Posted by As Christmas approaches, the figures of three scientists also known as the Three Wise Men, Three Kings, and Three Magi are often remembered as the first persons bearing Christmas gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. All these substances have actually something to do with cyclodextrins, indeed.
Nobel laureate Sir Fraser STODDART used first and patented an alpha-cyclodextrin based process for recovering gold from gold-bearing materials: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2014172667
His method on extraction of gold from electronic wastes at low cost and high efficiency utilizing beta-cyclodextrin has been already discussed on our blog: https://cyclodextrinnews.com/2023/04/03/old-but-gold-literally/
Curzerene is a volatile, aromatic terpenoid found in many herbs and spices, such as Curcuma zeodaria also found in myrrh (Commiphora myrrha oleo gum resin). It has been found to make up a significant portion (13%) of the smoke produced from burning myrrh. The research group of Shengqiang TONG has published a paper discussing the stoichiometric ratio and apparent formation constants of inclusion complex of curzerene formed by methyl-β-cyclodextrin. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10826076.2020.1742737
Frankincense is an aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes, obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia (e.g. Boswellia sacra). The research group of Hassan Mohamed El-Said AZZAZY has recently reported on the improved antimicrobial activities of Boswellia sacra essential oils nanoencapsulated into hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin.
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/na/d3na00882g
Also, young scientist Marcell Stifter-Mursits from the research group of György T. Balogh, Semmelweis Universtiy, Budapest, Hungary published a poster at Pharmaceuticals 2024 – Recent Advances in Pharmaceutical Sciences Towards a Healthy Life 27–29 Nov 2024, Barcelona, Spain entitled “Reformulating Boswellic Acids: a Cyclodextrin-based Approach for Improved Solubility and Bioavailability” highlighting therapeutic potential of boswellic acid (also major components in Frankincense) in various administration routes for treating inflammatory diseases. We hope we can also report on a published journal paper disclosing the results soon.
Note the 1st paper on the actions an interactions of mirror-image cyclodextrins and possible uses (https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.4c00962) was published on-line at the same time as the Molecule of the Year was announced.