Compositional Analysis and Antioxidant Activity Assessment of Polysaccharide Extracted from Snow Lotus (Saussurea) Species

Abstract

Snow lotus herb is a collection of 40 species of geneus Saussurea 1 . This herb, grows in the mountains at heights about 2100-4100 m 2 , is frequently used as ethnomedicinal drug of Tibet 3 , Mongolia 4 and Uygur 5 . Modern pharmacological researches demonstrate that snow lotus has analgesic 6,7 , anticancer 8,9 , resist early-foetation 10,11 and free radical scavenging effects 12,13 . Pharmacological effects are closely related to chemical components. A series of active components which could provide beneficial therapeutic effects including phenolic compounds 14 , sesquiterpenes 15 , lignins 16 and polysaccharide 17 have been isolated from snow lotus.Currently, three snow lotus species including S. involucrata, S. laniceps and S. medusa are all used as an herbal drug for the treatment of inflammation and pain-related diseases which might limit their further bioactive screening and clinical popularization 8 . To solve this problem, several attempts 5,18 have been done to assess the qualitative and quantitative difference in these three related herbs using HPLC/DAD-MS and UPLC. In these studies, phenolic compounds including phenolic acids, flavonoids and lignans have been compared systemically, which gave an important clue to the quality control and use of S. involucrata, S. laniceps and S. medusa. However, one

Review on Saussurea laniceps, a potent medicinal plant known as “snow lotus”: botany, phytochemistry and bioactivities

“…Other references claimed that alkaloids and flavonoids of S. laniceps could both lower blood pressure of anaesthetized rabbits and dogs (Chen et al 2005;Xie et al 2007;Huang et al 2002), which is again an experimental result of S. involucrata (Huang et al 1996). The bewilderment about the academic records is serious because i) S. laniceps and S. involucrata have distinguishable therapeutic effects and medicinal applications (Jia et al 2005;Region et al 1975;Xie 2008; Editorial Board of Chinese Materia Medica 2005); ii) for anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effects, the two main pharmacological explanations for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, S. laniceps functions best among all major snow lotuses and should not be equivalent to S. involucrata (Yi et al 2010;Yi et al 2012); iii) S. laniceps exhibits better anti-oxidant efficacy than S. involucrata does (Shi et al 2013b;Shi et al 2013a); iv) such confusion of snow lotus species leads to a lack of authentic literature support towards S. laniceps. To better utilize the valuable and effective snow lotuses and to further expatiate on their therapeutic approaches, a detailed clarification and comparison among the phytochemical composition, pharmacological performances, as well as therapeutic mechanisms of different snow lotuses are undoubtedly desired.…”

“…Besides small molecules, biomacromolecules in S. laniceps. such as polysaccharides, are believed to benefit human health as well (Shi et al 2013a). A few attempts have been made to analyze the compositions and contents of polysaccharides in snow lotuses (Shi et al 2013a;Chen et al 2006); yet there is still room for technique improvement to achieve greater reliability and simplicity.…”

“…such as polysaccharides, are believed to benefit human health as well (Shi et al 2013a). A few attempts have been made to analyze the compositions and contents of polysaccharides in snow lotuses (Shi et al 2013a;Chen et al 2006); yet there is still room for technique improvement to achieve greater reliability and simplicity. One convincing quality control of the plant under study may be a combined determination of both small molecules and macromolecules, for example, taking representative coumarins, terpenes, flavonoids and polysaccharides as qualitative and quantitative standards.…”

“…Therefore, S. laniceps, S. medusa, and S. involucrata are the three species that can be considered authentic snow lotuses, with different therapeutic effects (Table 1) (Jia et al 2005;Health Bureau of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region et al 1975;Xie 2008;Liu 2006;Editorial Board of Chinese Materia Medica 2002, 2005Xiao 2007;Chik et al 2015;Fan et al 2015). Studies have given evidence that S. laniceps performs the best in various pharmacological models among the three snow lotuses (Yi et al 2010, very likely due to its distinct chemical compositions from the other two (Shi et al 2013a;Shi et al 2013b;Yi et al 2009a), making the herb a promising natural remedy. However, the two "Cagoesuba" and the "Tianshanxuelian" are often simply jointly regarded as "snow lotus" and confused with each other (Li 1999).…”