Chemical Composition, Antioxidant Activity and α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activity of Chaenomeles Speciosa from Four Production Areas in China.

Xuan Zheng,Yongmei Du,Peng Zhang,Guoming Shen,Xinmin Liu,Lin Gao,Ning Yan,Panpan Li,Hongwei Wang

doi:10.3390/molecules23102518

Abstract

Chaenomeles speciosa (Sweet) Nakai is a medicinal plant. Until date, there are no studies focusing on comparing the chemical profiles, antioxidant activity and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of the dried fruits of C. speciosa from different production regions. In the study, we investigated the chemical components of dried fruits of C. speciosa from Yunnan, Chongqing, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces in China in relation to the antioxidant activity and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. C. speciosa from Yunnan had higher total flavonoid (47.92 ± 3.79 mg/g), total polyphenol (29.15 ± 0.29 mg/g) and polysaccharide (27.60 ± 1.56 mg/g) contents than plants from other production areas. Samples from Yunnan, Zhejiang and Anhui (all > 3200 mg/kg) had higher free amino acid contents than those from Chongqing (2286.66 mg/kg). Oleanolic acid and ursolic acid levels were highest in samples from Zhejiang (555.98 ± 20.88 μg/g) and Anhui (321.06 ± 14.64 μg/g), respectively. C. speciosa from Chongqing had low total flavonoid, total polyphenol, polysaccharide, free amino acid, oleanolic acid and ursolic acid contents but high levels of palmitic acid (12.04 ± 0.02 mg/g) and stearic acid (2.23 ± 0.08 mg/g). Among four production areas, Yunnan represented the highest antioxidant activity and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. In addition, correlation analysis revealed that total flavonoid, total polyphenol, polysaccharide and ursolic acid were the major components responsible for the antioxidant activity of C. speciosa, while total flavonoid and polysaccharide were the main contributors for α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of the plant. These results would be helpful for evaluating the quality of C. speciosa in the different production areas.

Highlights

The genus Chaenomeles, belonging to the Rosaceae family, is mainly distributed in Korea, Japan and China
All these results demonstrate that the dried fruits of C. speciosa from Yunnan had from Yunnan had higher DPPH, ABTS and super oxygen anion (SOA) radical-scavenging capacities than plants from higher DPPH, ABTS and SOA radical-scavenging capacities than plants from other production areas
The same was true for total polyphenol (TP) with DPPH (r = 0.93, p < 0.01), ABTS (r = 0.97, These results demonstrated that total flavonoid (TF) and TP possess strong DPPH and ABTS radical-scavenging p < 0.01), SOA (r = 0.66, p < 0.05) radical-scavenging activities but not for α-glucosidase inhibitory capacities

Summary

Introduction

The genus Chaenomeles, belonging to the Rosaceae family, is mainly distributed in Korea, Japan and China. Flavonoids, polyphenols, polysaccharides, free amino acids, organic acids and triterpenic acids have been isolated from the fruits of C. speciosa. Phenolic compounds such as anthocyanins and flavonoids have shown anti-inflammatory, antitumoral, antimicrobial and antioxidant effects [6]. Polysaccharides have exhibited antitumor, antioxidant and immunomodulatory properties [8,9]. Oleanolic acid (OA) and ursolic acid (UA) exhibit anti-inflammatory [10], antitumor [11,12] and α-glucosidase inhibitory effects [13,14]. Among these biological activities, antioxidant activity and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of C. speciosa have attracted more and more attention from researchers

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Results

Conclusion