Natural Products & Plant Materials

Researchers at Meijo University in Japan showed that a lipoxygenase from the cyanobacterium suizenji-nori oxidizes alpha-linolenic acid to make the gateway intermediate in saclipin biosynthesis.

Researchers at Jinan University found new oligomers in Artocarpus communis and made seven compounds in 7 to 9 steps by biomimetic synthesis.

UC San Diego researchers found a new macrolide in Okeania sp., solved its stereostructure and confirmed nanomolar activity against trypanosomes.

Researchers at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences mapped the entire biosynthetic pathway of escin Ia, a raw material for drugs treating brain edema and venous insufficiency, and reproduced it in a tobacco relative.

Researchers at Germany's HIPS expanded myxobacterial taxonomy to 28 families and 90 genera and released ABC-Myxo, an atlas of biosynthetic gene clusters.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences analyzed ginseng population genomics together with 169 ginsenosides and found PgUXT and PgURT, key branch-point enzymes.

An animal study reported that a triterpenoid from the traditional medicinal herb Phellodendron bark lowered inflammatory signaling by inducing degradation of the fatty acid metabolism enzyme ACOT1.

The biosynthetic pathway to the core scaffold of an anti-leukemia drug once obtained from endangered plants of the genus Cephalotaxus has been nearly completed.

Waking an unexpressed gene cluster in an environmental actinomycete produced a new antibiotic that also works against vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

A discovery method uses antibiotics that suppress bacteria at high concentrations at low concentrations to draw out production of hidden secondary metabolites.

This annual review organizes 1,256 new compounds reported in one year from marine microbes, algae, sponges and more by source and activity.

In a trial of people with obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease but without diabetes, berberine did not change visceral fat or liver fat.

A meroterpenoid that could not be synthesized because of its dense polycyclic scaffold was completed through a divinylcyclopropane rearrangement.

In a double-blind trial by French researchers, saffron extract did not change the composite score for subclinical depressive symptoms.

A marine-derived alkaloid targeted the FDX1 protein to trigger cuproptosis and also overcame oxaliplatin resistance.

In an analysis of 8,905 people in the COSMOS trial, cocoa extract did not lower the overall incidence of hypertension.

In an animal study, a water extract of Aurantii Fructus suppressed caspase-4 in the mouse hippocampus and increased neurogenesis and synaptic proteins.

Researchers at Peking University identified four enzymes for the biosynthesis of HSYA, a component found only in safflower flowers, and synthesized it from scratch in a relative of tobacco.

A lasso-shaped peptide made by a soil bacterium blocks a new site on the bacterial ribosome and inhibited even resistant bacteria.

Mining the genomes of the MAR4 lineage of Streptomyces isolated from the sea turned up a new class of halogenated, broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Researchers decoded the astragalus genome, found six enzymes that make astragaloside IV, and reproduced its production in a relative of tobacco.

Among patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction who were receiving standard care, the risk of the composite event was lower in the group that added Qiliqiangxin than in the placebo group.

In adults with both impaired glucose tolerance and metabolic abnormalities, the risk of developing diabetes was lower in the Jinlida group than in the placebo group.

Morroniside, a compound derived from Cornus, reduced fat cell differentiation and curbed weight gain in obese mice.

The saponin vaccine adjuvant QS-21, which depended on Chilean soapbark tree bark, was made from start to finish in genetically engineered yeast.

In a double-blind trial of 400 patients after polyp removal, the share with adenoma recurrence within 2 years was lower in the herbal granule group.

When 18 adults with obesity and prediabetes ate cinnamon for 4 weeks each, their continuous glucose monitoring readings were lower than during the placebo period.

Researchers found the enzyme that makes the oxetane ring of the anticancer drug paclitaxel's skeleton and used it to make the precursor baccatin III in tobacco plants.

Loganin, a representative compound of Cornus, was observed to suppress fat cell differentiation in cells and in an obese mouse model.

Comparing four blending ratios, the 7:3 blend of Cornus and Ribes fasciculatum extracts showed the greatest suppression of fat-production genes.