Abstract
IntroductionThe pharmacological activities of medicinal plants are reported to be due to a wide range of metabolites, therein, the concentrations of which are greatly affected by many genetic and/or environmental factors. In this context, a metabolomics approach has been applied to reveal these relationships. The investigation of such complex networks that involve the correlation between multiple biotic and abiotic factors and the metabolome, requires the input of information acquired by more than one analytical platform. Thus, development of new metabolomics techniques or hyphenations is continuously needed.ObjectivesFeasibility of high performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) were investigated as a supplementary tool for medicinal plants metabolomics supporting 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy.MethodThe overall metabolic difference of plant material collected from two species (Rheum palmatum and Rheum tanguticum) in different geographical locations and altitudes were analyzed by 1H NMR- and HPTLC-based metabolic profiling. Both NMR and HPTLC data were submitted to multivariate data analysis including principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least square analysis.ResultsThe NMR and HPTLC profiles showed that while chemical variations of rhubarb are in some degree affected by all the factors tested in this study, the most influential factor was altitude of growth. The metabolites responsible for altitude differentiation were chrysophanol, emodin and sennoside A, whereas aloe emodin, catechin, and rhein were the key species-specific markers.ConclusionThese results demonstrated the potential of HTPLC as a supporting tool for metabolomics due to its high profiling capacity of targeted metabolic groups and preparative capability.
Highlights
The pharmacological activities of medicinal plants are reported to be due to a wide range of metabolites, therein, the concentrations of which are greatly affected by many genetic and/or environmental factors
The 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) metabolomics profiling was applied to the two Rheum species collected in different locations in order to profile a wide range of metabolites
There are many factors involved in the quality of the plants from which the medicinal drug rhubarb is obtained, and so far, no clear connection had been made between the presence of secondary metabolites such as anthraquinones and catechin and the quality
Summary
The pharmacological activities of medicinal plants are reported to be due to a wide range of metabolites, therein, the concentrations of which are greatly affected by many genetic and/or environmental factors In this context, a metabolomics approach has been applied to reveal these relationships. There is a new trend in natural products research, in which herbs or their derivatives are considered to be a bioactive product as a whole This return to the use of plant extracts rather than the search of individual active compounds from the plants has been prompted by a number of reasons, such as the financially challenging process of obtaining a single active compound, the possibility of synergistic or potentiating effects of metabolites, and the recent great interest in personalized medicine (Stelzer et al 2015; Wang et al 2005). The widespread use of natural products can only be feasible if proper quality control methods based on comprehensive chemical profiling that covers the wide dynamic range of chemically diverse metabolites can be made readily available
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