Abstract
Environmental factors can influence secondary plant metabolism, inducing seasonal variation in chemical composition. Few works report how the seasons of Brazilian savanna (Cerrado), rainy and dry, impacts plant metabolism. We investigated the seasonal effect on the production of secondary metabolites in Duguetia furfuracea. Leaves of three individuals were collected monthly for one year and analyzed by ultra-fast liquid chromatography coupled to diode array detector and mass spectrometry (UFLC-DAD-MS), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), volcano plot, and Pearson correlation. The main chemical classes found were benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives and flavonoids. Alkaloids are virtually perennial, with qualitative variation during the year, and flavonoids accumulate during the rainy season. Dew point temperature seemed to be the most representative weather indicator in the metabolite change. These results showed for the first time the effect of the Cerrado environment on the levels of flavonoids and alkaloids in Duguetia furfuracea. They could be useful for exploring this species since it is used in popular medicine and accumulates valuable secondary metabolites.
Highlights
Secondary plant metabolites are associated with distinct biological functions.[1]
In the results from Pearson analysis, the dry season was characterized by a low relative humidity (Hrel) and dew point temperature (DPTa) and high atmospheric pressure (AP)
A seasonal pattern in the accumulation of flavonoids and alkaloids was observed, indicating that flavonoids were present at higher abundances in the rainy season than in the dry season, and the alkaloid content tended to be stable during the year, despite the qualitative variation
Summary
Secondary plant metabolites are associated with distinct biological functions.[1]. secondary metabolites synthesis is under genetic control, it can be modulated by ecological, physiological, biological, biochemical, and evolutionary factors.[2]Due to the influence of environmental factors on secondary plant metabolism, the amounts and production of these compounds can be affected, for example, by seasonality.[2]. Such variation has been reported for many classes that are used as chemical markers in quality control in international pharmacopeial compendiums, such as terpenoids, saponins, alkaloids, tannins, coumarins, flavonoids, and iridoids.[4,5,6,7,8,9,10] In this way, knowledge of metabolite accumulation patterns is essential
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