Maytenus

Uses of medicinal plants by people around the world significantly contribute and guide biologically active compounds research that can be useful in the combat against various diseases. Due to a great chemical and structural variety found in their vegetal structures it consolidates ethnopharmacology as an important science for the pharmaceutical section. Inserted in the diversity of medicinal plants, is the Maytenus genus, whose research has already revealed lots of isolated substances which are responsible for a great variety of biological activities, among which we cite analgesic and anti-inflammatory, for the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, gastritis, ulcers and gastrointestinal disorders. The aim of this review article is to make a compendium of the Maytenus genus and its isolated chemical compounds, among them tingenone. The elucidation of its mechanism of action reveals promising sources for the development of new drugs specially targeted for the treatment of painful inflammatory diseases. Research for the treatment of the main diseases that affect the humankind is a constant concern of the population, whose information is proven by the numerous records found in the first civilizations that lived on Earth (Calixto and Siqueira, 2008). Ancient civilization such as Chinese, Indian and North African have provided written evidence from the origin of man using plants for the treatment of a great variety of diseases. In Old Greece, for example , scholars classified plants and gave descriptions that helped in the identification process (Phillipson, 2001). Nowadays, treatment through medicinal plants plays a fundamental role in the health systems of many countries (Bhatia et al., 2014). Researches of medicinal plants are becoming more important in the development of health care and maintenance programs in different parts of the world (Shil et al., 2014). Brazilian biodiversity comprises more than 50,000 species of vascular plants (20–22% of the existent total in the planet) and, due to this, the interest in studies of medicinal properties of plants are explored by Brazilian researchers and the pharmaceutical industry

This study reveals that an ethanolic supernatant obtained from an aqueous extractive solution prepared from residues of methanolic extracts of ground leaves of Maytenus ilicifolia is able to cause a concentration- and endothelium-dependent relaxation in pre-contract rat aorta ...

RESUMO: A Maytenus ilicifolia Mart. ex Reissek, Celastraceae, vem sendo utilizada a muitos anos tanto na terapêutica clínica, contudo suas propriedades farmacológicas continuam sob estudo. O objetivo desse estudo é fornecer subsídios teóricos para o aprimoramento dos estudos, em especial os estudos clínicos, e assim estabelecer definitivamente as propriedades reais da Maytenus ilicifolia. ABSTRACT: : " Review of Maytenus ilicifolia Mart. ex Reissek, Celastraceae. Contribution to the studies of pharmacological properties ". The Maytenus ilicifolia Mart. ex Reissek, Celastraceae has been used for many years as a medicine in the therapeutic in Brazil. However, the pharmacological action still under evaluation by many research centres. The aim of this study is stablish, based in clinical trials, the real properties of Maytenus ilicifolia.

Maytenus ilicifolia is an important plant in Brazilian folk medicine, used in many gastric disorder treatments. Low molecular weight components present in the leaves have been characterized as afzelechin, epiafzelechin, catechin, epicatechin, gallocatechin and epigallocatechin, as detected by HPLC and ESI-MS. Condensed tannins have also been found, consisting of di-, tri-, tetra-, and penta-, hexa, and heptamers. ESI-MS analyses were performed in positive and negative ionization modes, and in contrast with other investigations, negative ionization improved sensitivity for obtaining molecular ions. Moreover, the tandem-MS profile with negative detection provided characteristic fragments, such as those found at m/z 543 [(epi)afzelechin-(epi)afzelechin], m/z 561 [(epi)afzelechin-(epi)catechin], and m/z 577 [(epi)catechin-(epi)catechin] or [(epi)afzelechin-(epi)gallocatechin]. The analysis of the fragments also indicated the presence of additional ether linkage between C2 and C7, present in A-Type proanthocyanidins, and were identified at m/z 559 [(epi)afzelechin-(epi)catechin], m/z 575 [(epi)catechin-(epi)catechin] or [(epi)afzelechin-(epi)gallocatechin] and at m/z 591, [(epi)catechin-(epi)gallocatechin]. CID-fragmentation was used for tannins sequencing, as well as 3D NMR HMQC-TOCSY and COSY, which provided fingerprint assignments for identification of cathechin at delta 4.55/82.1 (H-2/C-2), 3.96/68.1 (H-3/C-3) and 2.82-2.50/27.7 (H-4a-H-4b/C-4), and epicathechin delta 4.78/79.1 (H-2/C-2), 4.15/66.7 (H-3/C-3) and 2.82-2.73/28.5 (H-4a-H-4b/C-4). Since HMQC-TOCSY gives a high resolution heteronuclear connectivity, it is useful for identification of other cis-trans isomers present in complex flavonoid mixtures.

An arabinogalactan was obtained from the leaves of Maytenus ilicifolia by hot aqueous 2% KOH extraction, followed by a freezing-thawing process and anion-exchange chromatography. It consisted of arabinose, galactose, galacturonic acid, and rhamnose in a 69:20:6:5 molar ratio. Methylation analysis, partial acid hydrolysis, and (13)C NMR spectroscopy indicated that it was an arabinogalactan containing a (1-->4)-linked beta-Galp main chain, substituted at O-6 with Ara units, which were in turn substituted at O-5 (Araf) and/or O-4 (Arap), O-3, O-3,5, and O-2,5. This arabinogalactan is probably linked to O-4 of some Rhap units of a type I rhamnogalacturonan, formed by repeating (1-->4)-alpha-D-GalpA-(1-->2)-alpha-L-Rhap groups.

Natural cholinesterase inhibitors have been found in many biological sources. Nine compounds with agarofuran (epoxyeudesmane) skeletons were isolated from seeds and aerial part of Maytenus disticha and Euonymus japonicus. The identification and structural elucidation of compounds were based on spectroscopic data analyses. All compounds had inhibitory acetylcholinesterase activity. These natural compounds, which possessed mixed or uncompetitive mechanisms of inhibitory activity against AChE, may be considered as models for the design and development of new naturally-occurring drugs for management strategies for neurodegenerative diseases. This is the first time reporting these chemical structures for seeds of M. disticha.

Five different morphological types of Maytenus ilicifolia of the same age and harvested under the same conditions showed distinct accumulations of some friedo-nor-oleananes. A rapid, sensitive and reliable reverse-phase HPLC method (employing an external standard) was used for the determination of the cytotoxic triterpenoids, 20α-hydroxymaytenin, 22β-hydroxymaytenin, maytenin, celastrol and pristimerin in each of the five types. Well resolved peaks with good detection response and linearity in the range­1.0–100 µg/mL were obtained. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Flavonol glycosides present in leaves of Maytenus ilicifolia, were examined after fractionation on silica-gel column. Flavonol mono-, di-, tri-, and tetraglycosides, containing kaempferol, quercetin or myricetin were identified by offline electrospray mass spectrometry. Increasing the cone energy induced to adducts variation, from H(+) to Na(+). Protonated ions were characteristically fragmented by sequentially removing the monosaccharide residues, whereas in the sodiated ions, the aglycone was firstly removed. Online high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, with simple gradients of water, acetonitrile and acetic acid indicated the presence of several isomers, which were further identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry as containing galactose or glucose.

The aim of this study was to develop a separation method using multiple injections in a single experimental run (MISER) employing gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) for the first time, without instrument modification, to increase the instrumental throughput. The method was applied to the determination of the triterpenes friedelan-3-ol and friedelin in a plant extract obtained from Maytenus ilicifolia leaves. The column used in the chromatography system was a ZB-50 (30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.15 μm) with 50% phenyl-50% methyl-polysiloxane. The samples (1.0 μL) were injected using the split mode (1:90), with the injector at 280 °C and FID detector at 320 °C. The column temperature was programmed to isothermal mode at 300°C. Helium was used as the carrier gas with a constant flow of 1.5 mL min(-1). It was possible to perform three injections in the same run using the MISER method. An increase in the instrumental throughput by a factor of around 2.6 was observed when the use of multiple injections was compared with the single injection method. This method showed good linearity for both analytes with R(2)>0.99 and the values for the limit of detection were 0.24 mg L(-1) and 0.44 mg L(-1), for friedelan-3-ol and friedelin, respectively. Furthermore, the values for the limits of quantification were 0.79 mg L(-1) for friedelan-3-ol and 1.16 mg L(-1) for friedelin. The proposed method has potential for other GC applications, allowing an increase in the instrumental throughput of the methods by applying this separation technique.

This study established the DNA barcoding sequences (matK and rbcL) of three plant species identified in the tribe Clauseneae, namely Clausena excavata, C. harmandiana and Murraya koenigii. The total phenolic and total flavonoid contents, together with the biological activities of the derived essential oils and methanol extracts, were also investigated. Herein, the success of obtaining sequences of these plant using two different barcode genes matK and rbcL were 62.5% and 100%, respectively. Both regions were discriminated by around 700 base pairs and these had resemblance with those of the Clausenae materials earlier deposited in Genbank at a 99–100% degree of identity. Additionally, the use of matK DNA sequences could positively confirm the identity as monophyletic. The highest total phenolic and total flavonoid content values (p < 0.05) were observed in the methanol extract of M. koenigii at 43.50 mg GAE/g extract and 66.13 mg QE/g extract, respectively. Furthermore, anethole w...

Ethanol extract of Maytenus rigida stem bark and its fractions were assessed for antinociceptive activity in tail-flick test in rats. The activity was located in the chloroform, ethyl acetate and aq.methanol fractions. Phytochemical screening revealed that catechin was the only common class of compounds present on the ethanol extract as well as on the active fractions. 4′-Methylepigallocatechin, isolated from the ethyl acetate and aq.methanol fractions, showed antinociceptive effect in the tail-flick test (75 mg/kg; p.o.), which was reversed by the opiate antagonist naloxone (3 mg/kg; i.p.).

Optimization of CSD and CMC-Na in tablet formulations containing a high dose of SDE fromM ilicifolia was performed by central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). The study demonstrated that CSD affected mainly the hardness and friability, while CMC-Na modified the disintegration times. The optimum formula for minimum disintegration time and friability, and maximum crushing strength, was found to contain 1.2% (wt/wt) of CSD and 5.0% (wt/wt) of CMC-Na. At these conditions, the tablet shows a crushing strength of 107.9 N, a friability of 0.56% (wt/wt), and a maximum disintegration time of 6.8 minutes.

Ethanol extract of Maytenus rigida stem bark and its fractions were assessed for antinociceptive activity in tail-flick test in rats. The activity was located in the chloroform, ethyl acetate and aq.methanol fractions. Phytochemical screening revealed that catechin was the only common class of compounds present on the ethanol extract as well as on the active fractions. 4′-Methylepigallocatechin, isolated from the ethyl acetate and aq.methanol fractions, showed antinociceptive effect in the tail-flick test (75 mg/kg; p.o.), which was reversed by the opiate antagonist naloxone (3 mg/kg; i.p.).