Comparison of Bioactive Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Activities of Different Parts of Taraxacum mongolicum.

Li Duan,Long Guo,Yang Zhao,Yanzhong Chang,Chenmeng Zhang

doi:10.3390/molecules25143260

Abstract

Herbs derived from Taraxacum genus have been used as traditional medicines and food supplements in China for hundreds of years. Taraxacum mongolicum is a famous traditional Chinese medicine derived from Taraxacum genus for the treatment of inflammatory disorders and viral infectious diseases. In the present study, the bioactive phenolic chemical profiles and antioxidant activities of flowers, leaves, and roots of Taraxacum mongolicum were investigated. Firstly, a high performance liquid chromatography method combined with segmental monitoring strategy was employed to simultaneously determine six bioactive phenolic compounds in Taraxacum mongolicum samples. Moreover, multivariate statistical analysis, including hierarchical clustering analysis, principal component analysis, and partial least squares discriminant analysis were performed to compare and discriminate different parts of Taraxacum mongolicum based on the quantitative data. The results showed that three phenolic compounds, caftaric acid, caffeic acid, and luteolin, could be regarded as chemical markers for the differences of flowers, leaves, and roots of Taraxacum mongolicum. In parallel, total phenolic contents, total flavonoid contents and antioxidant activities of different parts of Taraxacum mongolicum were also evaluated and compared. It is clear that Taraxacum mongolicum had antioxidant properties, and the antioxidant capacities of different parts of Taraxacum mongolicum in three antioxidant assays showed a similar tendency: Flowers ≈ leaves > roots, which revealed a positive relationship with their total phenolic and flavonoid contents. Furthermore, to find the potential antioxidant components of Taraxacum mongolicum, the latent relationships of the six bioactive phenolic compounds and antioxidant activities of Taraxacum mongolicum were investigated by Pearson correlation analysis. The results indicated caftaric acid and caffeic acid could be the potential antioxidant ingredients of Taraxacum mongolicum. The present work may facilitate better understanding of differences of bioactive phenolic constituents and antioxidant activities of different parts of Taraxacum mongolicum and provide useful information for utilization of this herbal medicine.

Highlights

The Taraxacum genus is a member of the Asteraceae family, and widely distributed in the warmer temperature zones of the northern hemisphere [1,2]
In China, the Taraxacum genus includes more than 70 species, and herbs derived from Taraxacum genus have been used as traditional medicines
The contents of the six phenolic compounds in flowers, leaves and roots of Taraxacum mongolicum (TM) have been determined and the results showed that the different parts of TM showed similar chemical profiles, but the content levels of the bioactive compounds varied significantly

Summary

Introduction

The Taraxacum genus is a member of the Asteraceae family, and widely distributed in the warmer temperature zones of the northern hemisphere [1,2]. Taraxacum mongolicum (TM), a famous medicinal herb, has been reported to possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-hyperglycemic, anti-coagulatory, and analgesic activities, and commonly used for treatment of inflammatory disorders and viral infectious diseases [4,5,6]. These health-promoting effects may be attributed to the presence of bioactive compounds in TM. Phenolics and flavonoids are the most abundant compounds and recognized as the main active compounds in TM [8,9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion