Natural products (NPs) have greatly contributed to the development of novel treatments for human diseases such as cancer, metabolic disorders, and infections. Compared to synthetic chemical compounds, primary and secondary metabolites from medicinal plants, fungi, microorganisms, and our bodies are promising resources with immense chemical diversity and favorable properties for drug development. In addition to the well-validated significance of secondary metabolites, endogenous small molecules derived from central metabolism and signaling events have shown great potential as drug candidates due to their unique metabolite-protein interactions. In this short review, we highlight the values of NPs, discuss recent scientific and technological advances including metabolomics tools, chemoproteomics approaches, and artificial intelligence-based computation platforms, and explore potential strategies to overcome the current challenges in NP-driven drug discovery.

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Objective To evaluate the anticancer activity of the extract fraction of Polyalthia evecta (P. evecta) (Pierre) Finet & Gagnep and the synergistic anticancer effect of the extracts from P. evecta by using the ATR/FT-IR spectroscopy. Methods The 50% ethanol-water crude leaf extract of P. evecta (EW-L) was prepared and was further fractionated to isolate various fractions. The anticancer activity was investigated from cytotoxicity against HepG2 using a neutral red assay and apoptosis induction by evaluation of nuclei morphological changes after DAPI staining. Synergistic anticancer effects of the extracts from P. evecta were performed using the ATR/FT-IR spectroscopy. Results The result showed that the EW-L showed higher cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction in HepG2 cells than its fractionated extracts. The hexane extract exhibited higher cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction than the water extracts, but less than the EW-L. The combined water and hexane extracts apparently increased cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction. The %apoptotic cells induced by the extract mixture were increased about 2-fold compared to the single hexane extract. Conclusions The polar extract fraction is necessary for the anticancer activity of the non-polar extract fraction. The ATR/FT-IR spectra illustrates the physical interaction among the constituents in the extract mixture and reveals the presence of polyphenolic constituents in the EW-L, which might play a role for the synergistic anticancer effect.

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The 50% ethanolic extracts from 14 plant species used in Thai traditional folklore were screened for cytotoxic activity against a malignant human hepatoma (HepG2) cell line and a normal African green monkey kidney (Vero) cell line. The extracts of Polyalthia evecta and Erythroxylum cuneatum showed potent anticancer activity in the HepG2 cell line with IC(50) of 70+/-3 microg/ml and 64+/-4 microg/ml, respectively. P. evecta demonstrated more selectivity to the HepG2 than the Vero cell (selectivity index>14.3) indicating its potential for biopharmaceutical use.

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Consuming wild foods is part of the food ways of people in many societies, including farming populations throughout the world. Knowledge of non-domesticated food resources is part of traditional and tacit ecological knowledge, and is largely transmitted through socialization within cultural and household contexts. The context of this study, a small village in Northeast Thailand, is one where the community has experienced changes due to the migration of the parental generation, with the children being left behind in the village to be raised by their grandparents. A case study approach was used in order to gain holistic in-depth insight into children's traditional ecological knowledge as well as patterns of how children acquire their knowledge regarding wild food resources. Techniques used during field data collection are free-listing conducted with 30 village children and the use of a sub-sample of children for more in-depth research. For the sub-sample part of the study, wild food items consisted of a selection of 20 wild food species consisting of 10 species of plants and 10 species of animals. Semi-structured interviews with photo identification, informal interviews and participatory observation were utilized, and both theoretical and practical knowledge scored. The sub-sample covers eight households with boys and girls aged between 10-12 years old from both migrant families and non-migrant families. The knowledge of children was compared and the transmission process was observed. The result of our study shows that there is no observable difference among children who are being raised by grandparents and those being raised by their parents, as there are different channels of knowledge transmission to be taken into consideration, particularly grandparents and peers. The basic ability (knowledge) for naming wild food species remains among village children. However, the practical in-depth knowledge, especially about wild food plants, shows some potential eroding.

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Four new 2-substituted furans, 19-(2-furyl)nonadeca-5,7-diynoic acid (1), 19-(2-furyl)nonadeca-5-ynoic acid (2), 1-(2-furyl)pentacosa-7,9-diyne (3), and ester 21-(2-furyl)heneicosa-14,16-diyne-19-(2-furyl)nonadeca-5,7-diynoate (4) have been isolated from the roots of Polyalthia evecta. Their structures were established by spectroscopic techniques. Compounds 1 and 1a showed antiplasmodial activity. The acids 1 and 2 exhibited antiviral activity against Herpes simplex type 1. In addition, 5 also showed cytotoxicity against the NCI-H187 cell line.

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