Stevia is a sweet sugar substitute that is about 50 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. It is extracted from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, a plant native to areas of Paraguay and Brazil. The active compounds in stevia are steviol glycosides. Stevia is heat-stable, pH-stable, and not fermentable. Humans cannot metabolize the glycosides in stevia, and it therefore has zero calories. Its taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar, and at high concentrations some of its extracts may have an aftertaste described as licorice-like or bitter. Stevia is used in sugar and calorie-reduced food and beverage products as an alternative for variants with sugar.
Saponins are bitter-tasting, usually toxic plant-derived secondary metabolites. They are organic chemicals and have a foamy quality when agitated in water and a high molecular weight. They are present in a wide range of plant species throughout the bark, leaves, stems, roots and flowers but particularly in soapwort, a flowering plant, the soapbark tree, common corn-cockle, baby's breath and soybeans. They are used in soaps, medicines, fire extinguishers, dietary supplements, steroid synthesis, and in carbonated beverages. Saponins are both water and fat soluble, which gives them their useful soap properties. Some examples of these chemicals are glycyrrhizin and quillaia, a bark extract used in beverages.
Nootropics, colloquially brain supplements, smart drugs and cognitive enhancers, are natural, semisynthetic or synthetic compounds which purportedly improve cognitive functions, such as executive functions, attention or memory.
Rhodiola rosea is a perennial flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae. It grows naturally in wild Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America, and can be propagated as a groundcover.
Cyclanthera pedata, known as caigua, is a herbaceous vine grown for its edible fruit, which is predominantly used as a vegetable. It is known from cultivation only, and its use goes back many centuries as evidenced by ancient phytomorphic ceramics from Peru depicting the fruits.
Bacopa is a genus of 60 aquatic plants belonging to the family Plantaginaceae. It is commonly known as waterhyssop.
Asparagus racemosus is a species of asparagus native from Africa through southern Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, to northern Australia. It grows 1–2 m tall and prefers to take root in gravelly, rocky soils high up in piedmont plains, at 1,300–1,400 m (4,300–4,600 ft) elevation. It was botanically described in 1799. Because of its multiple uses, the demand for Asparagus racemosus is constantly on the rise. Due to destructive harvesting, combined with habitat destruction, and deforestation, the plant is now considered "endangered" in its natural habitat.
Triterpenes are a class of terpenes composed of six isoprene units with the molecular formula C30H48; they may also be thought of as consisting of three terpene units. Animals, plants and fungi all produce triterpenes, including squalene, the precursor to all steroids.
Ginsenosides or panaxosides are a class of natural product steroid glycosides and triterpene saponins. Compounds in this family are found almost exclusively in the plant genus Panax (ginseng), which has a long history of use in traditional medicine that has led to the study of pharmacological effects of ginseng compounds. As a class, ginsenosides exhibit a large variety of subtle and difficult-to-characterize biological effects when studied in isolation.
Oleanolic acid or oleanic acid is a naturally occurring pentacyclic triterpenoid related to betulinic acid. It is widely distributed in food and plants where it exists as a free acid or as an aglycone of triterpenoid saponins.
Cucurbitacins are a class of biochemical compounds that some plants – notably members of the pumpkin and gourd family, Cucurbitaceae – produce and which function as a defense against herbivores. Cucurbitacins and their derivatives have also been found in many other plant families, in some mushrooms and even in some marine mollusks.
Momordin is one of several saponins derived from oleanolic acid, a triterpenoid. These chemical compounds are found in some plants of the genus Momordica, which includes the bitter melon and the balsam apple, as well as in other Asian herbal medicine plants such as Kochia scoparia and Ampelopsis radix.
Cucurbitane is a class of tetracyclic chemical compounds with formula C
30H
54. It is a polycyclic hydrocarbon, specifically triterpene. It is also an isomer of lanostane, from which it differs by the formal shift of a methyl group from the 10 to the 9β position in the standard steroid numbering scheme.
Cucurbitacin E is a biochemical compound from the family of cucurbitacins. These are found in plants which are member of the family Cucurbitaceae, most of them coming from traditional Chinese medicinal plants, but also in other plants such as pumpkins and gourds.
Bacoside A is a mixture of chemical compounds, known as bacosides, isolated from Bacopa monnieri. Its major constituents include the saponins bacoside A3, bacopaside II, bacopasaponin C, and jujubogenin isomer of bacopasaponin C. The mixture has been studied in in vitro experiments and animal models for its potential neuroprotectivity.
Aducanumab, sold under the brand name Aduhelm, is a monoclonal antibody designed to treat Alzheimer's disease. It is a monoclonal antibody that targets aggregated forms (plaque) of amyloid beta (Aβ) found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease to reduce its buildup. It was developed by Biogen and Eisai. Aducanumab is given via intravenous infusion.
Bacopasides are triterpene saponins isolated from Bacopa monnieri.
Bacosides are a class of chemical compounds isolated from Bacopa monnieri. Chemically, they are dammarane-type triterpenoid saponins.
Mohan Mishra was an Indian physician, known for his studies on Visceral leishmaniasis, and its treatment using Amphotericin B, regarded by many as a pioneering attempt. The Government of India honoured him, in 2014, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of medicine.
Pseudoginsenoside F11 is a chemical natural product found in American ginseng but not in Asian ginseng, although it has similar properties to the Asian ginseng compound ginsenoside Rf. The molecule is a triterpenoid saponin member of the dammarane family and contains a four-ring rigid skeleton. Compounds in the ginsenoside family are found almost exclusively in plants of the genus Panax. A wide variety of difficult-to-characterize in vitro effects have been reported for the compounds in isolation. Pseudoginsenoside F11 and its derivatives are sometimes referred to as having an ocotillol-type skeleton structure.
