Journal List > J Menopausal Med > v.21(3) > 1092712

TOOLS
Yi, Hwang, Baek, Kim, Lee, Jun, and Kim: Application of Bioactive Natural Materials-based Products on Five Women's Diseases
Editorial

Journal of Menopausal Medicine 2015; 21(3): 121-125.

Published online: 25 December 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6118/jmm.2015.21.3.121

Application of Bioactive Natural Materials-based Products on Five Women's Diseases

Sun Shin Yi1, Eunmi Hwang2, Hye Kyung Baek1, Tae-Hee Kim3, Hae-Hyeog Lee3, Hyun Sik Jun4, , Sung-Jo Kim2,

1Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, College of Biomedical Science, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, Korea.

2Department of Biotechnology, Hoseo University, Asan, Korea.

3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Soonchunhyang University, College of Medicine, Bucheon, Korea.

4Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, College of Science and Technology, Korea University, Sejong, Korea.

Address for Correspondence: Hyun Sik Jun. Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, College of Science and Technology, Korea University, 2511, Sejong-ro, Jochiwon-eup 30019, Korea. Tel: +82-44-860-1411, Fax: +82-44-860-1598, toddjun@korea.ac.kr

Co-correspondence: Sung-Jo Kim. Department of Biotechnology, Hoseo University, 20, Hoeo-ro 79 beon-gil, Baebang-eup, Asan-si 31499, Korea. Tel: +82-41-540-5571, Fax: +82-41-540-9538, sungjo@hoseo.edu

Equal contributor:

Hyun Sik Jun and Sung-Jo Kim contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-corresponding authors.

Received 20 September 2015       Revised 12 October 2015       Accepted 10 November 2015

Copyright © 2015 by The Korean Society of Menopause

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Abstract

Women's health has been threatened by various diseases mainly including heart disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, depression, and autoimmune disease. But development of medication for these diseases has been restricted by high development costs and low success rates. Herein the attempt to develop valid bioactive materials from a traditional natural material has been made. Resveratrol has been reported to be effective in treatment of breast cancer and heart disease. Goji berry has received attention as a natural based therapeutic material to treat a diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis. Leonurus family has been reported to be effective particularly in pregnant women due to high contents of vitamin as well as stimulation of uterine contraction. Annona family has effects such as anti-anxiety, anticonvulsant and recently it is proposed to be as a therapeutic material to cure depression based on its strong antidepressant effect. Shiraia bambusicola has been utilized to cure angiogenesis-related disease from ancient China and furthermore recently it was proved to be effective in rheumatoid arthritis. Getting an understanding of utilization of these traditional natural materials not only enhances the interest in development of therapeutic materials for preventing and treating various women's diseases, but also makes it possible to develop novel therapeutic materials.

Keywords: Annona, Antioxidants, Fruit, Leonurus

Introduction

Heart disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, depression, and autoimmune disease have been reported to be five women's diseases that threaten women's health: i) heart disease which is the number one health risk to women is caused by genetic influences, age, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity, ii) breast cancer has been known to result from genetic factor, precocious puberty, late menopause, alcohol, and obesity, iii) osteoporosis is caused by sex hormone unbalance, excessive diet, glucocorticoids, and anticonvulsants, iv) depression is due to psychological factors, medication for high blood pressure, and excessive stress, and v) although causes for autoimmune disease are not well known, but genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors may be implicated. Particularly approximately 75% of autoimmune diseases have been reported to occur in women.12345
Last decades the development of new drugs has been attempted to cure various diseases and a number of materials were discovered. Recently natural product-based pharmaceutical materials have been found to be effective in various diseases and comprehensive interests have been increased.678 Now natural product-based pharmaceuticals are estimated to be a huge market size of more than 20 trillion won910 and especially China and Japan provide excellent outcomes through practical application based on oriental medicine with a history of thousands of years.1112 In addition, China and Japan have built a flexible licensing system through which the natural product-based materials are released in the form of medicines whereas a number of Western countries develop the natural materials just as dietary supplements. However, less than 10 of approximately 30 novel drugs launched have been derived from natural materials, although Korean traditional medicine has been regarded as the essence of oriental medicine based on traditional Chinese medicine and also has experience of a number of utilization of natural materials.1314
In this short review, it will be examined whether natural material-based products that recently are getting attention can be applied to women's diseases as therapies.

Resveratrol

Resveratrol (trans-3,4',5-trihydroxystilbene), a polyphenol-based substance, has been investigated since its effects on anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, and neuroprotection have been reported to ameliorate the oxidative stress implicated in neurodegenerative diseases.15 Resveratrol is a type of phytoalexin that a large number of plants produce in order to protect themselves against the environmental challenges such as bacteria. To date it has been reported that resveratrol is found in about 70 species of plants including grapes, mulberry, and peanuts, and particularly relatively large amounts of resveratrols are produced from seeds and skins of grapes with high contents of sugars to protect against pathogens like Vitis vinifera.161718
It has been well known that resveratrol plays a pivotal role on inhibition of apoptotic cell death manifested in various diseases through chemopreventive effect to control endoplasmic reticulum stress as well as mitochondrial oxidative stress.171920 Recently it was also found that resveratrol has not only a protective effect against heart disease,21 but also a variety of anti-cancer efficacies on different cancers including breast cancer based on in vivo experimental data.22

Goji Berry

Goji berry is the fruit of Lycium barbarum and Lycium Chinese and has been used for a long time as a traditional Chinese medication because it exhibits a variety of effects.23 Recently it was demonstrated that polysaccharides extracted from Lycium barbarum fruits are able to neutralize free radicals through a strong antioxidant effect derived from their hydrogen donating capacity.24 Given that Lycium barbarum extracts have been proved to stabilize blood sugar as well as lipid metabolism by studying with diabetes animal models, it has been proposed that Goji berry can be utilized as therapeutic materials to treat diabetes and cardiovascular disease.2526 In addition, polysaccharides extracted from Lyceum barbarum fruit have been shown to have a therapeutic effect for osteoporosis via increases of bone mineral density and bone mineral content.27

Leonurus Family (Chinese Motherwort)

As the name implies, Chinese motherwort also known as Leonurus japonicus Houtt is well known to have beneficial effects for women in oriental herbal therapies and especially because of its high contents of vitamins as well as the effect of uterine contraction, the study of Chinese motherwort has been focused on its beneficial effect for pregnant women.28
Recent studies using rat models found that Chinese motherwort extracts inhibit acetylcholine-induced relaxation, resulting in inducing vasoconstriction, consequently suggesting that Chinese motherwort should be effective for treatment of cardiovascular disease.29 The solvent extract of Chinese motherwort has been reported to have anti-cancer effects to inhibit the cell proliferation through regulating cytotoxicity and cycle arrest.30 By studying with rat models, it has been also demonstrated that treatment with Leonurus heterophyllus extracts decreases the neutrophil accumulation in cerebral cortex of the brain, consequently inducing neuroprotection by decreasing cerebral ischemic damage.31 Schmidt et al.32 also demonstrated that the insulin secretion ability of INS-1E cells increases by treatment with Leonurus sibiricus extracts, suggestive of their application as a potential therapeutic agent for diabetes.

Annona Family

Various types of Annona have been utilized as traditional Mexican medicines because of their activities of anti-anxiety, anticonvulsant, and tranquilizing effect. Furthermore since it has been found that the Annona contains abundant alkaloid-based compounds which are able to bind to 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 1A (5-HT1A), inducing dopamine production.33 Recent studies demonstrated that the aerial parts of Annona cherimolia have a strong antidepressant effect and by high performance liquid chromotagraphy (HPLC) analysis 1,2-dimethoxy-5,6,6a,7-tetrahydro-4H-dibenzoquinoline-3,8,9,10-tetrol, anonaine, nornuciferine, and liriodenine are contained in Annona cherimolia, suggesting that it can be utilized as a new antidepressant.34

Shiraia Bambusicola

Shiraia bambusicola is a fungus that is parasitic on twigs of bamboo and is widely grown in Southern China and Japan.35 It is reported that Shiraia bambusicola extracts have been derived by treatment with 95% ethanol, followed by consecutive purification into four fractions. These extracts have been used to treat angiogenesis-related diseases.36
Recently it has been shown that an active ingredient Shiraiachrome A not only has a strong effect of anti-angiogenesis but also inhibits autophosphorylation of four receptor tyrosine kinases, which consequently suggesting that Shiraiachrome a can be used as anti-cancers and therapeutic material for rheumatoid arthritis.36

Acknowledgements

This work was carried out with the support of "Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ01104601)" Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

Notes

Conflict of Interest No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

References

1. Zamora D. Women's top 5 health concerns: From heart disease to breast cancer to depression, WebMD gives you the inside info on why women are at high risk for these problems but may not know it. Atlanta, GA: WebMD, LLC;2010. Cited by 2015 Feb 2. Available from: http://www.webmd.com/women/features/5-top-female-healthconcern.
2. Kim A, Lee JH, Lee JY, Oh YM, Hong SN, Choi H, et al. Association between serum homocysteine concentrations and bone mineral density in middle aged women. J Korean Soc Menopause. 2013; 19:81–86.
3. Chung HW, Kang BM, Kim MR, Yoon BK, Lee BS, Choi H, et al. The influence of thyroid function on bone mineral density in Korean postmenopausal women. J Korean Soc Menopause. 2012; 18:36–42.
4. Kim TH, Lee HH, Chung SH, Park HS. Differentiation in the management of osteoporosis between premenopausal and menopausal women. J Korean Soc Menopause. 2011; 17:21–26.
5. Hwang SY, Kim TH, Lee HH. Neutral sphingomyelinase and breast cancer research. J Menopausal Med. 2015; 21:24–27.
6. Gulick RM. Current status of new antiretroviral drugs in development. Top Antivir Med. 2002; 10:14–19.
7. O'Brien RJ, Spigelman M. New drugs for tuberculosis: current status and future prospects. Clin Chest Med. 2005; 26:327–340.
8. Pharmaceutical research and manufacturers of America. Medicines in development diabetes. Biopharmaceutical research companies are developing 180 medicines to treat diabetes and related conditions. Washington, DC: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America;2014. Cited by 2015 Apr 1. Available from: http://www.phrma.org/sites/default/files/pdf/diabetes2014.pdf.
9. Malla S, Hobbs JE, Sogah EK, Yeung MT. Assessing the functional foods and natural health products industry: A comparative overview and literature review. Can Agric Innov Regul Netw. 2013; 32:1–6.
10. International Trade Centre. The North American market for natural products: prospects for Andean and African products. Geneva, CH: International Trade Centre;2012.
11. Huang X, Kong L, Li X, Chen X, Guo M, Zou H. Strategy for analysis and screening of bioactive compounds in traditional Chinese medicines. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 2004; 812:71–84.
12. Lee SW, You YO. Bioidentical hormone therapy in post-menopausal women. J Korean Soc Menopause. 2010; 16:6–15.
13. Gaulton A, Bellis LJ, Bento AP, Chambers J, Davies M, Hersey A, et al. ChEMBL: a large-scale bioactivity database for drug discovery. Nucleic Acids Res. 2012; 40:D1100–D1107.
14. Korea Bio-Economy Research Center. 2014 Biopharmaceutics trend report. Seongnam: Korea Bio-Economy Research Center;2014.
15. Yoon DH, Kwon OY, Mang JY, Jung MJ, Kim do Y, Park YK, et al. Protective potential of resveratrol against oxidative stress and apoptosis in Batten disease lymphoblast cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2011; 414:49–52.
16. Chan MM. Antimicrobial effect of resveratrol on dermatophytes and bacterial pathogens of the skin. Biochem Pharmacol. 2002; 63:99–104.
17. Frémont L. Biological effects of resveratrol. Life Sci. 2000; 66:663–673.
18. Filip V, Plocková M, Šmidrkal J, Špičková Z, Melzoch K, Schmidt Š. Resveratrol and its antioxidant and antimicrobial effectiveness. Food Chem. 2003; 83:585–593.
19. Rotondo S, Rajtar G, Manarini S, Celardo A, Rotillo D, de Gaetano G, et al. Effect of trans-resveratrol, a natural polyphenolic compound, on human polymorphonuclear leukocyte function. Br J Pharmacol. 1998; 123:1691–1699.
20. de la Lastra CA, Villegas I. Resveratrol as an antioxidant and pro-oxidant agent: mechanisms and clinical implications. Biochem Soc Trans. 2007; 35:1156–1160.
21. Tomé-Carneiro J, Gonzálvez M, Larrosa M, Yáñez-Gascón MJ, García-Almagro FJ, Ruiz-Ros JA, et al. Resveratrol in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease: a dietary and clinical perspective. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2013; 1290:37–51.
22. Carter LG, D'Orazio JA, Pearson KJ. Resveratrol and cancer: focus on in vivo evidence. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2014; 21:R209–R225.
23. Potterat O. Goji (Lycium barbarum and L. chinense): Phytochemistry, pharmacology and safety in the perspective of traditional uses and recent popularity. Planta Med. 2010; 76:7–19.
24. Li XM, Li XL, Zhou AG. Evaluation of antioxidant activity of the polysaccharides extracted from Lycium barbarum fruits in vitro. Eur Polym J. 2007; 43:488–497.
25. Luo Q, Cai Y, Yan J, Sun M, Corke H. Hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects and antioxidant activity of fruit extracts from Lycium barbarum. Life Sci. 2004; 76:137–149.
26. Ming M, Guanhua L, Zhanhai Y, Guang C, Xuan Z. Effect of the Lycium barbarum polysaccharides administration on blood lipid metabolism and oxidative stress of mice fed high-fat diet in vivo. Food Chem. 2009; 113:872–877.
27. Zhu M, Jinggang M, ChangSheng H, Haiping X, Ning M, Caijiao W. Extraction, characterization of polysaccharides from lycium barbarum and its effect on bone gene expression in rats. Carbohydr Polym. 2010; 80:672–676.
28. Li X, Yuan FL, Zhao YQ, Chen FH, Lu WG, Li CW, et al. Effects of leonurine hydrochloride on medically induced incomplete abortion in early pregnancy rats. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2011; 159:375–380.
29. Pang S, Tsuchiya S, Horie S, Uchida M, Murayama T, Watanabe K. Enhancement of phenylephrine-induced contraction in the isolated rat aorta with endothelium by H2O-extract from an Oriental medicinal plant Leonuri herba. Jpn J Pharmacol. 2001; 86:215–222.
30. Tao J, Zhang P, Liu G, Yan H, Bu X, Ma Z, et al. Cytotoxicity of Chinese motherwort (YiMuCao) aqueous ethanol extract is non-apoptotic and estrogen receptor independent on human breast cancer cells. J Ethnopharmacol. 2009; 122:234–239.
31. Liang H, Liu P, Wang Y, Song S, Ji A. Protective effects of alkaloid extract from Leonurus heterophyllus on cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury by middle cerebral ischemic injury (MCAO) in rats. Phytomedicine. 2011; 18:811–818.
32. Schmidt S, Jakab M, Jav S, Streif D, Pitschmann A, Zehl M, et al. Extracts from Leonurus sibiricus L. increase insulin secretion and proliferation of rat INS-1E insulinoma cells. J Ethnopharmacol. 2013; 150:85–94.
33. Hasrat JA, De Bruyne T, De Backer JP, Vauquelin G, Vlietinck AJ. Isoquinoline derivatives isolated from the fruit of Annona muricata as 5-HTergic 5-HT1A receptor agonists in rats: unexploited antidepressive (lead) products. J Pharm Pharmacol. 1997; 49:1145–1149.
34. García-Conesa M, Estrada-Reyes R, Araujo Escalona , Ledesma Velázquez I, Martínez-Mota L, Moreno J, et al. Antidepressant-like effects of an alkaloid extract of the aerial parts of Annona cherimolia in mice. J Ethnopharmacol. 2012; 139:164–170.
35. Cheng TF, Jia XM, Ma XH, Lin HP, Zhao YH. Phylogenetic study on Shiraia bambusicola by rDNA sequence analyses. J Basic Microbiol. 2004; 44:339–350.
36. Tong Y, Zhang X, Zhao W, Zhang Y, Lang J, Shi Y, et al. Anti-angiogenic effects of Shiraiachrome A, a compound isolated from a Chinese folk medicine used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Eur J Pharmacol. 2004; 494:101–109.
TOOLS
Similar articles