Abstract
Endophytes coexist with plants, in part, due to cellulase that allow saccharification of plant cell walls. The cellulase enzymes found in naturally occurring endophytes may exhibit stronger activity and more specificity than commercially available cellulase for enzyme-assisted extraction of compounds from medicinal plant materials. In order to identify endophytes with high cellulase activity, we screened endophytes taken from different parts of Angelica sinensis using the Congo red staining method. We identified three strains with higher cellulase activity. Of the 3 strains identified, No.Lut1201 increased the yield of extracted Z-ligustilide 2 fold compared to commercially available cellulase (Ningxia Sunson) using a cellulase-assisted extraction method and traditional extraction methods. Scanning electron microscopy clearly demonstrated that the cellulase extracted from endophytes enhance cell wall polysaccharide degradation as well as Z-ligustilide extraction from Radix Angelica sinensis (RAS). The current study provides a new method and ideas of using cellulase of endophytes for improving the extraction of compounds from medicinal plants.
Highlights
Angelica sinensis is an herbaceous perennial plant that belongs to the umbelliferae family and is widely distributed in western China
After culturing for more than 7 days, forty-one morphologically distinct endophyte strains were isolated from the leaves, stems and roots of A. sinensis samples; most of the endophyte colonies were white on medium A plates
Compared with the cellulase from other endophytes[16, 18, 19], these results show that the three endophytes of A. sinensis characterized here have a high cellulase activity, and were selected for further study
Summary
Angelica sinensis is an herbaceous perennial plant that belongs to the umbelliferae family and is widely distributed in western China. Radix Angelica sinensis (RAS), known as Danggui, is one of the most important of the traditional Chinese medicines[1]. Over 70 compounds have been isolated and identified from RAS, including essential oils, organic acids and their esters, polysaccharides, coniferyl polyacetylenes, vitamins and amino acids. Z-ligustilide is thought to be one of the most biologically active components and is often used for quality control and in pharmacokinetic studies of RAS3–6. Recent studies have shown that Z-ligustilide is neuroprotective against stroke and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) through multiple mechanisms, including anti-neuroinflammatory effects[7]
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