Phytochemical Constituents Identified from the Aerial Parts of Lespedeza cuneata and Their Effects on Lipid Metabolism during Adipocyte Maturation

Abstract

Lespedeza cuneata, belonging to Fabaceae, is well-known as Chinese bushclover, and it has been used in traditional folk medicines for the treatment of disorders, such as diabetes, hematuria, and insomnia. As part of continuing research projects to discover interesting natural compounds with biological activities from Korean medicinal plants, the phytochemical investigation of L. cuneata resulted in the isolation of five chemical constituents: α-tocopherol (1), 7a-methoxy-α-tocopherol (2), 13(R)-hydroxy-octadeca-(9Z,11E,15Z)-trien-oic acid (3), α-dimorphecolic acid (4), and lupeol (5). The structural determination of the isolated compounds was elucidated from data gathered through nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC/MS). Until now, this study is the first to report these five compounds from the plant L. cuneata. Moreover, these isolated compounds (1–5) were evaluated for their anti-adipogenesis effects and their role in lipid metabolism during adipocyte maturation. As a result, the upregulation of mRNA expression levels of Fabp4 from 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes treated with compounds 3 and 4 demonstrated that these compounds efficiently induced adipocyte differentiation. Furthermore, compounds 3 and 4 were found to regulate lipid metabolism by the induction of lipolytic and of lipogenic gene expressions. Therefore, experimental data from these findings supported that the compounds 3 and 4 induce the adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes and regulate lipid metabolism.

American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control Investigations on the Use of Plant Secondary Compounds of Sericea Lespedeza for the Control of Sheep and Goat Parasites

“…There is additional research needed to elucidate the anti-parasitic mechanism of action in SL, including whether it is due principally to the unique structure of its condensed tannins or to the many other secondary compounds in this plant (Baek et al, 2018;Kang et al, 2021), or a combination of both. Application of next generation analytical techniques, including metabolomics and metagenomics, will also likely be useful in determining the role of SL secondary compounds in enhancing the nutraceutical properties of SL, and our team is already utilizing these technologies (Pannell et al, 2022).…”