Skeletons in the closet? Using a bibliometric lens to visualise phytochemical and pharmacological activities linked to Sceletium, a mood enhancer

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dc.contributor.author Reddy, Kaylan
dc.contributor.author Stafford, Gary I.
dc.contributor.author Makunga, Nokwanda P.
dc.date.accessioned 2024-11-04T12:28:19Z
dc.date.available 2024-11-04T12:28:19Z
dc.date.issued 2024-03
dc.description DATA AVAILABITY STATEMENT: The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author. en_US
dc.description.abstract Plants from the Sceletium genus (Aizoaceae) have been traditionally used for millennia by the Khoe and Khoen people in southern Africa, as an appetite suppressant as well as a mood elevator. In more recent times, this moodelevating activity has been commercialised in the South African natural products industry for the treatment of anxiety and depression, with several products available both locally and abroad. Research on this species has seen rapid growth with advancements in analytical and pharmacological tools, in an effort to understand the composition and biological activity. The Web of Science (WoS) database was searched for articles related to ‘Sceletium’ and ‘Mesembrine’. These data were additionally analysed by bibliometric software (VOSviewer) to generate term maps and author associations. The thematic areas with the most citations were South African Traditional Medicine for mental health (110) and anxiolytic agents (75). Pioneer studies in the genus focused on chemical structural isolation, purification, and characterisation and techniques such as thin layer chromatography, liquid chromatography (HPLC, UPLC, and more recently, LC-MS), gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study mesembrine alkaloids. Different laboratories have used a diverse range of extraction and preanalytical methods that became routinely favoured in the analysis of the main metabolites (mesembrine, mesembranol, mesembranone, and Sceletium A4) in their respective experimental settings. In contrast with previous reviews, this paper identified gaps in the research field, being a lack of toxicology assays, a deficit of clinical assessments, too few bioavailability studies, and little to no investigation into the minor alkaloid groups found in Sceletium. Future studies are likely to see innovations in analytical techniques like leaf spray mass spectrometry and direct analysis in real-time ionisation coupled with high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DART-HR-TOF-MS) for rapid alkaloid identification and quality control purposes. While S. tortuosum has been the primary focus, studying other Sceletium species may aid in establishing chemotaxonomic relationships and addressing challenges with species misidentification. This research can benefit the nutraceutical industry and conservation efforts for the entire genus. At present, little to no pharmacological information is available in terms of the molecular physiological effects of mesembrine alkaloids in medical clinical settings. Research in these fields is expected to increase due to the growing interest in S. tortuosum as a herbal supplement and the potential development of mesembrine alkaloids into pharmaceutical drugs. en_US
dc.description.department Plant Production and Soil Science en_US
dc.description.sdg SDG-03:Good heatlh and well-being en_US
dc.description.sdg SDG-15:Life on land en_US
dc.description.sponsorship The National Research Foundation. en_US
dc.description.uri https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science en_US
dc.identifier.citation Reddy, K., Stafford, G.I. & Makunga, N.P. (2024) Skeletons in the closet? Using a bibliometric lens to visualise phytochemical and pharmacological activities linked to Sceletium, a mood enhancer. Frontiers in Plant Science 15:1268101. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1268101. en_US
dc.identifier.issn 1664-462X (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.3389/fpls.2024.1268101
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/98917
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Frontiers Media en_US
dc.rights © 2024 Reddy, Stafford and Makunga. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). en_US
dc.subject Alkaloid chemistry en_US
dc.subject Central nervous system activity en_US
dc.subject Kanna en_US
dc.subject Secondary metabolites en_US
dc.subject Pharmacology en_US
dc.subject Phytochemistry en_US
dc.subject SDG-03: Good health and well-being en_US
dc.subject SDG-15: Life on land en_US
dc.title Skeletons in the closet? Using a bibliometric lens to visualise phytochemical and pharmacological activities linked to Sceletium, a mood enhancer en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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