Elicitation of Andrographolide in the Suspension Cultures of Andrographis paniculata

Andrographis paniculata belonging to the family Acanthaceae produces a group of diterpene lactones, one of which is the pharmaceutically important??andrographolide. It is known to possess various important biological properties like anticancer, anti-HIV, anti-inflammatory, etc. This is the first report on the production of andrographolide in the cell suspension cultures of Andrographis paniculata by ??elicitation??. Elicitation was attempted to enhance the andrographolide content in the suspension cultures of Andrographis paniculata and also to ascertain its stimulation under stress conditions or in response to pathogen attack. The maximum andrographolide production was found to be 1.53?mg/g dry cell weight (DCW) at the end of stationary phase during the growth curve. The biotic elicitors (yeast, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Agrobacterium rhizogenes 532 and Agrobacterium tumefaciens C 58) were more effective in eliciting the response when compared to the abiotic elicitors (CdCl₂, AgNO₃, CuCl₂ and HgCl₂). Yeast has shown to stimulate maximum accumulation of 13.5?mg/g DCW andrographolide, which was found to be 8.82-fold higher than the untreated cultures.     

Predictive Models of Phytosterol Degradation in Rapeseeds Stored in Bulk Based on Artificial Neural Networks and Response Surface Regression

The need to maintain the highest possible levels of bioactive components contained in raw materials requires the elaboration of tools supporting their processing operations, starting from the first stages of the food production chain. In this study, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and response surface regression (RSR) were used to develop models of phytosterol degradation in bulks of rapeseed stored under various temperatures and water activity conditions (T = 12–30 °C and a_w = 0.75–0.90). Among ANNs, networks based on a multilayer perceptron (MLP) and a radial basis function (RBF) were tested. The model input constituted a_w, temperature and storage time, whilst the model output was the phytosterol level in seeds. The ANN-based modeling turned out to be more effective in estimating phytosterol levels than the RSR, while MLP-ANNs proved to be more satisfactory than RBF-ANNs. The approximation quality of the ANNs models depended on the number of neurons and the type of activation functions in the hidden layer. The best model was provided by the MLP-ANN containing nine neurons in the hidden layer equipped with the logistic activation function. The model performance evaluation showed its high prediction accuracy and generalization capability (R² = 0.978; RMSE = 0.140). Its accuracy was also confirmed by the elliptical joint confidence region (EJCR) test. The results show the high usefulness of ANNs in predictive modeling of phytosterol degradation in rapeseeds. The elaborated MLP-ANN model may be used as a support tool in modern postharvest management systems.     

Improvement in the yield and quality of kalmegh (Andrographis paniculata Nees) under the sustainable production system

Andrographis paniculata Nees is an annual erect herb with wide medicinal and pharmacological applications due to the presence of andrographolide and other active chemical constituents. The large-scale cultivation of the kalmegh is not in practice. The aim of this study was to establish sustainable production systems of A. paniculata cv CIM-Megha with the application of different bioinoculants and chemical fertilisers. A. paniculata herb and andrographolide yield in the dried leaves was found to be highest (218% and 61.3%, respectively) in treatment T₃ (NPK+Bacillus sp.) compared with T₁ (control). The soil organic carbon, soil microbial respiration, soil enzymes activity and available nutrients improved significantly with combined application of bioinoculants and chemical fertilisers.     

An electronic tongue using potentiometric all-solid-state PVC-membrane sensors for the simultaneous quantification of ammonium and potassium ions in water

The simultaneous determination of NH₄⁺ and K⁺ in solution has been attempted using a potentiometric sensor array and multivariate calibration. The sensors used are rather non-specific and of all-solid-state type, employing polymeric (PVC) membranes. The subsequent data processing is based on the use of a multilayer artificial neural network (ANN). This approach is given the name "electronic tongue" because it mimics the sense of taste in animals. The sensors incorporate, as recognition elements, neutral carriers belonging to the family of the ionophoric antibiotics. In this work the ANN type is optimized by studying its topology, the training algorithm, and the transfer functions. Also, different pretreatments of the starting data are evaluated. The chosen ANN is formed by 8 input neurons, 20 neurons in the hidden layer and 2 neurons in the output layer. The transfer function selected for the hidden layer was sigmoidal and linear for the output layer. It is also recommended to scale the starting data before training. A correct fit for the test data set is obtained when it is trained with the Bayesian regularization algorithm. The viability for the determination of ammonium and potassium ions in synthetic samples was evaluated; cumulative prediction errors of approximately 1% (relative values) were obtained. These results were comparable with those obtained with a generalized regression ANN as a reference algorithm. In a final application, results close to the expected values were obtained for the two considered ions, with concentrations between 0 and 40 mmol L^–1.     

A facile route for the synthesis of limonidilactone analogues from andrographolide

Labdane diterpenes are an important class of natural products with a wide variety of biological properties. (−)-Limonidilactone is a labdane diterpene with a novel skeleton isolated from Vitex limonifolia. A new semi-synthetic route from andrographolide, the major constituent of Andrographis paniculata, has been described towards the synthesis of novel labdanes having a limonidilactone type skeleton.     

A Phenylurea Cytokinin,CPPU, Elevated Reducing Sugar and Correlated to Andrographolide Contents in Leaves of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Andrographis paniculata</Emphasis> (Burm. F.) Wall. Ex Nees

Cytokinins are phytohormones that play multiple roles to control plant growth and development. In this study, leaf biomass and the production of andrographolide compounds in a medicinal plant Andrographis paniculata were significantly increased after exogenously treating with the synthetic cytokinin cytokinin-1-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)-3-phenylurea (CPPU) at 0 (water), 5, or 10 mg L^?1 and observed the results for 24 h, 48 h, and 7 days of treatment. It was found that CPPU could significantly enhance new axillary bud formation and further promote branching 4.6–5.6-fold higher, resulting in higher fresh weight (FW) and dry weight (DW) than the control. Application of CPPU at 5 mg L^?1 significantly promoted the highest contents of total reducing sugar at 2.5-fold in leaves and at 1.5-fold in roots. Although treatments of CPPU significantly affected the increasing contents of chlorophyll and carotenoid (1.2–1.6-fold), CPPU at 10 mg L^?1 slightly caused leaf stress and chlorophyll reduction. Interestingly, 5 mg L^?1 CPPU could enhance andrographolide content, an active anti-infectious compound in Andrographis paniculata (2.2-fold higher than the control) that reached the highest content at 24 h after treatment. This study suggested that CPPU should be suitable for field application to promote leaf yields and induce the production of useful pharmaceutical compounds in Andrographis paniculata.     

Rapid Determination of Diterpenoids in Andrographis paniculata by Microemulsion Electrokinetic Capillary Chromatography with Short-End Injection

A rapid, simple, and reliable method has been developed for routine capillary electrophoretic analysis of two diterpenoids, andrographolide and dehydroandrographolide, in Andrographis paniculata. For this system, using ethyl acetate oil-based microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC) and the short-end injection technique, analysis was complete in less than 2.5 min. In method validation the relative standard deviations of migration time and peak area of the two constituents were, respectively, 0.54% and 1.70% for andrographolide and 0.45% and 2.11% for dehydroandrographolide. Regression equations revealed linear relationships (correlation coefficients 0.9994 for andrographolide and 0.9993 for dehydroandrographolide) between peak area and concentration. The effects of buffer pH, borate concentration, SDS concentration, co-surfactant type and concentration, injection time, and running potential were systematically investigated. The method can be successfully implemented in routine quality-control testing.     

Photocatalytic Degradation of Oxytetracycline in Aqueous Solutions with TiO2 in Suspension and Prediction by Artificial Neural Networks

In this study, the photocatalytic degradation of oxytetracycline (OTC) in aqueous solutions has been studied under different conditions such as initial pollutant concentrations, amount of catalyst, and pH of the solution. Experimental results showed that photocatalysis was clearly the predominant process in the pollutant degradation, since OTC adsorption on the catalyst and photolysis are negligible. The optimal TiO₂ concentration for OTC degradation was found to be 1.0 g/L. The apparent rate constant decreased, and the initial degradation rate increased with increasing initial OTC concentration with the other parameters kept unchanged. Subsequently, data obtained from photocatalytic degradation were used for training the artificial neural networks (ANN). The Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm, log sigmoid function in the hidden layer, and the linear activation function in the output layer were used. The optimized ANN structure was four neurons at the input layer, eighteen neurons at the hidden layer, and one neuron at the output layer. The application of 18 hidden neurons allowed to obtain the best values for R² and the mean squared error, 0.99751 and 7.504e–04, respectively, showing the relevance of the training, and hence the network can be used for final prediction of photocatalytic degradation of OTC with suspended TiO₂.     

Synthesis and structure anti-inflammatory activity relationships studies of andrographolide derivatives

Abstract

Andrographolide is a main bioactive diterpene lactone in A. paniculata with anti-inflammatory activity. In this study, a series of andrographolide derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their structure-anti-inflammatory activity relationships in vivo. Among all compounds, isoandrographolide and 14-deoxyandrographolide showed stronger anti-inflammatory activity than andrographolide. The results indicated that the introduction of tetrahydrofuran ring and cyclic olefinic bond plays an important role in enhancing the anti-inflammatory activity of andrographolide derivatives. Isoandrographolide and 14-deoxyandrographolide are potent inhibitor of inflammation.

     

De novo consecutive chemo/regioselective IBX mediated oxidation of andrographolide and its derivatives

A new IBX mediated protocol for regio/chemoselective oxidation of andrographolide (1), a labdane diterpenoid isolated from Andrographis paniculata, is developed. After the initial success of this protocol with andrographolide (1) to provide 19-dehydroandrographolide (5) or 3,19-didehydroandrographolide (6) as major products, the procedure was further applied for the oxidation of hydroxyl functionality in andrographolide derivatives, namely 2, 3, 14, and 16. The process was equally suitable on scales of milligram to gram with ease. Deprotection of C-19-OTBDMS in compounds 15 and 18 was achieved using TBDMS-Cl in acetonitrile-water (8:2) system in good yields.     

New potential and characterization of Andrographis paniculata L. Ness plant extracts as photoprotective agent

The species Andrographis paniculata L. Ness, family Acanthaceae grows in many parts in the island of Java in Indonesia. In this research, new potentials of photoprotective agents from A. paniculata plant extracts, along with their characteristics, were investigated. The phytochemical test, infrared analysis, ultraviolet characterization, fluorescence identification, flavonoid content by thin layer chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS) and photoprotective analysis were performed in the extracts. The new potentials of A. paniculata plant extracts were studied at various concentrations of extracts and shown by the value of the sun protection factor (SPF). Based on phytochemical test, A. paniculata plant extracts contained flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, triterpenoids and polyphenols. A. paniculata plant extracts have 2 maximum wavelengths at 230 nm and 362 nm. The excitation peak at 300 nm (552.11 a.u) and the emission peak at 605 nm (516.02 a.u). The flavonoid content of the extracts was 0.022 µg/mL quercetin with Rf value of 0.61. The chromatogram of the LCMS/MS is similar to quercetin-3-glycoside standard at a retention time of 2.77. The photoprotective activity of A. paniculata plant extracts had ≥ 15 SPF. Its shows the possibility to use this extract as photoprotective agent in pharmaceutical preparations.     

Use of an Electronic Tongue Based on All‐Solid‐State Potentiometric Sensors for the Quantitation of Alkaline Ions

An array of eight nonspecific potentiometric sensors was used in combination with multivariate calibration for the simultaneous determination of NH , K⁺ and Na⁺ ions. The sensors were of the all‐solid‐state type and employed a PVC polymer membrane. Signals were processed by using a multilayer artificial neural network (ANN). The ANN configuration used was optimized by using 8 neurons in the input layer, 5 in the hidden layer and 3 in the output layer. Use of the Bayesian Regularization algorithm allowed a quick building of an accurate model, as confirmed by random multi‐starting of network weights. The system was used to analyze synthetic and river water, waste water and fertilizer samples. Correct results were obtained for the three ions in synthetic and real water samples; in fertilizers, ammonium ion can be determined, while sodium and potassium show biased results.     

Determination of andrographolide and dehydroandrographolide in rabbit plasma by on-line solid phase extraction of high-performance liquid chromatography

The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with on-line solid phase extraction (SPE) and ultraviolet (UV) detection was developed for determining andrographolide and dehydroandrographolide in rabbit plasma. Plasma samples (100 μL) were injected directly into a C18 SPE column and the biological matrix was washed out for 6 min using 15% aqueous methanol. By rotation of the switching valve, andrographolide and dehydroandrographolide were eluted in the back-flush mode and transferred to the analytical column by the chromatographic mobile phase consisted of methanol:acetonitrile (ACN):water (50:10:40; v/v). The UV detection was performed at 225 nm. The calibration curves showed excellent linear relationship (R ≥ 0.9993) over the concentration range of 0.05-5.0 μg mL⁻¹. The within- and between-day precisions (R.S.D.) of two analytes were in the range of 1.2-6.5% and the accuracies were between 92.0% and 102.1%. Their recoveries were all greater than 94%. The limits of detection were 0.019 μg mL⁻¹ for andrographolide and 0.022 μg mL⁻¹ for dehydroandrographolide. This method was successfully applied to the plasma concentration-time curve study after oral administration of Andrographis paniculata Nees extract in rabbit.     

Simultaneous Determination of Andrographolide and Dehydroandrographolide in Chicken Plasma for Application to Pharmacokinetic Studies

A simple, suitable reverse phase liquid chromatographic method was developed for simultaneous determination of andrographolide (1) and dehydroandrographolide (2) in chicken plasma after orally administrating the ultra-fine powder of Andrographis paniculata. Plasma samples were extracted with ethyl acetate. Analysis of the extract was performed on a reversed-phase C18 column with gradient eluent composed of acetonitrile and 0.5% acetic acid. The flow rate was kept at 1 mL min⁻¹ and the detection wavelength was set at 225 and 255 nm for 1 and 2, respectively. All calibration curves showed good linear regression (R ≥ 0.9991). The good precision and recoveries with intra-day and inter-day were 3.2–8.7% and 91.1–98.4%, respectively. The limit of detection was 0.016 µg mL⁻¹ and the limit of quantitation was 0.040 µg mL⁻¹ for the target analytes. This validated method has been successfully applied in the pharmacokinetics study of 1 and 2 after orally administrating the Andrographis paniculata ultra-fine powder to chicken.

     

Synthesis of Andrographolide Cyclophosphate Derivatives and Their Antitumor Activities

A series of cyclophosphate andrographolide derivatives were synthesized from andrographolide, the cytotoxic constituent of the plant Andrographis paniculata. The derivative (P_R, P′_S)‐5 and (P_S, P′_S)‐6 were synthesized and the proposed mechanism for their formation was discussed. The structures of all compounds were elucidated by IR, NMR, MS (ESI), and HR‐MS. The stereochemistry of 6 was confirmed by X‐ray analysis. All the derivatives were tested for antitumor activity in vitro, and some of them showed good results.     

Homogeneous liquid-liquid microextraction via flotation assistance coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for determination of myclobutanil in cucumber,tomato, grape,and strawberry using genetic algorithm

Facile and potent homogeneous liquid–liquid microextraction via flotation assistance method (HLLME-FA) combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was proposed for determination of trace amounts of myclobutanil in fruit and vegetable samples. The paramount parameters, such as extraction and homogeneous solvent types and volumes, ionic strength and extraction time were studied. Under optimum conditions, the detection limit of 0.005 ng g^?1, the linear range of 0.05–100 ng g^?1, and the precision of 3.8% were acquired. A three-layer arti?cial neural network (ANN) model was used with 10 neurons and tan-sigmoid function at hidden layer and a linear transfer function at output layer were developed to predict the process. The results indicated that the proposed ANN model could perfectly predict the process with the mean square error of 0.89%. Then genetic algorithm was utilised to optimise the parameters. The proposed procedure showed satisfactory results for analysis of cucumber, tomato, grape, and strawberry.     

Rapid Simultaneous Determination of Andrographolides in Andrographis paniculata by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

The potential of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine has been evaluated. Seven quantitative parameters, andrographolide, deoxyandrographolide, dehydroandrographolide, neoandrographolide, moisture, ash content, and alcohol-soluble extract of Andrographis paniculata, were evaluated by NIRS. The reference values of andrographolides were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography, and the others were obtained using the standard methods of the 2015 Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The predicted values were determined by a quantitative model using NIRS based on partial least square regression. Different spectral preprocessing methods, spectral ranges, and optimum number of factors were selected to optimize the models. All models were estimated by the combination of various parameters, including the correlation coefficient of calibration for andrographolide, deoxyandrographolide, dehydroandrographolide, neoandrographolide, moisture, ash content, alcohol-soluble extract (values of 0.980, 0.984, 0.989, 0.983, 0.987, 0.988, 0.979, respectively), root mean square error of calibration (values of 0.156, 0.038, 0.050, 0.029, 0.604, 0.431, 0.135, respectively), root mean square error of prediction (values of 0.169, 0.041, 0.050, 0.033, 0.280, 0.493, 0.140, respectively), root mean square error of cross-validation (values of 0.626, 0.114, 0.158, 0.046, 1.145, 0.774, 0.508, respectively), and ratio of standard deviation to standard error of prediction (values of 4.583, 4.690, 4.796, 4.899, 4.899, 4.690, 5.099, respectively). The results show that the calibration models by NIRS are reliable and can be applied for the quantification for seven parameters from A. paniculata for quality control in traditional Chinese medicine production and processing.     

Andrographolide Exhibits Anticancer Activity against Breast Cancer Cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 Cells) through Suppressing Cell Proliferation and Inducing Cell Apoptosis via Inactivation of ER-α Receptor and PI3K/AKT/mTOR Signaling

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. Chemotherapy followed by endocrine therapy is the standard treatment strategy after surgery or radiotherapy. However, breast cancer is highly resistant to the treatments leading to the recurrence of breast cancer. As a result, the development of alternative medicines derived from natural plants with fewer side effects is being emphasized. Andrographolide isolated from Andrographis paniculata is one of the potential substances with anti-cancer properties in a variety of cell types, including breast cancer cells. This study aims to investigate the anti-cancer effects of andrographolide in breast cancer cells by evaluating cell viability and apoptosis as well as its underlying mechanisms through estrogen receptor (ER)-dependent and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathways. Cell viability, cell apoptosis, mRNA or miRNA, and protein expression were examined by MTT assay, Annexin V-FITC, qRT-PCR, and Western blot analysis, respectively. MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell viability was reduced in a concentration- and time-dependent manner after andrographolide treatment. Moreover, andrographolide induced cell apoptosis in both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells by inhibiting Bcl-2 and enhancing Bax expression at both mRNA and protein levels. In MCF-7 cells, the ER-positive breast cancer, andrographolide showed an inhibitory effect on cell proliferation through downregulation of ERα, PI3K, and mTOR expression levels. Andrographolide also inhibited MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell proliferation via induction of cell apoptosis. However, the inhibition of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell proliferation of andrographolide treatment did not disrupt miR-21. Our findings showed that andrographolide possesses an anti-estrogenic effect by suppressing cell proliferation in MCF-7 cells. The effects were comparable to those of the anticancer drug fulvestrant in MCF-7 cells. This study provides new insights into the anti-cancer effect of andrographolide on breast cancer and suggests andrographolide as a potential alternative from the natural plant for treating breast cancer types that are resistant to tamoxifen and fulvestrant.     

Flow injection spectrophotometric determination of andrographolide from Andrographis paniculata

A simple flow injection colourimetric procedure for determining andrographolide was proposed. It is based on the reaction between andrographolide with 3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid, resulting in an intense purplish red complex with a suitable absorption at 536 nm. A standard or sample solution was injected into the 3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid stream (flow rate of 1.0 ml min⁻¹) which was then merged with potassium hydroxide stream with the same flow rate. Optimum conditions for determining andrographolide were investigated by univariate method. Under the optimum conditions, a linear calibration graph was obtained over the range 5.0-150.0 μg ml⁻¹ and the detection limit was 1.50 μg ml⁻¹ (3σ). The relatives standard deviation of the proposed method calculated from 10 replicate injections of 10.0 and 80.0 μg ml⁻¹ andrographolide were 0.66% and 1.64%, respectively. The sample throughput was 50 h⁻¹. The proposed method has been satisfactorily applied to the determination of andrographolide in herb plant samples.     

Solid phase microextraction/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry integrated with chemometrics for detection of Salmonella typhimurium contamination in a packaged fresh vegetable

A rapid method for detection of Salmonella typhimurium contamination in packaged alfalfa sprouts using solid phase microextraction/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (SPME/GC/MS) integrated with chemometrics was investigated. Alfalfa sprouts were inoculated with S. typhimurium, packed into commercial LDPE bags and stored at 10 + 2 °C for 0, 1, 2 and 3 days. Uninoculated sprouts were used as control samples. A SPME device was used to collect the volatiles from the headspace above the samples and the volatiles were identified using GC/MS. Chemometric techniques including linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and artificial neural network (ANN) were used as data processing tools. Numbers of Salmonella were followed using a colony counting method. From LDA, it was able to differentiate control samples from sprouts contaminated with S. typhimurium. The potential to predict the number of contaminated S. typhimurium from the SPME/GC/MS data was investigated using multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network with back propagation training. The MLP comprised an input layer, one hidden layer, and an output layer, with a hyperbolic tangent sigmoidal transfer function in the hidden layer and a linear transfer function in the output layer. The MLP neural network with a back propagation algorithm could predict number of S. typhimurium in unknown samples using the volatile fingerprints. Good prediction was found as measured by a regression coefficient (R² = 0.99) between actual and predicted data.