Introduction
Polygoni Multiflori Caulis (PMC) has been used as a traditional Chinese medicine for a long time in China. However, hepatotoxic events of PMC have been reported in recent years, but the potential toxic compounds have remained unclear. Dianthrones as the secondary plant metabolites were revealed to potential hepatotoxicity in a previous study. However, no reports focused on dianthrones in PMC.
Objective
In the quest for exploring potential hepatotoxic compounds in PMC, the aim of this work was to undertake a comprehensive characterisation of dianthrones in PMC.
Methods
A simple and effective macroporous absorbent resin column chromatography method was established in this study to enrich the minor dianthrones from PMC extracts. Exploration and characterisation of dianthrones in PMC was conducted by an ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography‐quadrupole time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC‐QTOF‐MS/MS) method and information dependent acquisition (IDA) mode. The aglycones of dianthrone glycosides were further verified by acid hydrolysis method.
Results
Seventy‐two dianthrone glycosides and their five aglycones were discovered and tentatively characterised in PMC for the first time, of which 29 dianthrones were identified as potential new compounds. Dianthrone glycosides could be classified into three types according to their aglycone structures, and their fragmentation pathway rules and diagnosed ions were also summarised comprehensively.
Conclusion
This was the first comprehensive investigation on dianthrones in PMC. The result would help to fully understand the phytochemical constituents and toxic components in PMC, and highlight the need for further toxicological investigations of the dianthrones in PMC due to their potential hepatotoxicity correlation.
Honey-processed Astragalus is a widely used traditional Chinese medicine that has a better effect on reinforcing "Qi" (vital energy) than the raw one. A comparative study of metabolites analysis between them in rat serum for finding the bioactive ingredients was carried out using serum pharmacochemistry and multivariate statistical analysis. The blood collection methods and time were optimized first. Then the prototypes and metabolites in serum samples after oral administration were investigated by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry integrated with principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis. The contents of metabolites were also analyzed to evaluate the metabolic profile differences. As a result, nine prototypes and 36 metabolites were identified. Only two prototypes and 15 metabolites were different between raw and honey-processed Astragalus. Their biotransformation reactions contained the process of oxidation, demethylation, and hydrolysis in phase I and glucuronide conjugation or sulfate conjugation in phase II. Most of the detected metabolites were transformed from isoflavones and isoflavanes. Our results expand the knowledge about the influence of honey-processing on Article Related Abbreviations: BPI, base peak ion chromatograms; EICS, extracted ion chromatograms; m/z, mass-to-charge ratio; OPLS-DA, orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis; PCA, principal component analysis; PLS-DA, partial least squares-discriminant analysis.
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HUANG ET AL.Astragalus and suggest the different curative effects between raw and honey-processed Astragalus might due to their therapeutic material discrepancy.
K E Y W O R D Smetabolites, multivariate statistical analysis, prototypes, serum pharmacochemistry, traditional Chinese medicine
SUPPORTING INFORMATIONAdditional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article.How to cite this article: Huang J, Rui W, Wu J, Ye M, Huang L, Chen H. Strategies for determining the bioactive ingredients of honey-processed Astragalus by serum pharmacochemistry integrated with multivariate statistical analysis.
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