Abstract
The needles of Taxus species contain a large number of bioactive compounds, such as flavonoids. In the present study, the total flavonoid content in leaves of Taxus media and Taxus mairei was 19.953 and 14.464 mg/g, respectively. A total of 197 flavonoid metabolites (70 flavones, 42 flavonols, 26 flavone C-glycosides, 20 flavanones, 15 anthocyanins, 13 isoflavones, 6 flavonolignans, and 5 proanthocyanidins) were identified for the first time by a widely targeted Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method within the two Taxus species, containing 160 common metabolites, with 37 unique metabolites merely determined in T. mairei or T. media. Moreover, 42 differential flavonoid metabolites were screened in the two Taxus species, which showed specific metabolic patterns in isoflavonoid biosynthesis, anthocyanin biosynthesis, and flavone and flavonol biosynthesis pathways. Compared to T. mairei, a more activated phenylpropanoid pathway was found in T. media, which could be responsible for the higher content of total flavonoids in T. media. Our results provide new insights into the diversity of flavonoid metabolites between T. mairei and T. media, and provide a theoretical basis for the sufficient utilization of Taxus species and the development of novel drugs.
Highlights
Flavonoids are widely distributed phenolic compounds in the plant kingdom and occur in all parts of plants as complex mixtures of different components, including anthocyanins, flavanes, flavones, flavanones, flavonols, and chalcones [1,2]
Through clustering analysis and orthogonal projection to latent structures-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) analysis, considerable differences of flavonoid metabolites were observed between T. media and T. mairei, and a series of unique flavonoid metabolites were detected in the two Taxus species, respectively
Compared to other studies, our results uncovered the broadest metabolomics of T. media and T. mairei, containing 689 metabolites and the major metabolic pathways covered by 306 named metabolites from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database, which will be helpful for identifying the known and new metabolites and the possible relationship between the metabolites within two Taxus species, through the comprehensive analysis of the above metabolite expression profiles
Summary
Flavonoids are widely distributed phenolic compounds in the plant kingdom and occur in all parts of plants as complex mixtures of different components, including anthocyanins, flavanes, flavones, flavanones, flavonols, and chalcones [1,2]. They have many functions in plants, such as providing pigmentation to flowers, fruits, and seeds to attract pollinators and seed dispersers [3]; participating in defense and resistance responses during plant growth and development [4]; and improving the utilization of nutrient elements and the germination of pollen [5]. Except for taxol, there are many kinds of bioactive substances in leaves of Taxus species, such as flavonoids
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