Abstract
Herniaria hirsuta L. (Caryophyllaceae) is used for treatment of urinary stones and as a diuretic. Little is known about the active compounds and the mechanism of action. The phytochemical composition of H. hirsuta was comprehensively characterized using UHPLC-UV-HRMS (Ultrahigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Ultraviolet-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry) data. An in vitro gastrointestinal model was used to simulate biotransformation, which allowed the monitoring of the relative abundances of individual compounds over time. To analyze the longitudinal multiclass LC–MS data, XCMS, a platform that enables online metabolomics data processing and interpretation, and EDGE, a statistical method for time series data, were used to extract significant differential profiles from the raw data. An interactive Shiny app in R was used to rate the quality of the resulting features. These ratings were used to train a random forest model. The most abundant aglycone after gastrointestinal biotransformation was subjected to hepatic biotransformation using human S9 fractions. A diversity of compounds was detected, mainly saponins and flavonoids. Besides the known saponins, 15 new saponins were tentatively identified as glycosides of medicagenic acid, acetylated medicagenic acid and zanhic acid. It is suggested that metabolites of phytochemicals present in H. hirsuta, most likely saponins, are responsible for the pharmaceutical effects. It was observed that the relative abundance of saponin aglycones increased, indicating loss of sugar moieties during colonic biotransformation, with medicagenic acid as the most abundant aglycone. Hepatic biotransformation of this aglycone resulted in different metabolites formed by phase I and II reactions.
Highlights
Urinary stone disease is considered as an important healthcare problem that affects 10–15% of the population in the developed world, but the incidence can be as high as 20–25% in the Middle East, with a peak at ages 20 to 40 years
A dereplication workflow performed on the extract of H. hirsuta resulted in a molecular network containing different clusters, composed of different nodes connected by edges which define the degree of similarity between the MS/MS spectra
Herniariasaponin H (Figure 2) is the most abundant saponin previously observed in H. hirsuta and compounds
Summary
Urinary stone disease is considered as an important healthcare problem that affects 10–15% of the population in the developed world, but the incidence can be as high as 20–25% in the Middle East, with a peak at ages 20 to 40 years. Many remedies and surgical treatments have been described, varying from dietary recommendations to interventional procedures. Endoscopic management, both ureteroscopic and percutaneous, offers an efficient and efficacious way to treat stones [6]. Some herbal remedies have been used for centuries and have been shown to be effective against urolithiasis, the mechanism of action is often not well established through systematic pharmacological and clinical studies. An aqueous extract of the aerial parts of H. hirsuta (hairy rupturewort) is an herbal medicine widely used against urolithiasis and which contains diuretic properties. The biotransformation of a well-characterized H. hirsuta extract was investigated in an in vitro gastrointestinal model followed by hepatic biotransformation. The longitudinal multiclass data were subjected to different data analysis workflows to screen and tentatively identify metabolites formed after in vitro biotransformation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
