Discovering the Major Antitussive, Expectorant, and Anti-Inflammatory Bioactive Constituents in Tussilago farfara L. Based on the Spectrum–Effect Relationship Combined with Chemometrics

Abstract

Farfarae Flos (FF) is the dried flower bud of Tussilago farfara L, which has antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, little research on the main active composition of FF has been reported. The purpose of this study is to find the main active compounds responsible for the three pharmacological effects (i.e., antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory effects) of Farfarae Flos, based on the spectrum–effect relationship combined with chemometrics. First, this study uses the UPLC-QDA method to establish the chromatography fingerprint of Farfarae Flos, which is combined with chemometrics to analyze 18 batches of samples. Then, we study the antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory effects of Farfarae Flos. Finally, the spectrum–effect relationship between the fingerprint and the three pharmacological effects are studied by grey correlation analysis and partial least squares regression. The results show that four, four, and three main active constituents were found for the antitussive, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory pharmacological effects, respectively. In conclusion, we found the main active compounds corresponding to the main pharmacodynamic effects of Farfarae Flos. To our knowledge, this is the first time that spectrum–effect relationships in FF have been established using both raw and processed samples, which provides an experimental basis for further studies on the pharmacodynamic material basis of Farfarae Flos, as well as providing reference for the comprehensive evaluation of Farfarae Flos quality and the development of substitute resources.

Spectrum‐effect relationship between UPLC fingerprints and anti‐lung cancer effect of Panax ginseng

“…Hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) is a multivariate analysis method that classifies specimens according to their closeness in nature 4,21 . The analysis maximises the similarity between the comparable data elements and the differences between different data elements 22 .…”

“…Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), as a complementary therapy, has survival and quality of life benefits for cancer patients, and has attracted great research interest 2,3 . The detection of one or several index components has been used as the main method in the quality of TCM 4 . However, the multiple chemical components and targets of TCM pose a challenge in establishing quality control methods especially in targeting ingredients associated with clinical efficacy 5,6 .…”

Research Progress on Main Symptoms of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Improved by Traditional Chinese Medicine

“…Besides, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenes and saponins are considered to exert antitussive effects ( Han et al., 2016 ). A series of studies have found that the monomeric components with antitussive bioactivity may be 4,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 3,4-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, rutin, kampferol analogues, 2,2-dimethyl-6-acetylchromanone, tussilagone, Bauer-7-ene-3β,16α-diol, β-sitosterol, and sitosterone ( Li et al., 2012 ; Wu et al., 2016 ; Li et al., 2018a ; Yang et al., 2020 ). The antitussive effect of Farfarae Flos has been reported in an animal cough model induced by ammonia.…”

The comprehensive quality evaluation of scutellariae radix based on HPLC fingerprint and antibacterial activity

“…Some mathematical statistical methods have been applied to find the corresponding active components in the spectrum-effect relationship. For example, Liu et al explored the spectrum-effect relationship between fingerprints and three pharmacological effects through gray correlation analysis and partial least square regression, and found the main active components corresponding to the main pharmacological effects of Farfarae Flos [10] . At present, the application of this method in the quality evaluation of SR is limited.…”