Phytochemicals and Inflammation: Is Bitter Better?
Authors
Dorin Dragoș
Department of Medical Semiology, Faculty of Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 020021 Bucharest, Romania
Madalina Petran
Department of Functional Sciences I/Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 050474 Bucharest, Romania
Teodora-Cristiana Gradinaru
Department of Functional Sciences I/Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 050474 Bucharest, Romania
Marilena Gilca
Department of Functional Sciences I/Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 050474 Bucharest, Romania
The taste of a herb influences its use in traditional medicine. A molecular basis for the taste-based patterns ruling the distribution of herbal (ethno) pharmacological activities may not be excluded. This study investigated the potential correlations between the anti-inflammatory activity (AIA) and the phytocompound taste and/or its chemical class. The study relies on information gathered by an extensive literature (articles, books, databases) search and made public as PlantMolecularTasteDB. Out of a total of 1527 phytotastants with reliably documented taste and structure available in PlantMolecularTasteDB, 592 (for each of which at least 40 hits were found on PubMed searches) were included in the statistical analysis. A list of 1836 putative molecular targets of these phytotastants was afterwards generated with SwissTargetPrediction tool. These targets were systematically evaluated for their potential role in inflammation using an international databases search. The correlations between phytochemical taste and AIA, between chemical class and AIA, and between the taste and the number of inflammation related targets were statistically analyzed. Phytochemical taste may be a better predictor of AIA than the chemical class. Bitter phytocompounds have a higher probability of exerting AIA when compared with otherwise phytotastants. Moreover, bitter phytotastants act upon more inflammation related targets than non-bitter tasting compounds.
Keywords: taste, bitter, sweet, sour, phytochemicals, anti-inflammatory
Author Biographies
Dorin Dragoș, Department of Medical Semiology, Faculty of Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 020021 Bucharest, Romania
Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing
Madalina Petran, Department of Functional Sciences I/Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 050474 Bucharest, Romania
Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing
Marilena Gilca, Department of Functional Sciences I/Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 050474 Bucharest, Romania
Click on "Archives" to access the full archive of scientific preprints. You may use the categories and the search functionality to find select preprints you're interested in.
