Abstract
Lonicera japonica Thunb is a commonly used Chinese herbal medicine, which belongs to the family Caprifoliaceae. The active components varied greatly during bud development. Research on the variation of the main active components is significant for the timely harvesting and quality control of Lonicera japonica. In this study, the attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) combined with the chemometric method was performed to investigate the variability of different harvesting periods of Lonicera japonica. The preliminary characterization from ATR-FTIR fingerprints showed various characteristic absorption peaks of the main active components from the different harvesting times, such as flavonoids, organic acids, iridoids, and volatile oils. Additionally, principal component analysis (PCA) scatter plots showed that there was a clear clustering trend in the samples of the same harvesting period, and the samples of the different harvesting periods could be well distinguished. Finally, further analysis by the orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) showed that there were regular changes in flavonoids, phenolic acids, iridoids, and volatile oils in different harvesting periods. Therefore, ATR-FTIR, as a novel and convenient analytical method, could be applied to evaluate the quality of Lonicera japonica.
Highlights
Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history in China
Lonicera japonica flower buds were collected from the medicine plantation of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine in April in Changsha, Hunan, China (112°54′E; 28°08′N). e well-developed Lonicera japonica samples were harvested at different time points
Permutation tests (100 times) and S-line plots were used in the orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) model for model evaluation and screening of differential components. e R2Y and Q2Y intercepts in the permutation plot were applied to evaluate whether the model was overfitted [16]
Summary
Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history in China. It is a summary of the long-term life experience of the Chinese people. E quality of Chinese medicines is determined mainly by the content of active components, which is closely related to the harvesting period [1–4]. The quality of Lonicera japonica on the market is mixed due to its concentrated flowering period, short harvesting time, and the effect of varieties, processing methods, and transportation conditions. Erefore, there is a need to develop a method and technique that is handy, rapid, economical, strong fingerprinting, and capable of fully characterizing the chemical composition of Lonicera japonica. In addition to the above research methods, the common methods for studying the quality difference in Chinese medicinal materials in recent years include ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer (LC-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Erefore, in this study, the ATR-FTIR method was performed to establish the chemical information fingerprint of Lonicera japonica in five different harvesting periods. To ensure the sustainable utilization of medicinal resources with high-quality and high-yield, the variation characteristics of the five periods were discussed
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