Weight Loss Raw Material

Chemistry and Biology of Nuciferine

Nuciferine is an aporphine alkaloid first isolated from Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn as the main bioactive ingredient. Additionally, it was also obtained from some other plants. Nuciferine exhibited diverse bioactivities such as anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-obesity, anti-fatty liver, antidiabetic, anti-hyperuricemic, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant activity, and thus has tremendous potential to be developed into drugs.

Structurally, nuciferine possesses a tetracyclic core with a nitrogen atom and one chiral center. Its delicate molecular skeleton gives numerous inspirations for the discovery of innovative drugs (Perecim et al., 2020).

Nuciferine became famous long time ago and its chemical and biological properties were extensively investigated and well-documented. Nuciferine was also briefly summarized in several reviews on chemical profiling of N. Nucifera and aporphine alkaloids. Besides, a good review focusing on the pharmacological effects of nuciferine was published in 2016, whereas some novel bioactivities have been successively reported recently (Dai et al., 2016). More recently, Wan et al. (2022) published an excellent review in terms of pharmacology of nuciferine. Regrettably, its chemical properties including extraction, isolation, synthesis, and so on still have not been summarized enough.

Thus, a comprehensive review with respect to both of the chemistry and biology of this versatile natural product is necessary. With this in mind, the seasonable summary in regard to the chemistry and biology of nuciferine was performed in this review. Emphasises were put on the isolation techniques, total synthesis and semisynthesis, as well as bioactivities.

Extraction and isolation techniques
With the rapid development of analytical chemistry and apparatus science in the past decades, a variety of detection and isolation techniques of alkaloids from N. nucifera were exploited successively, which made these precious bioresources available far more easily.

Total synthesis
As a bioactive compound with various biological functions, total synthesis of nuciferine has been paid much attention. Through the past several decades, multiple total synthetic strategies have been presented.

Structural modification and structure-activity relationships
In order to discover the more effective acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors based on nuciferine for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, compound was synthesized by regioselective O-demethylation of nuciferine in the presence of (PhCH2)2Se2 and NaBH4, which was converted to compound through the further O-demethylation with AlBr3. Unexpectedly, nuciferine reacted with I2 and CaO in THF/MeOH.

Anti-hyperlipidemic and anti-obesity activities
The leaves of N. nucifera, as a traditional Chinese medicine, were used for the amelioration of intracellular glucose and lipid metabolism for a long time, which mainly attributed to the inherent natural alkaloids. Nuciferine could reduce blood lipid by suppressing the synthesis of cholesterol and cholesterol esterase activity as well as improving low-density lipoprotein receptor expression .

The ‘Carb Blocker’ - What is White Kidney Bean Extract?

The Science of Carb Blockers
Before understanding how carb blockers work it's important to know how a starch is converted into a sugar in your body. This process starts when you consume anything starchy from potatoes, to rice, bread; a digestive enzyme known as amylase starts to break down the starch into sugars in your mouth.

Think about this the next time you eat a slice of white bread, you might notice as it dissolves in your mouth it becomes sweet, this is the amylase breaking the starch of the bread into sugars. But of course this only happens to a small degree in the mouth. After we swallow the remaining starch it is halted in its break down because the sheer acidity of your stomach acid, which prevents amylase from doing its job.

It's not until the small intestines that your pancreas can secrete more amylase to finish breaking down the rest of the starches into usable glucose for your body.

How Does White Kidney Bean Extract Help?
Now that we all understand how starches are digested, explaining how carb blockers work will make much more sense.

The active ingredient in white kidney beans which gets extracted is called phaseolus vulgaris, which effectively prevents the pancreas from secreting amylase. If 1.5 grams of the supplement is taken with a carb heavy meal, over half the calories coming from complex, starchy carbs will not get digested and instead will ferment in your intestines. The only side effect most people experience from this process is slight bloating and sometimes excessive gas.

At this point I know what you're probably going to ask, “When I'm on a diet and I decide to have a cheat meal can I take a serving of a carb blocker to lessen the damage?”

While there is no short answer, the long one starts with a possibly. It all depends upon what the cheat meal includes, if your idea of a cheat meal is a lot of rice and potatoes then sure, carb blockers will definitely help. But if you're like me, and have cheat meals which entail sugary snack food and greasy pizza then most likely carb blockers won't help you that much.

For you see, carb blockers are exclusive to stopping the breakdown of complex carbs into simple carbs only, leaving any other type of macronutrient digested completely. Which includes sugar from those brownies, saturated fat from that pizza and any other unhealthy food you had which wasn't a starch (but your ramen noodles will surprisingly be blocked from digesting).

Who Should Use Carb Blockers?
Just like fat burners, carb blockers will only be effective for a certain type of individual. Like all supplements, overweight individuals with unhealthy diets can take a carb blocker, along with taking up an exercise routine and a healthier diet, and will see better results than a placebo group. But it gets a little more complicated when a healthy individual who tracks their calorie intake and macronutrients take a carb blocker to try and lose additional weight.

In the midst of the low carb dieting trend, these are the individuals who will get the least out of carb blockers, if that wasn't already obvious. If your carbs are below 150 grams a day, you do some form of cardio or weight training more than 4 times a week, then carb blockers will have almost no effect besides making you even more carb depleted and energy deprived. But if your carbs are somewhere closer to the 250-300 gram range and you're trying to diet down without giving up tasty, precious carbs, then carb blockers might help you lose a little extra weight.

I also shouldn't have to mention as well that if you're not in a calorie deficit, or in other words consuming less overall calories than you're burning, you will not lose weight no matter what supplements you take. To sum up the thoughts laid out in this section, individuals who will get the most out of carb blockers are people new to fitness and have a rather higher body fat percentage. While healthy, fit individuals who know how to maximize a carb blocker will only see maybe a slight advantage to not taking it in the first place.