Current Traditional Medicine - Online First

Diabetic patients in Saudi Arabia commonly use herbal medicines (HMs) to manage their condition. Research studies indicate that up to 70% of this population has tried HMs, with popular choices including Cinnamomum verum, Zingiber officinale, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Allium sativum, Aloe vera, Olea europaea, and Nigella sativa. More clinical trials evaluating their safety and effectiveness are needed to increase the adoption of these herbal remedies.

This systematic review aims to review clinical research in the Saudi Arabian context on the efficacy of commonly used HMs for diabetes.

A comprehensive search of medical literature was conducted to identify the most popular herbs used by Saudi diabetic patients. The PubMed, Cochrane, Medline, and ScienceDirect databases were utilized to find research studies published in Saudi Arabia that examined the effectiveness of traditional herbal remedies for managing diabetes.

Only four relevant studies from Saudi Arabia were identified, with three specific herbs (Trigonella foenum-graecum, Zingiber officinale, and Nigella sativa) used in all four studies. Two of the studies were blind clinical trials, but only one was double-blinded. The methodological quality of these studies was assessed using the Jadad score, with scores ranging from 1 to 3.

Although Saudi Arabia has a large population of diabetic patients, its contribution to clinical research in this field remains limited. Establishing research groups and developing a sustainable infrastructure could help to address this problem and promote more rigorous studies on HMs.

Plant extracts have wide applications in food, nutrition, and cosmetics, which results in a deeper investigation of natural ingredients. Numerous natural ingredients have been demonstrated to exhibit multiple activities, including antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and anti-melanogenesis. However, their combinations have not been well investigated, which could provide stronger performance with less toxicity and easier applications.

We used B16F10 cells treated with alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (αMSH) for melanogenesis-related studies, including cellular melanin content, tyrosinase activity, and gene or protein expression. MTT assay was used to evaluate cell viability. DPPH scavenging activity was measured for antioxidation. Nitric oxide (NO) content was evaluated in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treated RAW264.7 cells to indicate the performance on anti-inflammation.

In this study, six different compounds and their combinations were tested for melanogenesis. The results showed that the combination of glabridin, resveratrol, and ellagic acid (GRE) exhibited the highest efficiency, which was mainly manifested as inhibition of melanin production and tyrosinase activity, higher DPPH scavenging rate, and inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production. Meanwhile, our results showed that GRE could significantly downregulate the expression of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) related genes and proteins and could also inhibit the phosphorylation of cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB), which was the upstream signal of MITF.

The results suggest GRE exhibits high efficiency in inhibiting anti-melanogenesis, antioxidation, and anti-inflammation. Furthermore, GRE could downregulate the phosphorylation of the CREB and MITF signal pathway, which provides a theoretical basis for its application in pigmentation disorder disease and cosmetics.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a combination of physical and psychological symptoms that start during the luteal phase. There are no specific effective and safe remedies to relieve these symptoms. However, there is a great tendency to use herbal medicines instead of chemical medicines. This study aimed to assess and compare the effects of a soft gel capsule containing Pimpinella anisum, Oenothera biennis, and Salvia sclarea oils (POS) with control, before and after use in two consecutive cycles, on physical and psychological symptoms of PMS.

This was a triple-blind randomized clinical trial performed on 67 female students, who were residents in dormitories of the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science in Tehran, Iran. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: soft gel capsule users containing POS as the intervention group (n=32) and sunflower as the control group (SF) (n=35). The participants were 18-35 years old female students who were affected by PMS. The capsules were used twice daily, from the 21^st day of the menstrual cycle to 2 days after the menstruation, for two consecutive menstrual cycles. The tools for data collection were three questionnaires: a personal information questionnaire, a valid and reliable daily PMS symptom report (DSR) form, and a side effects assessment questionnaire. The physical, psychological, and general symptoms of PMS were assessed by the DSR, and the results were taken before and after intervention and between groups of the study.

Before and after the intervention, the comparison showed significant effectiveness of POC in reducing general, physical, and psychological symptoms after the first and second months of use. However, the comparison of the groups did not show a significant difference between the two groups regarding their PMS symptoms and the side effects of the medicines (p<0.05).

POS is a combination of three herbal medicines effective on the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, which can be used effectively and safely to improve the physical and psychological symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. This herbal remedy can be recommended by health care providers to women, who suffer from PMS symptoms and prefer to use herbal remedies instead of synthetic drugs. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the combined herbal remedies as well as the effectiveness of sunflower oil on PMS symptoms.

IRCT20190306042943N1.

The Cucurbitaceae family has been well-known since ancient times for its use in daily food preparations. Various traditional medicinal systems have also recognized its therapeutic importance. Its significance has also been established by modern techniques.

The current review aims to emphasize the glycosides of the Cucurbitaceae family in terms of their source, structures, extraction media, and bioactivities in various therapeutic areas like anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-cancerous, anti-diabetic, and cardiac models. Glycosides of Cucurbitaceae have been studied extensively. However, considering the vastness of the diversity among this family; there are still various avenues in which further research work is needed.

For the present review, we used Elsevier-ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, PubMed, ArticlesPlus, Semantic Scholar, and Google Scholar to conduct a literature search.

Cucurbitaceae is enriched with secondary metabolites, mainly glycosides. The occurrence of glycoside with its species, along with plant parts, is crucial and elaborately covered. It also captures the extraction system. The structure of selected glycosides is represented along with respective references. Various studies elaborate on the pharmacological significance of the extracts in diverse therapeutic areas.

This review provides extensive aspects about the glycosides of the family Cucurbitaceae and will help in further exploration of extraction, isolation, and bioactivity studies of
this important class of compounds from one of the largest families, i.e., Cucurbitaceae. It 
reiterates the need for further exploration in standardization along with extensive safety and
efficacy studies.