{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,19]],"date-time":"2026-06-19T15:53:47Z","timestamp":1781884427350,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,18]],"date-time":"2021-11-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1637193600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) plays a crucial role in regulating blood pressure in the human body. Identification of potential ACE inhibitors from medicinal plants supported the idea of repurposing these medicinal plants against hypertension. A method based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled with a diode array detector (DAD) was used for the rapid screening of plant extracts and purified compounds to determine their ACE inhibitory activity. Hippuryl-histidiyl-leucine (HHL) was used as a substrate, which is converted into hippuric acid (HA) by the action of ACE. A calibration curve of the substrate HHL was developed with the linear regression 0.999. The limits of detection and quantification of this method were found to be 0.134 and 0.4061 mM, respectively. Different parameters of ACE inhibitory assay were optimized, including concentration, incubation time and temperature. The ACE inhibition potential of Adhatoda vasica (methanolic-aqueous extract) and its isolated pyrroquinazoline alkaloids, vasicinol (1), vasicine (2) and vasicinone (3) was evaluated. Compounds 1\u20133 were characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. The IC50 values of vasicinol (1), vasicine (2) and vasicinone (3) were found to be 6.45, 2.60 and 13.49 mM, respectively. Molecular docking studies of compounds 1\u20133 were also performed. Among these compounds, vasicinol (1) binds as effectively as captopril, a standard drug of ACE inhibition.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules26226971","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,19]],"date-time":"2021-11-19T02:43:09Z","timestamp":1637289789000},"page":"6971","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["A UPLC-DAD-Based Bio-Screening Assay for the Evaluation of the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitory Potential of Plant Extracts and Compounds: Pyrroquinazoline Alkaloids from Adhatoda vasica as a Case Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"given":"Syeda","family":"Tehreem","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Saeedur","family":"Rahman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Muhammad Salman","family":"Bhatti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Reaz","family":"Uddin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Muhammad Noman","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Saba","family":"Tauseef","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hesham R.","family":"El-Seedi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pharmacognosy Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, BMC, Uppsala University, SE-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden"},{"name":"International Research Center for Food Nutrition and Safety, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9742-3573","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abdullatif","family":"Bin Muhsinah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha 62529, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8613-4493","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jalal","family":"Uddin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha 62529, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Syed Ghulam","family":"Musharraf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan"},{"name":"Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan"},{"name":"T.C.M. Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"452","DOI":"10.12691\/jfnr-7-6-7","article-title":"Djulis (Chenopodium formosanum) and its bioactive compounds for management of hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia in high-fat diet-fed mice","volume":"7","author":"Chen","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Food Nutr. 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