Eman Shawky

Phytochemical and biological investigation of Hymenocallis littoralis Salisb

A phytochemical investigation of the bulbs and flowers of Hymenocallis littoralis Salisb., cultivated in Egypt, was carried out, which resulted in the isolation of four alkaloids, lycorine (1), hippeastrine (2), 11‐hydroxyvittatine (3), and (+)‐8‐O‐demethylmaritidine (4), and of two flavonoids, quercetin 3′‐O‐glucoside (5), and rutin (6). The volatile constituents of the plant flowers were analyzed for the first time by GC/MS, which led to the identification of 26 known compounds (Table 1). Finally, the antimicrobial activity of the petroleum ether extract of the flowers of H. littoralis was investigated.

New rapid validated HPTLC method for the determination of galanthamine in Amaryllidaceae plant extracts

The work reported in this paper aims at developing an accurate, specific, repeatable and robust HPTLC method for the determination of galanthamine in different Amaryllidaceae plant extracts.

A new approach to develop a standardized method for assessment of acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of different extracts using HPTLC and image analysis

A new, validated, sensitive and cheap method for preliminary quantitative evaluation of acetylcholine esterase inhibitory activity is presented. The proposed method combines HPTLC with data analysis by means of image processing software. An in-situ TLC autobiographic method was employed in which regions of the TLC plate which contain acetylcholinesterase inhibitors show up as white spots against the yellow background. Bleaching of the yellow color, caused by substances with acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity was observed and recorded using a digital camera. ImageJ, JustTLC and Sorbfil, three image processing programs were evaluated for quantitative measurements. For evaluation of the assay efficiency, acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of different Amaryllidaceae plant extracts was expressed as Standard Activity Coefficients (SACs), which are relative measures of the activity to the well known acetylcholinesterase inhibitor eserine. We attempted to validate the method according to the ICH guideline. Different statistical data revealed that all image analysis software are able to detect the acetylcholine esterase inhibitory activity at very low concentration levels with the ImageJ program being the best of all three tested software regarding sensitivity, linearity and precision.

New Rapid Validated HPTLC Method for the Determination of Lycorine in Amaryllidaceae Plants Extracts

A rapid, accurate, specific, repeatable and robust HPTLC method for the determination of lycorine in different Amaryllidaceae plant extracts is presented in this work. No article related to the HPTLC determination of lycorine in plant extracts has been reported in literature. Lycorine, a common alkaloid of family Amaryllidaceae, moreover, there have been some recent reports which reveal the interaction of lycorine with DNA and tRNA. It has, therefore, been to the interest of phytochemists to determine the content of this alkaloid in Amaryllidaceaous plants.

Multivariate analyses of NP-TLC chromatographic retention data for grouping of structurally-related plant secondary metabolites

The chromatographic behavior of 28 plant secondary metabolites belonging to four chemically similar classes (alkaloids, flavonoids, flavone glycosides and sesquiterpenes) was studied by normal-phase thin-layer chromatography (NP-TLC) under 5 different chromatographic systems commonly used in plant drug analysis with the aim to explore whether the retention properties of these metabolites can determine the chemical group they belong to. The use of RM values as the retention parameter is implemented as a relatively new approach in plant analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical clustering heat maps and discriminant analysis (DA), were used for statistical evaluation of the chromatographic data and extraction of similarities between chemically related compounds. The twenty eight metabolites were classified into four groups by principal component analysis. The heat map of hierarchical clustering revealed that all metabolites were clustered into four groups, except for caffeine, while linear discriminant analysis showed that 96.4% of metabolites are predicted correctly as the groupings identified by chemical class in original and cross-validated data. The main advantage of the approach described in current paper is its simplicity which can assist with preliminary identification of metabolites in complex plant extracts.

Determination of synephrine and octopamine in bitter orange peel by HPTLC with densitometry.

This paper presents the development and validation of an improved method for the simultaneous analysis of synephrine and octopamine using high-performance thin-layer chromatography with densitometric detection. Separation was performed on silica gel 60F254 plates. The mobile phase is comprised of methanol, ethylacetate, methylene chloride and concentrated ammonia (2:2:1:0.05, v:v:v:v). The Rf values were 0.292 ± 0.0083 and 0.413 ± 0.0089 for synephrine and octopamine, respectively (n = 9). Ultraviolet absorbance detection at 277 nm was used for the alkaloids detection. Specificity, accuracy (recovery rates were between 96 and 99%) and precision (in both cases intra-day precision and inter-day precision were ≤ 2.0%) of the method were determined. Their amounts were calculated using the regression equations of the calibration curves which were linear in the range 0.2-1.2 µg/spot. The amounts of alkaloids in basic methanolic extracts of bitter orange peel measured by the method were 0.253 and 0.142% for synephrine and octopamine, respectively. Most of the factors evaluated in the robustness test were found to have an insignificant effect on the selected responses at 95% confidence level. The method was validated giving rise to a dependable and high-throughput procedure well suited to routine application.

Green techniques in comparison to conventional ones in the extraction of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids: Best solvents selection and parameters optimization

An undisputed trend in sample preparation at present is to meet the requirements of green chemistry especially in the field of natural products. Green technology continuously pursues new solvents to replace common organic solvents that possess inherent toxicity. Over the past two decades, non-ionic surfactants have gained enormous attention from the scientific community. The micelle-mediated extraction and cloud-point preconcentration (CPE) methods offer a convenient alternative to the conventional extraction systems. Recently, natural deep eutectic solvents (NDESs) have emerged as green and sustainable solvents for efficient extraction of bioactive compounds or drugs. They are generally composed of neutral, acidic or basic compounds that form liquids of high viscosity when mixed in certain molar ratio. The presented work aimed to comprehensively compare and evaluate the potential and effectiveness of NDES as well as non-ionic surfactants (Genapol X-080, Triton X-100 and Triton X-114) for extraction of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids from Crinum powellii bulbs as representative example of plant material, in comparison to the conventional solvents (methanol, ethanol and water).A new validated high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method has been developed for the simultaneous quantitation of three alkaloids markers, lycorine, crinine and crinamine, in the bulbs of C. powellii. Extraction efficiency of the targeted alkaloids from the bulb matrix with organic and ecofriendly (green) solvents were studied. Results revealed that NDES and surfactants were significantly more efficient in alkaloid extraction than previous methods requiring the consumption of organic solvents and water. Genapol X-80 demonstrated 138%, 149% and 145%, while choline chloride: fructose (5:2): H2O (35%) NDES mixture demonstrated 243%, 225% and 238% of the total alkaloidal extraction capacity of ethanol, methanol and water, respectively at 50 °C for extraction time 1 h using ultrasonication for all experiments. Furthermore, Box-Behnken response surface design combined with the overall desirability value were successfully employed to optimize and study the individual and interactive effect of process variables such as extraction temperature, time and surfactant %, for Genapol X-80, and sonication extraction temperature, time and water concentration, for choline chloride: fructose: H2O NDES mixture, on the alkaloidal yield from C. powellii. It was evident that parameters interacting together can act in synergism if adjusted properly according to the optimized conditions to obtain maximum alkaloids extractability. It is for the first time that the efficiency of micelle-mediated extraction has been compared to that of natural deep eutectic solvents for the extraction of alkaloids and the results thoroughly discussed.

In-silico profiling of the biological activities of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids

The large number of publications about Amaryllidaceae alkaloids reflects the abundance and variety in biological activity of these alkaloids. An in‐silico approach was implemented in this work to rationalize the individual alkaloids to molecular biological activity.

Evaluation of the effect of extraction solvent and organ selection on the chemical profile of Astragalus spinosus using HPTLC- multivariate image analysis

The evaluation of extraction protocols for untargeted and targeted metabolomics was implemented for root and aerial organs of Astragalus spinosus in this work. The efficiency and complementarity of commonly used extraction solvents, namely petroleum ether, methylene chloride, ethyl acetate and n-butanol were considered for method evaluation using chemometric techniques in conjunction with new, simple, and fast high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method for fingerprint analysis by extracting information from a digitalized HPTLC plate using ImageJ software. A targeted approach was furtherly implemented by developing and validating an HPTLC method allowing the quantification of three saponin glycosides. The results of untargeted and targeted principle component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) revealed that the apparent saponins profile seems to depend on a combined effect of matrix composition and the properties of the selected solvent for extraction, where both the biological matrix of the investigated plant organs, as well as the extraction solvent can influence the precision of metabolite abundances. Although, the aerial part is frequently discarded as waste, it is shown hereby that it has similar chemical profile compared to the medicinal part, roots, yet a different extraction solvents pattern is recognized between the two organs which can be attributed to the differences in the composition, permeability or accessibility of the sample matrix/organ tissues, rather than the chemical structures of the detected metabolites.

HPTLC and GC/MS Study of Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids of Two Narcissus Species.

In this article, we report on the alkaloid profile and dynamic of alkaloid content and diversity in two Narcissus plants at different stages of development. The alkaloid profile of the two Narcissus species was investigated by GC/MS and HPTLC. Fifty eight Amaryllidaceae alkaloids were detected, and 25 of them were identified in the different organs of N. tazetta and N. papyraceus. The alkaloid 3‐O‐methyl‐9‐O‐demethylmaritidine is tentatively identified here for the first time from the Amaryllidaceae family, and four alkaloids (tazettamide, sternbergine, 1‐O‐acetyllycorine, 2,11‐didehydro‐2‐dehydroxylycorine) are tentatively identified for the first time in the genus Narcissus. The different organs of the two species analyzed showed remarkable differences in their alkaloid pattern, type of biosynthesis, main alkaloid and number of alkaloids. Lycorine‐type alkaloids dominated the alkaloid, metabolism in N. papyraceus, while alkaloids of narciclasine‐, galanthamine‐ and homolycorine‐types were found only in the species N. tazetta L.