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Following a request from the university (Dortmund University), a previous affiliation of the Guest Editor (Bojidarka Ivanova) in the published publication [...].Following a request from the university (Dortmund University), a previous affiliation of the Guest Editor (Bojidarka Ivanova) in the published publication [...].

The Cupressaceae family includes species considered to be medicinal. Their essential oil is used for headaches, colds, cough, and bronchitis. Cedar trees like Chamaecyparis lawsoniana (C. lawsoniana) are commonly found in urban areas. We investigated whether C. lawsoniana exerts some of its effects by modifying airway smooth muscle (ASM) contractility. The leaves of C. lawsoniana (363 g) were pulverized mechanically, and extracts were obtained by successive maceration 1:10 (w:w) with methanol/CHCl[sub.3]. Guinea pig tracheal rings were contracted with KCl, tetraethylammonium (TEA), histamine (HIS), or carbachol (Cch) in organ baths. In the Cch experiments, tissues were pre-incubated with D-600, an antagonist of L-type voltage-dependent Ca[sup.2+] channels (L-VDCC) before the addition of C. lawsoniana. Interestingly, at different concentrations, C. lawsoniana diminished the tracheal contractions induced by KCl, TEA, HIS, and Cch. In ASM cells, C. lawsoniana significantly diminished L-type Ca[sup.2+] currents. ASM cells stimulated with Cch produced a transient Ca[sup.2+] peak followed by a sustained plateau maintained by L-VDCC and store-operated Ca[sup.2+] channels (SOCC). C. lawsoniana almost abolished this last response. These results show that C. lawsoniana, and its active metabolite quercetin, relax the ASM by inhibiting the L-VDCC and SOCC; further studies must be performed to obtain the complete set of metabolites of the extract and study at length their pharmacological properties.

The objective of this study was the optimization of the extraction process and the qualitative and quantitative determination of the bioactive metabolites: 12-O-methylcarnosic acid (12MCA), carnosic acid (CA), carnosol (CS), 7-O-methyl-epi-rosmanol (7MER) and rosmanol (RO) in infusions, decoctions, turbulent flow extracts, tinctures and oleolites from three Salvia species: Salvia officinalis L. (common sage, SO), Salvia fruticosa Mill. (Greek sage, SF) and Salvia rosmarinus Spenn (syn Rosmarinus officinalis L.) (rosemary, SR), using Quantitative Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ([sup.1]H-qNMR). Regarding the aqueous extracts, decoctions appeared to be richer sources of the studied metabolites than infusions among the three plants. For SR, the turbulent flow extraction under heating was the most efficient one. The optimum time for the preparation of decoctions was found to be 5 min for SF and SO and 15 min for SR. It is noteworthy that SR tinctures were not stable in time due to decomposition of the abietane-type diterpenes CA and CS because of the polar solvent used for their preparation. Contrary to this finding, the oleolites of SR appeared to be very stable. Olive oil as a solvent for extraction was very protective for the contained abietane-type diterpenes. A preliminary stability study on the effect of the storage time of the SF on the abietane-type diterpenes content showed that the total quantity of abietanes decreased by 16.51% and 40.79% after 12 and 36 months, respectively. The results of this investigation also demonstrated that [sup.1]H-qNMR is very useful for the analysis of sensitive metabolites, like abietane-type diterpenes, that can be influenced by solvents used in chromatographic analysis.

One new dibenzyltyrolactone lignan dysoslignan A (1), three new arylnaphthalide lignans dysoslignan B–C (2–4), along with fourteen known metabolites (5–18), were isolated from the roots and rhizomes of Dysosma versipellis. Their structures and stereochemistry were determined from analysis of NMR spectroscopic and circular dichroism (CD) data. Compound 2 represents the first report of naturally occurring arylnaphthalide lignan triglycoside. The cytotoxic activities of all isolated compounds were evaluated against A-549 and SMMC-7721 cell lines. Compounds 7–10 and 14–16 were more toxic than cisplatin in two tumor cell lines. This investigation clarifies the potential effective substance basis of D. versipellis in tumor treatment.

Novel compounds with antidepressant activity via monoamine oxidase inhibition are being sought. Among these, derivatives of 3-n-butylphthalide, a neuroprotective lactone from Apiaceae plants, may be prominent candidates. This study aimed to obtain the oxidation products of 3-n-butylphthalide and screen them regarding their activity against the monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) isoform. Such activity of these compounds has not been previously tested. To obtain the metabolites, we used fungi as biocatalysts because of their high oxidative capacity. Overall, 37 strains were used, among which Penicillium and Botrytis spp. were the most efficient, leading to the obtaining of three main products: 3-n-butyl-10-hydroxyphthalide, 3-n-butylphthalide-11-oic acid, and 3-n-butyl-11-hydroxyphthalide, with a total yield of 0.38–0.82 g per g of the substrate, depending on the biocatalyst used. The precursor–3-n-butylphthalide and abovementioned metabolites inhibited the MAO-A enzyme; the most active was the carboxylic acid derivative of the lactone with inhibitory constant (K[sub.i]) < 0.001 µmol/L. The in silico prediction of the drug-likeness of the metabolites matches the assumptions of Lipinski, Ghose, Veber, Egan, and Muegge. All the compounds are within the optimal range for the lipophilicity value, which is connected to adequate permeability and solubility.

The UHPLC–HRMS analysis of Cortinarius ominosus basidiomata extract revealed that this mushroom accumulated elevated yields of an unreported specialized metabolite. The molecular formula of this unknown compound, C[sub.17]H[sub.10]O[sub.8], indicated that a challenging structure elucidation lay ahead, owing to its critically low H/C atom ratio. The structure of this new isolate, namely ominoxanthone (1), could not be solved from the interpretation of the usual set of 1D/2D NMR data that conveyed too limited information to afford a single, unambiguous structure. To remedy this, a Computer-Assisted Structure Elucidation (CASE) workflow was used to rank the different possible structure candidates consistent with our scarce spectroscopic data. DFT-based chemical shift calculations on a limited set of top-ranked structures further ascertained the determined structure for ominoxanthone. Although the determined scaffold of ominoxanthone is unprecedented as a natural product, a plausible biosynthetic scenario involving a precursor known from cortinariaceous sources and classical biogenetic reactions could be proposed.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214549.].[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214549.].