Editorial Chemistry of Medicinal Plants, Foods, and ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jamc/2014/252516.pdf · Editorial Chemistry of Medicinal Plants, Foods, and Natural Products

EditorialChemistry of Medicinal Plants, Foods, and Natural Products

Shixin Deng,1 Shao-Nong Chen,2 and Jian Yang3

1 Research and Development Department, Morinda Inc., American Fork, UT 84003, USA2UIC/NIH Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research, Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy,College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60612, USA

3Western Pacific Tropical Research Center, College of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Guam, Mangilao, GU 96923, USA

Correspondence should be addressed to Shixin Deng; shixin [email protected]

Received 18 May 2014; Accepted 18 May 2014; Published 3 June 2014

Copyright © 2014 Shixin Deng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Medicinal foods and plants have been widely used as foods,dietary supplements, or medicines worldwide and demon-strated a diversified health benefits with a long history.The raw materials and finished products of botanicals arebecoming increasingly popular to public and scientific com-munities, highlighting the need for analyticalmethodology toensure the quality. The safety and efficacy of these medicinalnatural products are closely associated to their identify,authenticity and quality, which in turn relate to many factors,such as geographical conditions (soil, sunlight, precipitation,and air) and post-growth factors (harvesting, storage, trans-portation,manufacturing processes, etc.). As such, it is alwaysa challenge for scientific researchers to evaluate safety andefficacy of the complicated plant matrix. In this special, wehave invited 15 original research articles addressing the novelanalytical method development and validation, methodologyand instrumentation improvement, chemical characteriza-tion, biological activities of plantmaterials, extracts, and purephytochemicals.

The first paper of this special issue investigates thefeasibility of electronic tongue and multivariate analysis fordiscriminating the specific geographical origins of a Chinesegreen tea with protected designation of origin, and theauthors concludes that electronic tongue and chemometricscan provide a rapid and reliable tool for discriminatingthe specific producing areas of Longjing. The second paperdescribes a quantitative method of flavonoids and chloro-genic acid in the leaves of Arbutus unedo L. by using HPTLCand their antioxidant activities by DPPH. The third paper

reports a reliableHPLCmethod for the determination of afla-toxin M1 in eggs. The forth paper explores the characteristicsof the anthocyanin and flavonol composition and contentin grapes from plants resulting from intraspecific crossesof Vitis vinifera varieties Monastrell × Cabernet Sauvignon,Monastrell × Syrah, and Monastrell × Barbera. The fifthpaper presents a rapid and sensitive method for determiningaesculin of Cortex fraxini in rat by using HPLC-MS/MS withQTOF as a detector.

The sixth paper reports antioxidant activity and freeradical scavenging capacity of the essential oil and threedifferent extracts of wildly grown Mentha longifolia. Mean-while, the study also establishes volatile and phenolic profilesof essential oil and different extracts of wild mint (Menthalongifolia) from the Pakistani Flora by using GC-MSmethod.The seventh paper establishes a phytochemical profile ofCornus mas by identifying the biological constituents inthe fruits with the advanced UPLC-MS-TOF technology.Additionally, it reports DNA protective and antigenotoxicactivities of the main phytochemicals. The eighth paperproposes a GC-MS fingerprint method for comparison ofvolatile components in the different plant parts (leaves androots) of Agrimonia eupatoria. The ninth paper describesthe isolation of 𝛼- and 𝛽-carotene from crude palm oil andevaluates their antioxidant potential in an in vitro model.The tenth paper focuses on the development of a sensi-tive and specific gas chromatographic-mass spectrometrywith selected ion monitoring (GC-MS/SIM) method forsimultaneous identification and quantification of 𝛼-asarone,

Hindawi Publishing CorporationJournal of Analytical Methods in ChemistryVolume 2014, Article ID 252516, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/252516

2 Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry

𝛽-asarone, and methyl eugenol of Acorus tatarinowii Schottin rat plasma.

The eleventh paper addresses in vivo evaluation of theantioxidant activity of deacetylasperulosidic acid (DAA), amajor iridoid inMorinda citrifolia (noni) fruit, and the studyconcludes that DAA contributes to the antioxidant activityof noni juice by increasing superoxide dismutase activity.The twelfth paper demonstrates that 1H NMR spectroscopyis a suitable detection technique in the analysis of variousphytosterol forms in natural extracts. The thirteenth paperinvestigates the effects of varying temperatures with constantpressure of solvent on extraction efficiency of two chemi-cally different alkaloids, camptothecin (CPT) from stem ofNothapodytes nimmoniana (Grah.) Mabb. and piperine fromthe fruits of Piper nigrum L., and determines a compoundspecific extraction for the two target alkaloids.The fourteenthpaper isolates and purifies a protein called agathi leaf protein(ALP) from Sesbania grandiflora Linn. (agathi) leaves andevaluates its antioxidant, antibacterial, and cytoprotectiveactivity. The fifteenth paper describes the characterizationof nine polyphenols in Korean Prostrate Spurge (Euphorbiasupina) by using HPLC-MS/MS, and the dose-dependentantioxidant activities of flavonoids were also observed.

Shixin DengShao-Nong Chen

Jian Yang

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Editorial Chemistry of Medicinal Plants, Foods, and ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jamc/2014/252516.pdf · Editorial Chemistry of Medicinal Plants, Foods, and Natural Products