Quality Control Of Natural Products Research Articles

Spectrum-Effect Relationships as an Effective Approach for Quality Control of Natural Products: A Review.

As natural products with biological activity, the quality of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) is the key to their clinical application. Fingerprints based on the types and contents of chemical components in TCM are an internationally recognized quality evaluation method but ignore the correlation between chemical components and efficacy. Through chemometric methods, the fingerprints represented by the chemical components of TCM were correlated with its pharmacodynamic activity results to obtain the spectrum-effect relationships of TCM, which can reveal the pharmacodynamic components information related to the pharmacodynamic activity and solve the limitations of segmentation of chemical components and pharmacodynamic research in TCM. In the 20th anniversary of the proposed spectrum-effect relationships, this paper reviews its research progress in the field of TCM, including the establishment of fingerprints, pharmacodynamic evaluation methods, chemometric methods and their practical applications in the field of TCM. Furthermore, the new strategy of spectrum-effect relationships research in recent years was also discussed, and the application prospects of this technology were discussed.

Recent advances of green pretreatment techniques for quality control of natural products.

A few advancing technologies for natural product analysis have been widely proposed, which focus on decreasing energy consumption and developing an environmentally sustainable manner. These green sample pretreatment and analysis methods following the green Analytical Chemistry (GAC) criteria have the advantage of improving the strategy of chemical analyses, promoting sustainable development to analytical laboratories, and reducing the negative effects of analysis experiments on the environment. A few minimized extraction methodologies have been proposed for replacing the traditional methods in the quality evaluation of natural products, mainly including solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and liquid phase microextraction (LPME). These procedures not only have no need for large numbers of samples and toxic reagent, but also spend a small amount of extraction and analytical time. This overview aims to list out the main green strategies on the application of quality evaluation and control for natural products in the past 3 years.

Natural phenolic antioxidants electrochemistry: Towards a new food science methodology.

Natural phenolic compounds are abundant in the vegetable kingdom, occurring mainly as secondary metabolites in a wide variety of chemical structures. Around 10,000 different plant phenolic derivatives have been isolated and identified. This review provides an exhaustive overview concerning the electron transfer reactions in natural polyphenols, from the point of view of their in vitro antioxidant and/or pro-oxidant mode of action, as well as their identification in highly complex matrixes, for example, fruits, vegetables, wine, food supplements, relevant for food quality control, nutrition, and health research. The accurate assessment of polyphenols' redox behavior is essential, and the application of the electrochemical methods in routine quality control of natural products and foods, where the polyphenols antioxidant activity needs to be quantified in vitro, is of the utmost importance. The phenol moiety oxidation pathways and the effect of substituents and experimental conditions on their electrochemical behavior will be reviewed. The fundamental principles concerning the redox behavior of natural polyphenols, specifically flavonoids and other benzopyran derivatives, phenolic acids and ester derivatives, quinones, lignins, tannins, lignans, essential oils, stilbenes, curcuminoids, and chalcones, will be described. The final sections will focus on the electroanalysis of phenolic antioxidants in natural products and the electroanalytical evaluation of in vitro total antioxidant capacity.

Phytochemicals from Castanea spp. buds and green extraction technologies: the Finnover project

Green economy is a sustainable development tool based on the valorization of economic, natural and social resources. It is recognized as a tool to be applied to all the production sectors (goods and services), as well as for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. The FINNOVER project (“Innovative strategies for the development of cross-border green supply chains”) proposes a technical-economic path for the creation and development of new supply chains for the eco-sustainable extraction and use of natural bioactive compounds. In this study, an innovative extraction and re-use strategy to obtain value-added products from botanical by-products was developed as an alternative to waste incineration or composting. It was applied to Castanea sativa bud extract production as a case study, but it could be analogously applied for other herbal preparations. Castanea spp. and their preparations have been widely used for hundreds of years as medicinal plants in composite formulae. Bioactive compounds (botanicals) are quite variable in the plant material, according to genotype (intraspecific chemodiversity), different collection stages, pedoclimatic conditions of sampling sites (wild or cultivation zones), agrotechniques, and post-harvest handling. This research aimed to compare the bioactive compound pattern of Castanea spp. bud preparations (herbal preparations derived from embryonic fresh plant tissues as buds and sprouts) with the composition of extracts derived from the bud-waste management process. Molecules were extracted by the encoded traditional method (maceration in hydroglyceroalcoholic solution) and by green extraction technologies (Pulsed Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction). HPLC methods were used to identify and quantify the main bioactive compounds, and to obtain a specific profile to assess the contribution of every single bioactive class to the total phytocomplex. The established protocol was simple, sensitive and reliable and it could be used for the evaluation and quality control of natural products and relative eco-sustainable extracts. The valorization of bud marcs, which remain after the bud-preparation production, could have a significant economic impact for the commercial producers, representing an important innovation in this sector.

Research and development of certified reference material of swertioside

The standard sample of natural products is an essential standard reference to determine the quality of the product in the quality control of natural products. To develop a certified reference material(CRM) of swertioside according to the Work Guideline for Reference Materials(3): Reference Material-General Principles and Statistical Method for Certification(GB/T 15000.3-2008), swertioside was purified from whole plant of Swertia mussotii by extraction, isolation and Prep-HPLC to obtain certified reference material of swertioside. The structure of swertioside was identified by IR, UV, high-resolution MS, NMR. Thin layer chromatography, optical rotation, elemental analysis and melting point was carried out for the identification. The purity of the prepared sample was tested from different chromatographic elution conditions, thin layer chromatography and HPLC-MS. Swertioside was divided into 140 bottles, with 10 mg per bottle after homogeneity test, stability test and quantitative analysis. This CRM is 7-O-[α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-D-xylopyranosyl]; the homogeneity of the 95% confidence interval was good; the certified purity value was 98.66%, with a relative expanded uncertainty of 0.38%; the storage period was 36 months at 0-8 ℃. Therefore, the CRM of sakuranetin reached the technical requirements of CRM, and was accepted by SAC. Swertioside is successfully developed and can be used for determining content, evaluating test methods, detecting relevant products and controlling quality.

Analysis of minor low molecular weight carbohydrates in cocoa beans by chromatographic techniques coupled to mass spectrometry

The low molecular weight carbohydrate (LMWC) profile of cocoa beans has recently been studied using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (HILIC-ESI-TOF MS) and HILIC-ESI-tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-ESI-MSn). However, different LMWC could not be unambiguously identified. Thus, as a first approach in this paper, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was used as a complementary analytical technique to characterize LMWC of cocoa beans. Different mono-, di-, tri- and tetrasaccharides, as well as myo-inositol, galactinol and a diglycosil glycerol were detected. scyllo-Inositol, 1-kestose and 6-kestose were identified in unfermented cocoa beans for the first time. Moreover, other minor LMWC were tentatively assigned as fructosyl-fructose, fructosyl-glucose and glucosyl-sucrose. As a second step, in order to evaluate new possible indicators of cocoa bean origin or fermentation status, scyllo-inositol, 1-kestose and galactinol were selected as target compounds and a HILIC-ESI-TOF MS method was optimized for their analysis. The optimized conditions, using an acetonitrile:water gradient with 0.05% ammonium hydroxide at 40 °C showed narrow peaks (wh: 0.3-0.5 min) with good resolution values (Rs: 0.83–2.83). The validated HILIC-ESI-TOF MS method was applied to the analysis of 35 cocoa bean samples from different origins and fermentation status. The content of scyllo-inositol, 1-kestose and galactinol in unfermented beans (n = 21) was in the range of traces-504.9, 36.1–133.5 and traces-1970.4 μg g−1 cocoa DM respectively. In fermented beans (n = 14), the content of scyllo-inositol and 1-kestose was in the range of 15.5–491.9 and traces-115.5 μg g−1 cocoa DM respectively. Galactinol was absent in fermented beans, indicating that it could be a potential indicator of fermentation status. The methodology proposed could be used for quality control of natural products and other food ingredients containing inositols and oligosaccharides.

Potential of ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy for the Classification of Natural Resins

This study reports evidence on the feasibility of a classification of natural resins by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy based on specific absorbance band positions. A set of twelve selected resins were used to assess band position variability and this vibrational data was put in relationship with the chemical composition of the resins. As a result, a classification of resins into the following four main families is proposed: 1) those correlated with communic acids (sandarac, black copal, pine pitch and amber); 2) those associated with abietic acid (rosin and mastic); 3) those with ketone groups (white copal, tragacanth and frankincense); and 4) those with ester groups (myrrh, shellac and propolis). This classification system may find application not only in facile quality control of natural products, but also for rapid characterization of cultural heritage materials.

Quality Control of Natural Products by Fingerprinting of Eastern Blotting

Eastern blotting was developed for small molecule compounds which have no affinity of conjugation to membrane instead of western blotting. Crude extracts of medicinal plants were developed by TLC plate followed to be blotted to polyvinylidene fluoride or polyether sulfone membrane by heating. Components on membrane were conjugated with carrier protein resulting in fixing to membrane. Staining was followed to western blotting system using monoclonal antibody (MAb). Four types of natural products, solasodine glycosides, aristrochic acid, glycyrrhizin-liquiritin and ginsenosides were discussed in this review. 1) Solasodine glycosides are selected as an example of staining for almost all solasodine glycosides using the anti-solamargine MAb having wide cross-reactivity. 2) Aristrochic acids possess no capacity of conjugation with membrane and their aqueous solubility is quite poor. To improving them, aristrochic acids should be synthesized for conjugation with carrier protein in order to combine to membrane. 3) Two different types of marker components in licorice, triterpene glycoside; glycyrrhizin and flavonoid glycoside; liquiritin can be detected by double eastern blotting. 4) Ginsenosides are also detected by double eastern blotting and this system might be possible to clear the distribution of ginsenosides in tissue for understanding of pharmacological activity.

Concerns and Considerations about the Quality Control of Natural Products Using Chromatographic Methods

Concerns and Considerations about the Quality Control of Natural Products Using Chromatographic Methods

New analytical tools for quality control of natural products

Phytopharmacy with its huge variety and complexity of plants, extraction procedures and ingredients is a permanently demanding challenge for the analytical chemist. The separation of active components from natural products has become increasingly important and new advancements in chromatography allow exploring inaccessible areas of natural product isolation. There is a need for highly efficient techniques to handle the problems associated with sample preparation, separation and identification. Novel enrichment and purification methods based on modern SPE technologies are applied to reduce the complexity of plant materials while µ-HPLC is used for separation, preconcentration and fractionation. Recent research in the area of solid-phase extraction led to the development of novel stationary phases based on organic polymers and fullerene-silica for enrichment and purification of natural products. Considerable progress has been made in the development of stationary phases which can be tailored to a specific application allowing endless possibilities in terms of selectivity tuning. An analytical platform which allows to profile and characterize plant materials and their extractives by vibrational spectroscopy, infrared (IR) based imaging, CE-MS and matrix-free material enhanced laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (mf-MELDI-TOF/MS) was established. Thereby, vibrational spectroscopy offers the advantages of fast, non-invasive and simultaneous determination of chemical and physical properties being suitable for high-throughput analytical quality control.

The effect of ursolic and oleanolic acids on human skin fibroblast cells

In this article, we look at how ursolic and oleanolic acids can be used for the purpose of quality control of natural products used in dermatocosmetology as well as of various other therapeutic preparations. Ursolic acid (UA) and oleanolic acid (OA) are pentacyclic triterpenes and they are constituents of many medicinal herbs. In this study, we analyzed the cytotoxic and anti-proliferative activity of OA and UA against normal human skin fibroblasts (HSF). Additionally, the scavenging activity of free radicals of both acids was analyzed. The sensitivity of cells to OA and UA activity was determined using a standard spectrophotometric (MTT) assay. The free radical scavenging activity of OA and UA was measured using the DPPH• test. The F-actin cytoskeletal proteins organization was analyzed using TRITC-phalloidine fluorescent staining. The cytotoxic activity of the analyzed acids was determined using Neutral Red (NR) uptake assay. Of the two isomeric compounds, UA showed a higher cytotoxic activity against HSF cells than did OA. Our investigations showed that OA, in view of its non-toxic nature, may be used as a supplementary factor for dermal preparations.