-3-acetic acid like hormones. Moreover, melatonin is involved in regulating plant growth and development, protecting plants against biotic and abiotic stresses, such as salt, drought, cold, heat and heavy metal stresses. Melatonin improves the stress tolerance of plants via a direct pathway, which scavenges reactive oxygen species directly, and indirect pathways, such as increasing antioxidate enzymes activity, photosynthetic efficiency and metabolites content. In addition, melatonin plays a role in regulating gene expression, and hence affects performance of plants. In this review, the biosynthesis pathway, growth and development regulation, and the environment stress response of melatonin in plants are summarized and future research directions and priorities of melatonin in plants are speculated.

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Polysaccharides of Rubus chingii Hu fruit and leaf were extracted to compare their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities against breast cancer cells MCF-7 and liver cancer cells Bel-7402. Results showed that all the tested bioactivities of polysaccharides from leaf (L-Ps) were better than those of polysaccharides from fruit (F-Ps). Response surface methodology was then used to optimize the extraction conditions of polysaccharides from leaf. Additionally, polysaccharides from fruit and leaf were characterized and their contents of total sugars, proteins and uronic acid were compared. It was found that polysaccharides from fruit and leaf were similar in IR and UV absorption, but significantly different in contents of total sugars, protein and uronic acid. Their elution profiles of DEAE-Sepharose fast flow column were different too. The main peak of polysaccharides from fruit was eluted with 0.3 mol/l NaCl solution and the main peak of polysaccharides from leaf was eluted with deionized water. The differences between the two polysaccharides may be responsible for their differences in bioactivities. Further studies are required to explore their complete structural characteristics, structure-activity relationship and the mechanism of their activities.

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Cancer prevention and treatment using traditional Chinese medicines have attracted increasing interest. This study characterizes antioxidant activity and phenolic compounds of traditional Chinese medicinal plants associated with anticancer, comprising 112 species from 50 plant families. The improved ABTS(*+) method was used to systematically assess the total antioxidant capacity (Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity, TEAC) of the medicinal extracts. The TEAC values and total phenolic content for methanolic extracts of herbs ranged from 46.7 to 17,323 micromol Trolox equivalent/100 g dry weight (DW), and from 0.22 to 50.3 g of gallic acid equivalent/100 g DW, respectively. A positive, significant linear relationship between antioxidant activity and total phenolic content (all R(2) values>/=0.95) showed that phenolic compounds were the dominant antioxidant components in the tested medicinal herbs. Major types of phenolic compounds from most of the tested herbs were preliminarily identified and analyzed, and mainly included phenolic acids, flavonoids, tannins, coumarins, lignans, quinones, stilbenes, and curcuminoids. These medicinal herbs exhibited far stronger antioxidant activity and contained significantly higher levels of phenolics than common vegetables and fruits. Traditional Chinese medicinal plants associated with anticancer might be potential sources of potent natural antioxidants and beneficial chemopreventive agents.

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