Department of Agricultural Sciences, Università di Napoli Federico II, Via Università 100, 80055 Portici, NA, Italy.
Molecules. 2024 Sep 14;29(18):4377. doi: 10.3390/molecules29184377.
, also known as squirting cucumber, is a plant which is widespread in temperate regions of Europe, Africa and Asia. The plant is considered to be one of the oldest used drugs. In the last decades, has been widely studied as a source of triterpene metabolites named cucurbitacins, often found as glycosylated derivatives, used by the plant as defensive agents. Such metabolites exhibit several biological activities, including cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer. Interestingly, the bioactive properties of extracts have been investigated in dozens of studies, especially by testing the apolar fractions, including the essential oils, extracted from leaves and fruits. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the chemical profile of different parts of the plants (leaves, flowers, and seeds) analyzing the methods used for structure elucidation and identification of single metabolites. The pharmacological studies on the isolated compounds are also reported, to highlight their potential as good candidates for drug discovery.
苦瓜，也被称为喷瓜，是一种广泛分布于欧洲、非洲和亚洲温带地区的植物。这种植物被认为是使用历史最悠久的药物之一。在过去的几十年里，苦瓜已被广泛研究作为三萜类代谢物的来源，这些代谢物被称为葫芦素，通常以糖基化衍生物的形式存在，被植物用作防御剂。这些代谢物表现出多种生物活性，包括细胞毒性、抗炎和抗癌。有趣的是，苦瓜提取物的生物活性特性已在数十项研究中进行了研究，特别是通过测试从叶子和果实中提取的非极性部分，包括精油。本文综述的目的是概述植物不同部位（叶、花和种子）的化学特征，分析用于结构阐明和单一代谢物鉴定的方法。还报告了对分离化合物的药理学研究，以突出它们作为药物发现的良好候选物的潜力。
