Abstract
Glechoma hederacea var. longituba (GHL) is one of many herbal plants widely used in hot herbal teas and in oriental prescriptions to treat various diseases. Although the beneficial effects of GHL may be influenced by differences in the composition of active constituents in the herbal extracts, there are few reports on the compositional characteristics of GHL herbal extracts to date. In this study, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry technology was used for comparative analysis of constituents in hot-water extracts of GHL samples obtained from various cultivating provinces in South Korea. A set of marker panel consisting of nine polyphenolic compounds, including glucuronide conjugates in particular, was constructed and used to monitor the compositional characteristics in each GHL extract. Our findings show that some of the marker compounds, including rosmarinic acid, were persistently observed as major constituents in the analyses of the 22 GHL sample extracts, whereas, interestingly, other marker compounds such as polyphenol-glucuronic acid conjugates displayed dramatic differences in compositional ratios. This chromatographic approach using the marker compound panel can be applied to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate compositional characteristics in the GHL extracts, and can also be useful for quality assays of the GHL herbal plant in medicinal and industrial fields.
Highlights
Herbal plants have recently gained much attention in food and medicine due to their antioxidant phytochemicals, such as flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds [1,2,3,4].Among such compounds, Glechoma hederacea var. longituba (GHL), commonly known as ground ivy or Keumheoncho in South Korea, has been distributed widely in Asia and Europe
Because compositional characteristics of the chemical constituents in the total extracts of GHL may be important for evaluating the quality of the herbal plant in medicinal and industrial fields, a liquid chromatographic analysis for these major polyphenolic constituents can be alluring to evaluate the quality of the various GHL materials following various cultivating provinces, harvesting seasons, and processing conditions
Since the object of this study is to develop a chromatographic method for evaluating and differentiating compositional characteristics among GHL extracts obtained from different cultivation sources, investigation of reproducibility and precision is imperative for practical usage of the current analytical method
Summary
Herbal plants have recently gained much attention in food and medicine due to their antioxidant phytochemicals, such as flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds [1,2,3,4]. Because compositional characteristics of the chemical constituents in the total extracts of GHL may be important for evaluating the quality of the herbal plant in medicinal and industrial fields, a liquid chromatographic analysis for these major polyphenolic constituents can be alluring to evaluate the quality of the various GHL materials following various cultivating provinces, harvesting seasons, and processing conditions.
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