Identification of three species commonly known as “daqingye” by internal leaf anatomy and high-performance liquid chromatography analyses

Yingjiao Zhang,Junling Deng,Chen Xia,Huajia Li,Pei Liu,Yongqing Zhu,Yanling Li,Juan Li,Jian Chen

doi:10.5586/asbp.3575

Yingjiao Zhang, Junling Deng + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.5586/asbp.3575

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Abstract

The macroscopic and microscopic morphologies and indigo and indirubin concentration of the traditional Chinese medicine herbs Isatis indigotica Fort., Polygonum tinctorium Ait., and Baphicacanthus cusia (Nees) Bremek, all commonly known as “daqingye”, were determined and compared. The morphological analyses indicated that I. indigotica has leaves with winged petioles and no glandular hairs or crystals, P. tinctorium has leaves with membranous ocrea and clusters of calcium oxalate, and B. cusia has palisade cells in the mesophyll running over the main vein and single cells containing calcium carbonate crystals. Indigo and indirubin are chemical constituents that have been previously isolated from daqingye and were selected in this study as identification markers for high-performance liquid chromatography analysis due to their pharmacological activities. The chromatographic results showed that indigo and indirubin concentration varied significantly among the three species: high concentration of both indigo and indirubin were observed in I. indigotica, the highest concentration among the three daqingye plants was found in P. tinctorium but with low levels of indirubin, and the concentration of indigo and indirubin was quite low in B. cusia. In summary, three different species commonly known as daqingye were accurately distinguished by morphological observation, internal leaf anatomy analysis, and chromatographic analysis.

Highlights

According to the World Health Organization [1], the use of traditional medicine has expanded globally over the past decade and is gaining increasing popularity
Seeds of I. indigotica and sprouts of P. tinctorium and B. cusia were purchased from Chongqing Heben Agriculture Co., Ltd. between March and May of 2014
The results indicated that significant differences in indigo and indirubin concentration were detected among the three daqingye plants tested

Summary

Introduction

According to the World Health Organization [1], the use of traditional medicine has expanded globally over the past decade and is gaining increasing popularity. Traditional use of herbal medicines includes herbs, herbal materials, herbal preparations, and finished herbal products that contain active ingredients from plant parts. Several studies have reported adverse effects associated with plant supplements, which can be mainly attributed to a lack of quality control [2,3,4,5,6]. Research has shown that adverse effects related to plant food supplements may originate from the contamination of products and the mixed use of different plant species but commonly known by the same name

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