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      Pharmacological activities and molecular mechanisms of Pulsatilla saponins

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          Abstract

          Saponins are found in a variety of higher plants and display a wide range of pharmacological activities, including expectorant, anti-inflammatory, vasoprotective and antimicrobial properties. Pulsatilla chinensis ( P. chinensis, Bai Tou Weng, 白頭翁) has been used medically in China for thousands of years for the treatment of diseases caused by bacteria, and it is rich in triterpenoid saponins. In recent decades, anemoside B4 (Pulchinenoside C) is well studied since it has been used as a quality control marker for P. chinensis. At the same time, more and more other active compounds were found in the genus of Pulsatilla. In this review, we summarize the pharmacological activities of Pulsatilla saponins (PS) and discuss the cellular or molecular mechanisms that mediate their multiple activities, such as inducing cancer cell apoptosis, inhibiting tumor angiogenesis, and protecting organs via anti-inflammatory and antioxidant measures. We aim to provide comprehensive analysis and summary of research progress and future prospects in this field to facilitate further study and drug discovery of PS.

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          Most cited references80

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          Chemistry and Biological Activities of Flavonoids: An Overview

          There has been increasing interest in the research on flavonoids from plant sources because of their versatile health benefits reported in various epidemiological studies. Since flavonoids are directly associated with human dietary ingredients and health, there is need to evaluate structure and function relationship. The bioavailability, metabolism, and biological activity of flavonoids depend upon the configuration, total number of hydroxyl groups, and substitution of functional groups about their nuclear structure. Fruits and vegetables are the main dietary sources of flavonoids for humans, along with tea and wine. Most recent researches have focused on the health aspects of flavonoids for humans. Many flavonoids are shown to have antioxidative activity, free radical scavenging capacity, coronary heart disease prevention, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities, while some flavonoids exhibit potential antiviral activities. In plant systems, flavonoids help in combating oxidative stress and act as growth regulators. For pharmaceutical purposes cost-effective bulk production of different types of flavonoids has been made possible with the help of microbial biotechnology. This review highlights the structural features of flavonoids, their beneficial roles in human health, and significance in plants as well as their microbial production.
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            The role of autophagy in cancer development and response to therapy.

            Autophagy is a process in which subcellular membranes undergo dynamic morphological changes that lead to the degradation of cellular proteins and cytoplasmic organelles. This process is an important cellular response to stress or starvation. Many studies have shed light on the importance of autophagy in cancer, but it is still unclear whether autophagy suppresses tumorigenesis or provides cancer cells with a rescue mechanism under unfavourable conditions. What is the present state of our knowledge about the role of autophagy in cancer development, and in response to therapy? And how can the autophagic process be manipulated to improve anticancer therapeutics?
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              Saponins, classification and occurrence in the plant kingdom.

              Saponins are a structurally diverse class of compounds occurring in many plant species, which are characterized by a skeleton derived of the 30-carbon precursor oxidosqualene to which glycosyl residues are attached. Traditionally, they are subdivided into triterpenoid and steroid glycosides, or into triterpenoid, spirostanol, and furostanol saponins. In this study, the structures of saponins are reviewed and classified based on their carbon skeletons, the formation of which follows the main pathways for the biosynthesis of triterpenes and steroids. In this way, 11 main classes of saponins were distinguished: dammaranes, tirucallanes, lupanes, hopanes, oleananes, taraxasteranes, ursanes, cycloartanes, lanostanes, cucurbitanes, and steroids. The dammaranes, lupanes, hopanes, oleananes, ursanes, and steroids are further divided into 16 subclasses, because their carbon skeletons are subjected to fragmentation, homologation, and degradation reactions. With this systematic classification, the relationship between the type of skeleton and the plant origin was investigated. Up to five main classes of skeletons could exist within one plant order, but the distribution of skeletons in the plant kingdom did not seem to be order- or subclass-specific. The oleanane skeleton was the most common skeleton and is present in most orders of the plant kingdom. For oleanane type saponins, the kind of substituents (e.g. -OH, =O, monosaccharide residues, etc.) and their position of attachment to the skeleton were reviewed. Carbohydrate chains of 18 monosaccharide residues can be attached to the oleanane skeleton, most commonly at the C3 and/or C17 atom. The kind and positions of the substituents did not seem to be plant order-specific.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                chengweihe@um.edu.mo
                Journal
                Chin Med
                Chin Med
                Chinese Medicine
                BioMed Central (London )
                1749-8546
                23 May 2022
                23 May 2022
                2022
                : 17
                : 59
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.437123.0, ISNI 0000 0004 1794 8068, State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, , University of Macau, ; Taipa, 999078 Macao SAR China
                [2 ]GRID grid.437123.0, ISNI 0000 0004 1794 8068, Department of Pharmaceutical Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, , University of Macau, ; Taipa, 999078 Macao SAR China
                [3 ]GRID grid.437123.0, ISNI 0000 0004 1794 8068, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Joint Lab on Chinese Medicine and Immune Disease Research, , University of Macau, ; Taipa, 999078 Macao SAR China
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4701-2984
                Article
                613
                10.1186/s13020-022-00613-8
                9125917
                cd1805f6-59ce-4f11-8740-21a93bdd42d0
                © The Author(s) 2022

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

                History
                : 16 February 2022
                : 22 April 2022
                Funding
                Funded by: Macao Science and Technology Development Fund
                Award ID: 0024/2020/A1
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: 2020 Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Strategy Special Fund (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Joint Lab)
                Award ID: 2020B1212030006
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Operation Fund of State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine
                Award ID: SKL-QRCM(UM)-2020–2022
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
                Review
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2022

                Complementary & Alternative medicine
                pulsatilla chinensis,saponins,anticancer,anti-inflammatory,organ protection

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