Abstract
Astragalus membranaceus is a valuable medicinal plant species widely distributed in Asia. Its root is the main medicinal tissue rich in methoxylated flavonoids. Origin can highly influence the chemical composition and bioactivity. To characterize the principal chemicals influenced by origin and provide more information about their antioxidant profile, the extracts of A. membranaceus roots from four origins were analysed by UHPLC-MS/MS. Thirty-four flavonoids, including thirteen methoxylated flavonoids, fifteen flavonoid glycosides and six flavonols, were identified. By principal component analysis, eighteen identified compounds were considered to be principal compounds. They could be used to differentiate A. membranaceus from Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Gansu. The antioxidant activity was analysed by ORAC assay, DPPH radical scavenging activity assay and cell antioxidant activity assay. ‘Inner Mongolia’ extract showed the highest antioxidant activity. These results were helpful to understand how origin influenced the quality of A. membranaceus.
Highlights
Different origins usually lead to different phytochemical profiles, which further relate to the quality of A. membranaceus
Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM), fetal bovine serum (FBS), and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for cell culture were purchased from Gibco Life Technologies (Grand Island, NY, USA)
The content of phenolics varied between 135.23–197.40 mg GAE/g extract and in a decreasing order of ‘Inner Mongolia’ (197.40 ± 1.95 mg GAE/g extract), ‘Heilongjiang’ (164.93 ± 2.14 mg GAE/g extract), ‘Shanxi’ (155.62 ± 0.95 mg GAE/g extract), and ‘Gansu’ (135.24 ± 1.66 mg GAE/g extract), respectively
Summary
Flavonoids are a natural bioactive compound with C6-C3-C6 skeleton. They are commonly found in plant species, and possess good bioactivities which have been applied in nutraceutical, medicinal, and cosmetic products [5]. Phenolics, including flavonoids, have been judged as the marker for quality evaluation and standardization of A. membranaceus and its processed products [7]. Methoxylated flavonoids and their glycosides, such as calycosin and calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside, were the major bioactive constituents of A. membranaceus due to their superior bioactivities [8,9]. Many methoxyl flavones and flavonoid glycosides have been proved the superior antioxidant activities [11,12]. Different origins usually lead to different phytochemical profiles, which further relate to the quality of A. membranaceus
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