Comprehensive profiling of α-glucosidase inhibitors from the leaves of Rubus suavissimus using an off-line hyphenation of HSCCC, ultrafiltration HPLC-UV-MS and prep-HPLC

Abstract

The leaves of Rubus suavissimus (also called “Chinese sweet tea”) is used not only as a beverage tea and food additive but also as a folk herbal medicine for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. To systematically investigate its material foundation of efficacy for treating diabetes, herein, a hyphenated strategy by off-line coupling high-speed countercurrent chromatography, ultrafiltration HPLC-UV-MS and prep-HPLC was developed. And thus, α-glucosidase inhibitors from Rubus suavissimus leaves was comprehensively profiled, purified and characterized. As a result, twenty-six compounds were identified as potential α-glucosidase inhibitors and favorably isolated by prep-HPLC. Their structures were identified via UV, MS, and 1H-NMR. Notably, fourteen compounds, including protocatechuic acid (1), myketin (3), epicatechin (4), vanillic acid (6), apigenin (11), catechin (12), ferulic acid (15), luteolin (16), 3, 3′-di-O-methylellagic acid (17), chlorogenic acid (19), 3, 3′-di-O-methylellagic acid-4′-O-β-D-glucoside (20), cinnamic acid (21), syringate (24) and ethylbrevifolin-carboxylate (25), were reported in leaves of Rubus suavissimus for the first time. In addition, α-glucosidase inhibitory activities of compounds 1–26 were evaluated, and eighteen compounds exhibited stronger α-glucosidase inhibitory activities than acarbose (IC50 value at 214.24 ± 3.48 μg/mL, positive control). The results indicated that the proposed method is a highly efficient strategy for comprehensive profiling and purification of bioactive target compounds, including both major and minor components, from natural products.