editorial chemistry of medicinal plants, foods, and natural...

EditorialChemistry of Medicinal Plants, Foods,and Natural Products 2015

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

1Research 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, USA3Western 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 20 September 2015; Accepted 21 September 2015

Copyright © 2015 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 plants and natural products have been demon-strated to possess diversified health benefits for thousandsof years by traditional uses and modern scientific research.An increased global demand has been observed over years.In 2014, we published the first special issue of Chemistry ofMedicinal Plants, Foods, and Natural Products, aiming toaddress safety, identity, and efficacy of the natural entities.As a continuing program, we edited a special issue for2015. The challenge for raw materials and finished productsof botanicals attracts public and scientific communities.The safety and efficacy of these medicinal natural productsare closely associated with their identity, authenticity, andquality, which in turn relate to many factors, such as geo-graphical conditions (soil, sunlight, precipitation, and air)and postgrowth factors (harvesting, storage, transportation,manufacturing processes, etc.). In this special issue, wehave invited original research articles addressing the novelanalytical method development and validation, methodologyand instrumentation improvement, chemical characteriza-tion, and biological activities of plant materials, extracts, andpure phytochemicals.

Sesquiterpene lactones represent a large group of naturalcompounds with diversified biological activities. B. Ivanescuet al. presented an overview of methodology on chemicalextraction, identification, and quantification, as well as aliterature review of biological activities of sesquiterpenelactones found in Artemisia genus. Z. Nagy et al. investigatedvariation of polyphenols, capsaicinoids, and vitamin C in sixhybrids of chili peppers with HPLC during ripening period.By means of different detectors, 7 major capsaicinoids, many

polyphenols, and vitamin C were identified and quantified.Based on these results, authors observed that the amountsof vitamin C increased and most of polyphenols kept thesame level in all hybrids, while major capsaicinoids variationdepended on different hybrid peppers during ripening. J.K. Kim et al. addressed the comparison of the nutritionaland chemical properties and sensory attributes of Seomaemugwort and the commonly consumed species Artemisiaprinceps Pamp. and concluded that Seomae mugwort hadhigher contents of polyunsaturated fatty acids, total phenoliccompounds, vitamin C, and essential amino acids and abetter radical scavenging activity and more diverse volatilecompounds than A. princeps.

Q. Wu and X. Gong used LabVIEW, a G language-based virtual instrument software, to establish a system fordetermination of sugar contents in honey.They stated that thenew system may improve the accuracy of the measurementresults by avoiding the artificial operation, cumbersomedata processing, and the artificial error in optical activitymeasurement, and thus, it may apply to the analysis of thebatch inspection on the sugar degree of honey. M. Dyduch-Sieminska et al. presented their research on the chemicalcomposition of three wild strawberry cultivars fruits. Theyobserved significant differences among these cultivars interms of physicochemical property, flavonoids contents, phe-nolic acids, and total tannins and anthocyanins, as well astheir antioxidant activity by means of the DPPH method. C.Corsaro et al. presented amethod of using 1HHR-MASNMRtechnique to investigate metabolites of Mediterranean diet.Authors processed and analyzed the HR-MAS solid-state

Hindawi Publishing CorporationJournal of Analytical Methods in ChemistryVolume 2015, Article ID 121849, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/121849

2 Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry

NMR data with different software for PCA and quantitativeanalysis. By combination with qNMR techniques and PCAanalysis, authors could distinguish the characterization ofProtectedGeographical Indication (PGI), ProtectedDesigna-tion of Origin (PDO), and Traditional Italian Food Products(PAT) vegetables from other non-PGI, non-PDO, and non-PAT. The advantage of HR-MAS NMR methodology is therapidity and simultaneity of the qualitative and quantitativeanalyses without additional sample treatment. Although itssensitivity is not very high, the advantage of thismethodologywill make it very attractive for food industry.

G. Negri et al. discussed safety issue of homemadealcoholic beverages (unrecorded) in Brazil. By means ofdifferent measurements, including GC-FID/MS, FT-IR, andICP-ASE, authors investigated a total of 152 samples collectedfrom two cities of Sao Paulo State and seven cities of MinasGerais State, Brazil. The results revealed that most of theseunrecorded alcohol beverages have exceeded the regulatorylimitation, including methanol and cyanates. Authors sug-gested more severe Quality Control (QC) and regulations onthese unrecorded beverages are needed. S. Bado et al. investi-gated physical and chemical variability of tigernuts (Cyperusesculentus) cultivated in Burkina Faso. They reported thatthree Cyperus esculentusmorphotypes studied are importantsource of macronutrients (starch, fat, and sucrose) andminerals (potassium, phosphorus, silicon, chlorine, sulfur,and magnesium). Genetic variability exists among cultivatedtigernuts from Burkina Faso and from others grown world-wide. M. Godlewska et al. developed a precolumn derivatiza-tion method to determine the quantity of 𝛼-lipoic acid (LA),an organosulfur compound. In this method the LA degradedproduct, DHLA, was converted to 2-S-pyridinium derivativewith 2-chloro-1-methylquinolinium tetrafluoroborate. It notonly increases sensitivity with spectrophotometric assay, butalso stabilizes the reaction product to increase reliable resultsfor the determination of LA with HPLC method.

The paper authored by J.-H. Kim et al. developedand validated a quantitative analytical method by usinghigh-performance liquid chromatography equipped with aphotodiode array detector for determination of 19 markercompounds in herbal preparations. The method also wascombined with a chemometric analysis involving principalcomponent analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis.J. Chen et al. described that a Rapid-Resolution LiquidChromatography- (RRLC-) Triple Quadrupole Mass Spec-trometry withMRM has been developed for characterizationof Deer-Horn Glue. It could be used for detection of gelatinadulteration quickly as QC of Deer-Horn Glue, a traditionalChinese medicine. M.M. Celik et al. addressed the protectiveeffects of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) and intralipid(IL) on nephrotoxicity caused by acute dichlorvos toxicity onrats.They concluded that both CAPE and IL may prevent therenal injuries with their antioxidant activities.

Shixin DengShao-Nong Chen

Jian Yang

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