Phytochemical Analysis Using UPLC-MSn Combined with Network Pharmacology Approaches to Explore the Biomarkers for the Quality Control of the Anticancer Tannin Fraction of Phyllanthus emblica L. Habitat in Nepal.

Lingfang Wu,Lanzhen Zhang,Liying Niu,Yongben Ma,Wenyi Liang,Qiunan Zhang,Weicheng Hu

doi:10.1155/2021/6623791

Abstract

Phyllanthus emblica L. is widely used in traditional Tibetan medicine for its therapeutic effects on treating liver, kidney, and bladder problems. We have reported that the tannin fraction has a good anti-hepatocellular carcinoma effect, but its active ingredients are not clear. This study was to find the active ingredients of the tannin fraction using UPLC-MSn and network pharmacology. First of all, the UPLC-MSn method was employed to obtain high-resolution mass spectra of different components, and 110 compounds were obtained. Then a network pharmacology method was used to find biomarkers for quality control. Network pharmacology results showed that gallic acid, punicalagin A, punicalagin B, methyl gallate, geraniin, corilagin, chebulinic acid, chebulagic acid, and ellagic acid should be the biomarkers of the tannin fraction. Furthermore, 9 components were detected in the serum, which also proved that they could be biomarkers, because we generally believe that the ingredients which are absorbed into the blood are effective. In the end, a simple method for simultaneously determining the contents of the 9 compounds was constructed by HPLC-DAD. This research established a new method to find biomarkers of traditional Chinese medicine. This is of great significance to improving the quality standards of Tibetan medicine.

Highlights

Traditional Tibetan medicine has evolved from 2,300 years ago and still plays an important role in protecting human health
A total of 110 compounds including 45 hydrolysable tannins, 22 mucic acids, 15 phenolic acids, 15 flavonoids, 11 organic acids, and 2 other compounds were tentatively identified by comparing their retention times and mass spectrometry data with those of the reference compounds and reviewing the literature. en, a network pharmacology method was used to find biomarkers for quality control based on the 110 identified compounds and anti-hepatocellular carcinoma effect
Network pharmacology results showed that gallic acid, punicalagin A, punicalagin B, methyl gallate, geraniin, corilagin, chebulinic acid, chebulagic acid, and ellagic acid might be the biomarkers of the tannin fraction, and these 9 components were detected in the serum, which proves that they could be biomarkers, because we generally believe that the ingredients those are absorbed into the blood are effective

Summary

Introduction

Traditional Tibetan medicine has evolved from 2,300 years ago and still plays an important role in protecting human health. We researched the relevant literature on the quality control of the tannin fraction of Phyllanthus emblica L. Is research established a new method to find biomarkers for the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine. En, a network pharmacology method was used to find biomarkers for quality control based on the 110 identified compounds and anti-hepatocellular carcinoma effect. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report using UPLC-MSn and network pharmacology approaches to find the boimarkers for the quality control of the tannin fraction of Phyllanthus emblica L. e method developed in our study provides a scientific foundation for the study of anticancer effective substances of the tannin fraction of Phyllanthus emblica L

Materials and Methods

Results

6.52 C27H26O20

54 HO OHHO OH