Discrimination of the rare medicinal plant Dendrobium officinale based on naringenin, bibenzyl, and polysaccharides

Abstract

The aim of this study was to establish a method for discriminating Dendrobium officinale from four of its close relatives Dendrobium chrysanthum, Dendrobium crystallinum, Dendrobium aphyllum and Dendrobium devonianum based on chemical composition analysis. We analyzed 62 samples of 24 Dendrobium species. High performance liquid chromatography analysis confirmed that the four low molecular weight compounds 4′,5,7-trihydroxyflavanone (naringenin), 3,4-dihydroxy-4′,5-dimethoxybibenzyl (DDB-2), 3′,4-dihydroxy-3,5′-dimethoxybibenzyl (gigantol), and 4,4′-dihydroxy-3,3′,5-trimethoxybibenzyl (moscatilin), were common in the genus. The phenol-sulfuric acid method was used to quantify polysaccharides, and the monosaccharide composition of the polysaccharides was determined by gas chromatography. Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to differentiate among the five closely related species based on the chemical composition analysis. This proved to be a simple and accurate approach for discriminating among these species. The results also showed that the polysaccharide content, the amounts of the four low molecular weight compounds, and the mannose to glucose ratio, were important factors for species discriminant. Therefore, we propose that a chemical analysis based on quantification of naringenin, bibenzyl, and polysaccharides is effective for identifying D. officinale. Dendrobium officinale, naringenin, bibenzyl, polysaccharide, discriminant analysis Citation:Chen X M, Wang F F, Wang Y Q, et al. Discrimination of the rare medicinal plant Dendrobium officinale based on naringenin, bibenzyl, and polysaccharides.

A novel and rapid HPGPC-based strategy for quality control of saccharide-dominant herbal materials: Dendrobium officinale, a case study

“…The typical chromatograms and calculated contents of the released monosaccharides after acid hydrolysis in water extracts of all Dendrobium samples were summarized in Fig. 3 and Table 1, respectively, and further confirmed the obtained results in previous reports [24]. The analysis demonstrated that sugar composition exhibited highly qualitative consistence in all Dendrobium samples.…”

“…This herb has a unique chemical profile, in which saccharides account for up to 70 %, along with some small molecules, such as bibenzyls and phenanthrenes [21][22][23], etc. Quality evaluation focusing on small molecules [24,25] has failed to efficiently distinguish D. officinale from other Dendrobium sp. And in these studies, the investigated constituents were less than 0.21 % of the whole herb material.…”

“…Given their dominant contents and proved bioactivities, carbohydrates are a more natural and logical target for quality control of D. officinale. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, quality control of carbohydrates in D. officinale, just like other saccharide-dominant herbal materials, has been stymied by a methodological bottleneck [24].…”

Quality control of sweet medicines based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

“…Monosaccharide profile has been successfully applied for QC of Dendrobii Officinalis Caulis, which is a rare medicinal plant (113). Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010 Edition) documented that the ratio of mannose and glucose in Dendrobii Officinalis Caulis should be 2.4-8.0 (114).…”

Effects of Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide on adipogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

“…It is an epiphytic and perennial herb, and is mainly distributed in the south areas of China. Dendrobium officinale has many kinds of main active ingredient in which polysaccharide is the main ingredient (Chen et al, 2012). Previous studies demonstrate that Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide (DDP) possesses antioxidant, immunomodulatory and anti-hypoglycaemic activities (Pan et al, 2014;Cai et al, 2015).…”