ABSTRACT
Objective:The chemical differences of Lycii Fructus samples from Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia provinces were compared based on proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) plant metabolomics. Method:A total of 97 Lycii Fructus samples from five provinces were collected, including 61 samples in Qinghai, and extracted by 50% methanol for detecting. 1H-NMR spectra were obtained and compared by multivariate statistical analysis for investigating the chemical differences of samples from Qinghai and other production areas. And the content of Lycii Fructus polysaccharides in all samples was determined with the wavelength of 490 nm (calculated by anhydrous glucose). Result:A total of 32 chemical components were detected in the Lycii Fructus extract by 1H-NMR. The multivariate statistical analysis revealed that there was no significant difference among the samples from five provinces. The difference between Lycii Fructus from Qinghai and Ningxia, as well as the samples among the six regions of Qinghai province were relatively small. The similarity values of the majority of samples were >0.85. Univariate analysis showed that no significant difference was observed for the most metabolites in Lycii Fructus collected from five provinces, except for sucrose, glucose, proline and so on. There was no significant difference in the content of Lycii Fructus polysaccharides between Qinghai and other provinces. And the correlation coefficient between the content of Lycii Fructus polysaccharides and the small molecular compounds identified by 1H-NMR was -0.2-0.4. Conclusion:In this study, chemical characteristics of Lycii Fructus in Qinghai province are analyzed from the holistic view by 1H-NMR plant metabolomics, in combination of polysaccharide determination, and the results show that there is no significant difference between samples from Qinghai and other four provinces. The quality evaluation method based on 1H-NMR established in this study can provide scientific basis for improving quality control level and selecting planting areas of Lycii Fructus.
ABSTRACT
It recently becomes an important and urgent mission for modern scientific research to identify and explain the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which has been utilized in China for more than four millennia. Since few works have been contributed to understanding the TCM theory, the mechanism of actions of drugs with cold/hot properties remains unclear. In the present study, six kinds of typical herbs with cold or hot properties were orally administered into mice, and serum and liver samples were analyzed using an untargeted nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based metabolomics approach coupled with similarity analysis. This approach was performed to identify and quantify changes in metabolic pathways to elucidate drug actions on the treated mice. Our results showed that those drugs with same property exerted similar effects on the metabolic alterations in mouse serum and liver samples, while drugs with different property showed different effects. The effects of herbal medicines with cold/hot properties were exerted by regulating the pathways linked to glycometabolism, lipid metabolism, amino acids metabolism and other metabolic pathways. The results elucidated the differences and similarities of drugs with cold/hot properties, providing useful information on the explanation of medicinal properties of these TCMs.
Subject(s)
Animals , Male , Mice , Drugs, Chinese Herbal , Chemistry , Metabolism , Liver , Chemistry , Metabolism , Medicine, Chinese Traditional , Metabolomics , Mice, Inbred ICR , Molecular Structure , Plants, Medicinal , Chemistry , Serum , Chemistry , MetabolismABSTRACT
The study established the 1H NMR-based fingerprinting and analyzed 8 batches of Huangqi injection solution. 1H NMR-based fingerprinting of both primary and secondary metabolites of Huangqi injection were established, and the 1H-1H chemical shift correlation spectroscopy (COSY) and 1H-13C chemical shift correlation spectroscopy (HSQC) were used to identify the chemical components in Huangqi injection solution. Coupled with similarity analysis and relative content determination, 8 batches of Huangqi injection solution were analyzed. Twenty-five metabolites (both primary and secondary) were identified, and the significant differences were found in the chemical composition among these Huangqi samples. The content and content variation of the primary metabolites were much higher than those of the secondary metabolites, which was the major cause of the uniformity of the Huangqi injections. The results on the quality variations of Huangqi injections in this study will serve as a basis for improving the quality control.