To explore the hepaprotective sesquiterpenes from Curcuma longa L., the Feature-Based Molecular Networking (FBMN) strategy was used to annotate the sesquiterpenes in the ethyl acetate fraction of C. longa (EAC) and their MS/MS fragmentation patterns. A total of 30 sesquiterpenes (1−30) were identified from the EAC based on ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) data. Network pharmacology and molecular docking elucidated procurcumenol (24) may targeted the key genes protein kinase B alpha (AKT1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) through regulating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in the prevention of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Furthermore, compound 24, as the main constituent of EAC, exerted anti-inflammatory effects in ALD by downregulating inflammatory factors, such as TNF-α, IL-6. Western blotting analysis showed that it can up-regulate the phosphoinositol-3-kinase (p-PI3K) and p-AKT levels. Taken together, our findings suggested that 24 exerts therapeutic effects on ALD in NCTC1469 cells by suppressing inflammatory and modulating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

In the ethnic regions of Yunnan province, China, Cinnamomum chago is recognized as a nutraceutical food that possesses significant economic, ecological, and medicinal value. Although studies have highlighted the seeds of C. chago with high content in polyphenols, flavonoids, and tannins, the studies of components and biological activities of C. chago are under investigated. To explore the functional components hidden in the edible and medical plant C. chago, UPLC-MS/MS and Feature-Based Molecular Networking (FBMN) strategies were applied to investigative the antioxidant components in C. chago. A total of 104 compounds including 43 lipids, 21 phenols, 20 alkaloids, 10 amino acids, six organic acids and four terpenoids were identified by MS/MS analysis for the first time. It is noteworthy that there are four previously undescribed lipids were characterized. The n-butanol fraction (n-BuF) of C. chago extracts exhibited the strongest antioxidant capacity in radical-scavenging assays. Namely, the n-BuF effectively mitigated oxidative stress in H₂O₂-induced HepG2 cells by significantly reducing intracellular ROS levels and apoptosis via the Nrf2/NQO1 pathway. The results highlighted that the kernels of C. chago hold great potential as a source for developing functional and nutritional foods.

Lipids are essential for normal life activities and biological functions of the human body, and disorders of lipid metabolism produce a lipotoxic environment, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, inflammation, and cell death, which can lead to a variety of diseases in the body. It has been found that lipid metabolism disorders are closely associated with brain injury disease, cancer, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease (CVD), respiratory disease and infectious disease. In recent years, many medicinal and edible plants such as Pueraria lobata, Gardenia jasminoides, Curcuma longa, citrus fruits, peanuts, etc. have shown great potential in regulating lipid metabolism and some of the hidden active components showed innovative mechanisms. AMPK, PPARγ, SIRT1, Foxp3, NLRP3, and Keap1 are increasingly recognized as therapeutic targets in the field of regulating lipid metabolism. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of natural lipid-regulating modulators in medicinal and edible plants and their mechanism of actions, which offer valuable references for the discovery of natural lipid metabolism modulators and a therapeutic strategy for treatment of lipid metabolism-related diseases.

Medicinal and dietary plants provide numerous nutritional and functional compounds and also have various potential health benefits to humanity. The specific and efficient techniques for accurate identification of nutritional compounds and functional metabolites is crucial for the development of functional foods from medicinal and dietary plants. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) are indispensable and essential technologies that provide an unsurpassed wealth of untargeted identification, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and structural information in the study of food and plant products. In the past decade, the rapid development of modern analytical technology has led to the emergence of new approaches and strategies for natural products discovery. Especially the application of novel NMR- and MS-based identification and dereplication strategies aided by artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms have brought about a significant shift in the natural products discovery process. These developments and changes in the natural products filed have given us insights into how to accurately target and mining nutritional, functional, and bioactive compounds. Thus, we have summarized recent research on novel NMR and MS based strategies and methods focusing on functional compounds, accurate identification and efficient discovery mainly in medicinal and dietary plants. This review could provide a comprehensive perspective for a better understanding of novel strategies and methods based on NMR and MS technologies, which could provide valuable insights and ideas for functional compounds mining.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the major form of neurodegenerative diseases that can severely impede normal cognitive function, makes it one of the most common fatal diseases. There are currently over 50 million AD patients worldwide. The neuropathology of AD is perplexing and there is a scarcity of disease-modifying treatments. Currently, early diagnosis of AD has been made possible with the discovery of biological markers associated with pathology, providing strong support for the improvement of the disease status. The search for inhibitors of AD markers from dietary supplements (DSs) has become a major hot topic. Especially with the widespread use of DSs, DSs containing polyphenols, alkaloids, terpenes, polysaccharides and other bioactive components can prevent AD by reducing Aβ deposition, inhibiting tau protein hyperphosphorylation, reconstructing synaptic dysfunction, weakening cholinesterase activity, regulating mitochondrial oxidative stress, neuronal inflammation and apoptosis. This review summarizes the anti-AD effects of the main DSs and their bioactive constituents, as well as the potential molecular mechanisms covers from 2017 to 2023. Additionally, we discussed the opportunities and challenges faced by DSs in the process of AD prevention and treatment, aiming to further provide new perspectives for functional food development.