Future Natural Products
Volume:8 Issue: 1, Winter-Spring 2022

Our journal is presently known as Future Natural Products, previously Advanced Herbal Medicine (2015- 2021). Journal of Future Natural Products, Trendy, is the same old journal that was retitled in 2021 by the editorial board and intended to be published in the succeeding areas more energetically than before. With the assistance of academics, we hope this new scientific field will become an appropriate field for this journal’s growth in various indexes. It can also make the site more visible and view more articles in this magazine with high visibility. Future Natural Products is an international, free of charge, peer-reviewed, and open-access journal devoted to publishing original research articles, review articles, meta-analyses, editorials, letters to editors, and brief communications in the field of “Future Natural Products” involving both basic and clinical research. The journal has a distinguished editorial board with extensive academic qualifications, ensuring that it maintains high scientific standards and has broad international coverage.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder causing brain dysfunctions. Treatment and control of epilepsy have long been a challenge in medical sciences. Despite the variety of current anticonvulsant drugs, research continues to discover new drugs with the highest efficacy and the lowest side effects. In the present study, the anticonvulsant effects of anethole in the seizure induction with pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) were evaluated in a mice model with respect to its possible antioxidant effects. PTZ is known to cause generalized epilepsy in animal models. Accordingly, in this experimental study, 40 mice were divided into 5 groups; the first group received normal saline, the second group received 10 mg/kg diazepam, and the third to fifth groups were given anethole at 31.25, 62.5 and 125 mg/kg, respectively. Injections were conducted intraperitoneally for one week; then seizures were induced by the intravenous injection of 90 mg/kg PTZ. After determination of the duration of seizures in different groups, the mice were finally placed under deep anesthesia and their prefrontal cortex tissue was isolated to measure nitric oxide (NO), antioxidant capacity and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations. The results showed that anethole increased the delay in the onset of seizures, decreased the amount of nitrite in the brain, enhanced antioxidant capacity, and reduced MDA content in a dose-dependent manner. Overall, our results indicated the anticonvulsant effects of anethole that could be mediated by inhibiting oxidative stress.

Scutellaria bornmuelleri Hausskn. ex Bornm. ssp. mianensis Rech.f is one of the species of Scutellaria genus, Lamiaceae, that have long been used in traditional medicine. The aim of this study was to analyze the methanol extract of aerial parts of the plant.

Chemical composition of methanol extract of S. bornmuelleri aerial parts was determined using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

A total of 113 compounds were identified in the methanol extract of S. bornmuelleri shoot. The main compounds were organic acids (23.649%), aldehydes (14.516%), ketones (11.353%), alcohols (5.439%), carbohydrates (3.85%), methyl esters (3.713%), sugars (1.953%), acetates (1.933%), terpenes (2.522%), metal related compounds (1.229%), amides (1.169%) and other compounds (9.423%). Pentacosane (1.021%) was identified as the main carbohydrate, n-hexadecanoic acid (4.1%) as the major acid, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (10.063%) as the main aldehyde, 4H-Pyran-4-one, 2,3-dihydro-3,5-di hydroxy-6-methyl- (2.289%) as the main ketone, syringol (2.395) as the main alcohol, phytol (0.66%) as the main terpene, isopropyl acetate (0.728%) as the main acetate, propanoic acid, 2-oxo-, methyl ester (1.298%) as the main methyl ester, 9-octadecenamide, (Z)- (0.685%) as the main amide, d-glycero-d-ido-heptose (0.532%) as the main sugar, and (4H)1,3,2-dioxaborin, 4-ethenyl-4, 6-diethyl-5-(1-methylethyl)- (0.514%) as the main metal related compound.

The presence of different compounds with known bioactivities can make this plant a suitable medicinal plant for supplementary medication for various diseases. 

Foeniculum vulgare and Trachyspermum ammi belonging to the family Apiaceae are two traditional popular herbs in Traditional Iranian Medicine. Given the wide application of F. vulgare and T. ammi for treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, the objective of this study was to investigate their biological activities.

The cytotoxicity of ethanol seed extract of F. vulgare and T. ammi was evaluated on colorectal cancer (HCT116 and SW480) and human embryonic kidney cell lines (HEK293) by MTT assay. Toxicity and biocompatibility of RBC’s also were assessed by Artemia salina and hemolysis tests. The antibacterial activities and minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of extracts were measured by disc diffusion and the microtiter broth dilution, respectively.

The proliferation of cancer cells was inhibited by ethanol seed extracts. A moderate degree of cytotoxicity was observed for HCT116 cells growth (IC50=106.46 μg/mL) by T. ammi extracts at 72 hours. In addition, the ethanol seed extracts of F. vulgare and T. ammi exhibited no cytotoxic effects against brine shrimp larvae with LC50 of 2071.65 and 1576.92 μg/mL, respectively. The degree of hemolysis for ethanol seed extracts was less than 5% at 400 μg/mL. The maximum antibacterial activity was obtained for ethanol extracts of F. vulgare and T. ammi against S. aureus by disc diffusion (25.8 and 28.3 mm) and MIC (0.55 and 0.39-fold).

The ethanol extracts of F. vulgare and T. ammi have antiproliferative and antibacterial properties and could be used as adjuvant therapies against gastric and colorectal cancers and pathogenic bacteria.

Epilepsy is a disorder of the central nervous system that manifests with sudden, transient, recurrent and unpredictable seizures of sensory-motor, autonomic origin. Drugs used to treat the disorder may cause numerous side effects and treatment response may be unsatisfactory. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the in vitro effects of hydroalcoholic Petroselinum crispum L. leaf extract on pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizure in rats. In this experimental study, 60 male rats were randomly divided into 6 groups of 10 each. Control group received normal saline. Model group received PTZ at 90 mg/kg intraperitoneally. Intervention groups received P. crispum extract at concentrations of 100, 150 and 200 mg/kg 30 minutes before PTZ administration. Positive control group received 40 mg/kg phenobarbital 30 minutes before PTZ injection. Then, seizure threshold was recorded. In addition, serum and brain antioxidant capacity and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured. Treatment of mice given PTZ with different concentrations of P. crispum extract caused a significant increase in seizure threshold (P < 0.05). In mice receiving PTZ, a significant increase in serum and brain MDA levels was observed (P < 0.05) but no significant change in antioxidant capacity was noticed. Treatment of mice given PTZ with different concentrations of the extract led to a significant increase in brain and serum antioxidant capacity and a significant decrease in brain and serum MDA levels (P < 0.05). P. crispum shows protective efficacy against PTZ-induced seizures, which may be due to its antioxidant effects.

The global consumption of herbal medicines continues to increase steadily. Indeed, many people use herbal medicines for health promotion and therapeutic purposes in developing and industrialized countries. However, reports of adverse events in mass media are usually sentimental and generally render a negative feeling about the usage of herbal medicines instead of identifying the reasons for such incidences, which can be associated with a number of issues. Both national health specialists and the common people are concerned about the safety of herbal medicines. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the inclusion of herbal medicines in the current national pharmacovigilance systems to fortify national capability in keeping the safety of herbal medicines under surveillance and investigating the reasons for adverse events, and to share related data at different levels in the world. Iranian pharmacovigilance system fulfills most of the WHO pharmacovigilance criteria. However, the underreporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), particularly medicine-related hospital admissions and deaths is a major weakness of this system. In addition to paying more attention to ADRs reporting, the Iranian pharmacovigilance program requires to include herbal medicines that constitute a high proportion of medicinal products in Iran. Due to the absence of reporting mechanisms (for herbal medicines), there have so far been few reports on herbal medicine-induced adverse events. However, an extremely small number of reports do not guarantee the complete safety of herbal products. Therefore, herbal pharmacovigilance is required to ensure safety of herbal medicines in Iran.