Rarefaction on natural compound extracts diversity among genus
Introduction
Plant phylogeny refers to the description of the evolutionary history of related species plant groups. Different information that is not limited to morphological characters [1], [2], molecular [3] or genome-scale data [4] had their contribution to a phylogeny [5].
Plant extracts, and thus plant composition, are used as therapeutics from ancient times [6] and are sometimes seen as source of active compounds for new drugs [7], [8]. Antibacterial effect of a series of medicinal plant extracts and/or oils have already been identified (Terminallia chebula [9], Garcinia kola [10], Pterygota macrocarpa and Cola gigantea [11], Cryptolepine sanguinolenta [12], Quercus dilatata L. [13], Rhus coriaria L. [14], Launaea resedifolia L. [15], etc.). Furthermore, the plants extracts are also used for their anti-inflammatory activities (mangrove plants [16], Caesalpinia ferrea [17]). Beside those main effects, other effects such as anti-oxidant (Myrtus communis, Smilax aspera, Lavandula stoechas, and Calamintha nepeta [18]), anticancer (Zingiber officinale Roscoe., Atractylodes lancea (Thung.) DC., Piper chaba Hunt. [19]), immunomodulation (triterpenoids ursolic acid and lupeol extracted from Eucalyptus tereticornis and Gentiana kurroo [20]), anti-viral (anti-herpes simplex virus type 1 activity of oxyresveratrol extracted from Artocarpus lakoocha [21]) had been identified.
The biological activity of plant extracts are of interest due to their specific activities such as anti-viral [22] and antibacterial [23], [24], anticancer therapeutics [25], neuroprotection [26], antiliver fibrosis [27], and the list could continue. The identification of those extracts with specific biological activity is of main interest in order to integrate the knowledge and to develop new plant-derived drugs [28], [29]. The analysis of biological activity of plant extracts is an interdisciplinary approach and moved from a simple observation to integrated approaches (involving analytical chemistry, synthesis, molecular biology, proteomics, chemoinformatics, bioinformatics, etc.). Huge amounts of various data regarding activity and/or action mechanisms of plant extracts are available [30], [31], [32], [33], [34]. Integrating these amounts of disperses data could bring knowledge of important relevance and may provide a measureless resource for future discovery of biomedical relevant compounds.
The aim of our study was to conduct a differentiation analysis using rarefaction approach among genera regarding natural richness in active compounds and to provide the expression of the diversity as function of number of plants that belong to a genus.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The chemical composition of five genera, represented by Cacalia [35] (NE of Asia & America & SW and NW of China), Dracocephalum [36] (North and South America & Europe & Asia), Jatropha [37] (America & Africa (tropical and subtropical)), Saussurea [38] (Asia & Europe), and Senecio [39] (worldwide), represented the material of our research. The main characteristics of the genera included in the study are summarized in Table 1.
The names of compounds as well as the source of compounds for each
Results
The distribution of richness in natural active compounds according to genus was obtained based on applied methodology and is presented in Fig. 1. The minimum number of active compounds (average of the expectance, 4.10) was observed for Senecio when just one plant was included in analysis. As expected, the maximum number of compounds (average of the expectance, 243.35 – Dracocephalum) was observed when 50 plants were included in the sample.
The increase in number of active compounds varied from 0
Discussion
Diversity of natural compounds extracts for Cacalia, Dracocephalum, Jatropha, Saussurea, Senecio genus was successfully investigated. The rarefaction approach (approach not influenced by the sample size) has been applied to compare species richness among investigated genera using shape of the curve as Sanders applied on marine species [46].
Bioactive compounds in plants (compounds with pharmacological and toxicological effects in human and animals that are produced by plants) become of interest
Conclusion
Our results revealed that both in terms of richness in active compounds and weight of most frequent extracted compound Dracocephalum genus is most suitable for propagation being followed by Saussurea. Cacalia and Jatropha proved to have the lowest diversity in terms of bioactive compounds related to the investigated genus.
Acknowledgements
The study was supported by the European Social Fund, Human Resources Development Operational Program, project number 89/1.5/62371 through a fellowship for L. Jäntschi. The funding source had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or in preparation of the manuscript.
Lorentz Jäntschi received a PhD in Organic and Computational Chemistry from the Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca (2000) and a PhD in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca (2010). He is now associate professor at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. His main research interests concern the modeling and simulations of different systems, algorithmics and client-server applications. He published over 150 papers and is a
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Cited by (2)
Lorentz Jäntschi received a PhD in Organic and Computational Chemistry from the Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca (2000) and a PhD in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca (2010). He is now associate professor at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. His main research interests concern the modeling and simulations of different systems, algorithmics and client-server applications. He published over 150 papers and is a co-author of a book on Molecular Topology (Nova Science, 2001).
Sorana D. Bolboacă received a PhD in Medical Sciences from “Iuliu Haţieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca (2006). Since October 2001 she has been working for the “Iuliu Haţieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca, and is now assistant professor at this university (2006–present). Her research topics are QSPR/QSAR approaches and applied statistics for medical and/or life-science research. She published over 100 papers and is an author of a book chapter on QSAR Studies on Desired Properties for Drug Design (Research Signpost, 2010).