Abstract
The aim of the present study was to establish a new method based on Similarity Analysis (SA), Cluster Analysis (CA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to determine the quality of different samples of Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf obtained from Yunnan, Hubei, Guizhou, Fujian, Henan, Guangxi, Anhui and Sichuan in China. For this purpose 15 samples from the different habitats were analyzed by HPLC-PAD and HPLC-MSn. Twenty-three compounds were detected by HPLC-MSn, of which twenty compounds were tentatively identified by comparing their retention times and mass spectrometry data with that of reference compounds and reviewing the literature. The characteristic fragmentations were summarized. 3-epi-Dehydrotumulosic acid (F13), 3-oxo-16α,25-dihydroxylanosta-7,9(11),24(31)-trien-21-oic acid (F4), 3-oxo-6,16α-dihydroxylanosta-7,9(11),24(31)-trien-21-oic acid (F7) and dehydropachymic acid (F15) were deemed to be suitable marker compounds to distinguish between samples of different quality according to CA and PCA. This study provides helpful chemical information for further anti-tumor activity and active mechanism research on P. cocos. The results proved that fingerprint combined with a chemometric approach is a simple, rapid and effective method for the quality discrimination of P. cocos.
Highlights
Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf is a saprophytic fungus that grows on diverse species of Pinus
We found for the first time that 3-epi-dehydrotumulosic acid (F13), 3-oxo-16α,25-dihydroxylanosta-7,9(11),24(31)-trien-21-oic acid (F4), 3-oxo-6,16α-dihydroxylanosta7,9(11),24(31)-trien-21-oic acid (F7) and dehydropachymic acid (F15) might be suitable marker compounds to distinguish between P. cocos samples with different quality according to Cluster Analysis (CA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
The relative retention time, relative peak area and similarities were used to evaluate the quality of the fingerprints
Summary
Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf is a saprophytic fungus that grows on diverse species of Pinus. Its sclerotium, called Fu-Ling or hoelen, is used in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine for its diuretic, sedative, and tonic effects. Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf contains a variety of triterpene acids found to be the bioactive components [2,3,4,5,6,7,8], for example pachymic acid, tumulosic acid, polyporenic acid C, dehydroeburicoic acid, dehydropachymic acid and so on. The type and content of triterpene acids reflect the quality of P. cocos so triterpene acids could be used as marker components to evaluate the quality of P. cocos. The therapeutic effects of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) are based on the complex interactions of complicated chemical constituents as a whole system, so methods are needed in Molecules 2016, 21, 227; doi:10.3390/molecules21020227 www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules
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