Metabolomic profiling of Commiphora wightii (Arn.) Bhandari bark, oleogum-resin, and stem collected from different geographical regions of India

Abstract

Commiphora wightii (Arn.) Bhandari (Burseraceae) produces a medicinally important oleogum-resin, extensively used by Ayurvedic physicians to treat various ailments. However, most of the studies on C. wightii have been limited to its gum resin, stem, fruit, and leaves. For the first time, comprehensive metabolomic profiling of bark was done with respect to stem and oleogum-resin, for which samples of C. wightii were collected from different geographical regions of India (Jaipur, Jodhpur, Morena, and Kutch). The samples extracted in acetonitrile showed a high concentration range of guggulsterone (GS)-E and Z in the bark (0.54 mg/g to 1.74 mg/g) as compared to the stem (0.09 mg/g to 0.39 mg/g) of C. wightii. A precise and accurate high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed in the linear working concentration range of 7.59-30.61 µg/mL, 20.32-73.66 µg/mL with good correlations r2 0.9996 and 0.9999 for GS-E and Z in bark, respectively. Also, the hydro-alcoholic extract prepared from bark sample of each region showed a good percentage of GS-E and Z (1.66 mg/g to 3.93 mg/g). The LC-MS metabolic profiling of bark, revealed 44 common compounds with respect to oleogum-resin of C. wightii including steroids, sterols, sugars, terpenoids, flavonoids, and lignans. The present findings provide insight into important metabolites present in the bark of C. wightii such as guggulsterone-M, 6,7-dehydro-20-hydroxygugglsterone, guggulsterol-I, guggulsterol-III, guggulsterol-IV, dehydroguggulsterone-M, GS-E and Z, and these can be explored further for the development of phytopharmaceuticals, and also therapeutic utilization of bark can be done similar to oleogum-resin of C. wightii in Ayurvedic medicine.