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Faculty of Applied Sciences

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Secondary metabolites

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    A brief review of secondary plant metabolites as anticancer agents
    (COJ Reviews & Research, 2020-05-18) Mohanlall, Viresh; Naicker, Leeann
    Plants have provided a source of medicine from the beginning of human history and are the core of modern medicine. Moreover, plant-based drug discovery has led to the development of various anticancer drugs (such as vincristine, vinblastine, etoposide, paclitaxel, camptothecin, topotecan and irinotecan). The use of botanical, photochemical, biological and molecular techniques have facilitated the discovery of novel secondary metabolites from native and indigenous plants that can inhibit the human topoisomerase II enzyme (target for anticancer drugs) and kill cancer cells. Therefore, the aim of this review was to further investigate the anticancer activity of secondary metabolites from native and indigenous plants and determine the classes of compounds that contributed towards its activity.
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    Isolation and quantification of β-sitosterol, ergosterol and stigmasterol from Hypoxis rigidula Baker var. rigidula and hypoxis hemerocallidea Fisch., C.A.Mey. & Avé-Lall (Hypoxidaceae)
    (ijSciences, 2013-01) Mkhize, N.; Mohanlall, Viresh; Odhav, Bharti
    Hypoxis rigidula Baker var. rigidula and Hypoxis hemerocallidea Fisch., C.A.Mey. & Avé-Lall (Hypoxidaceae) are frequently used African medicinal plant that has been used by traditional healers for daily healthcare needs. Phytosterols isolated from Hypoxis spp, have been found to be effective in lowering plasma cholesterol concentration by inhibiting the absorption of cholesterol in the small intestine. Phytosterols serve to stabilize phospholipid bilayers in plant cell membranes just as cholesterol does in animal cell membranes. The aim of this study was to isolate phytosterols from Hypoxis rigidula and evaluate its cholesterol reduction activity. The objectives were to extract phytosterols from Hypoxis using distillation; identify phytosterols using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and quantify phytosterols present in the plant extracts using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-UV). TLC gave the following phytosterol standard values: β-sitosterol at Rf 0.63±0, ergosterol at Rf 0.66±0 and stigmasterol at Rf 0.68±0. The chloroform extracts of both H. hemerocallidea and H. rigidula the presence of β-sitosterol, ergosterol and stigmasterol. HPLC analysis gave the following concentrations of phytosterols; 48.4 and 35.2 µg/ml of stigmasterol were found in H. rigidula and H. hemerocallidea respectively and 86.7 and 48.4 µg/ml of ergosterol were found in H. rigidula and H. hemerocallidea respectively. These results show a significant difference in the phytosterol content between the two species of the genus Hypoxis.