Abstract
The roots of Fissistigma oldhamii (FO) are widely used as medicine with the effect of dispelling wind and dampness, promoting blood circulation and relieving pains, and its fruits are considered delicious. However, Hakka people always utilize its above-ground parts as a famous folk medicine, Xiangteng, with significant differences from literatures. Studies of chemical composition showed there were multiple aristolactams that possessed high nephrotoxicity, pending evaluation research about their distribution in FO. In this study, a sensitive, selective, rapid and reliable method was established to comparatively perform qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of the constituents in roots, stems, leaves, fruits and insect galls, using an Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with Hybrid Quadrupole Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap MS, or Q-Exactive for short). To make more accurate identification and comparison of FO chemicals, all MS data were aligned and screened by XCMS, then their structures were elucidated according to MSn ion fragments between the detected and standards, published ones or these generated by MS fragmenter. A total of 79 compounds were identified, including 33 alkaloids, 29 flavonoids, 11 phenylpropanoids, etc. There were 54 common components in all five parts, while another 25 components were just detected in some parts. Six toxic aristolactams were detected in this experiment, including aristolactam AII, AIIIa, BII, BIII, FI and FII, of which the relative contents in above-ground stems were much higher than roots. Meanwhile, multivariate statistical analysis was performed and showed significant differences both in type and content of the ingredients within all FO parts. The results implied that above-ground FO parts should be carefully valued for oral administration and eating fruits. This study demonstrated that the high-resolution mass spectrometry coupled with multivariate statistical methods was a powerful tool in compound analysis of complicated herbal extracts, and the results provide the basis for its further application, scientific development of quality standard and utilization.
Highlights
The analysis revealed a high content of virous compositions in Fissistigma oldhamii (FO), in which alkaloids and flavonoids were the main compounds
Screening and multivariate statistical analysis. This showed that there were 25 components differentially distributed in FO parts, and 54 common ones were recognized with obviously different relative content, most of which exhibited quite higher contents in the roots and leaves
Due to the distribution of highly nephrotoxic aristolactams, all FO parts should be carefully valued for oral administration, especially for eating fruits
Summary
Its dried root was commonly used with the effects of dispelling wind and dampness, promoting blood circulation and relieving pains, and the mature fruits were sweet and edible, called “fox peach” in Longnan, Ganzhou, China [1,3,4]. In the Hakka areas, its above-ground parts, including leaves and stems sometimes mixed with insect gall, were widely used for treating gynecology inflammation, expelling wind and dampness, and was called as ‘Xiangteng’ due to its aromatic smell [5]. Individual parts of FO displayed different medicinal usages as well as different pharmacological activities, which might be relevant to their chemical differences. Chemical differences among individual parts of plant materials are of great significance for their pharmacological activities and safety, which are critical for their authentication and quality evaluation [7,8]. Studies showed that volatile oil, alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids and organic acids were the major constituents of FO that exhibited anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, smooth muscle relaxation and other biological activities
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