Monitoring of chemical components with different color traits of Tussilago farfara using NMR-based metabolomics / 药学学报

The quality and grade of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs were assessed by their characteristics traditionally. According to traditional experience, the quality of the purple Flos Farfarae is better than that of yellow buds. NMR-based metabolomic approach combined with significant analysis of microarray (SAM) and Spearman rank correlation analysis were used to investigate the different metabolites of the Flos Farfarae with different color feature. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed clear distinction between the purple and yellow flower buds of Tussilago farfara. The S-plot of orthogonal PLS-DA (OPLS-DA) and t test revealed that the levels of threonine, proline, phosphatidylcholine, creatinine, 4, 5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, rutin, caffeic acid, kaempferol analogues, and tussilagone were higher in the purple flower buds than that in the yellow buds, in agreement with the results of SAM and Spearman rank correlation analysis. The results confirmed the traditional medication experience that "purple flower bud is better than the yellow ones", and provide a scientific basis for assessing the quality of Flos Farfarae by the color features.

Status and analysis of Astragali Radix resource in China / 中国中药杂志

To explore the status of the resources of Astragali Radix, a survey on its germplasm resources was carried out. Some conclusions can be drawn for Astragali Radix: the major source is the cultivated Astragalus mongolicus. The new major cultivation areas for A. mongolicus and A. membranaceus are Shandong and Gansu province. The semi-wildly planting model in Shanxi province maintains the genuine trait of Astragali Radix, but its yield is limited, and now a combination model has been developed. The major problems for Astragali Radix are the selection of planting sites, the rot root and difficulty in collecting and processing. Several developmental proposals for Astragali Radix were put forward including rational distribution of planting areas, establishment of standard system, development and standardization of producing technologies.

Metabolomic study of flower buds of Tussilago farfara in different development stages by GC-MS / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Plant metabolomics combined with GC-MS was used to investigate metabolic fingerprinting of Tussilago farfara at different growth stages.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Dried Samples were extracted by two-phase solvent system to obtain polar and nonpolar parts, which were subjected to GC-MS analysis. Metabolites were identified by NIST data base search and comparison with the authentic standards. The data were introduced into SIMCA-P 11.0 software package for multivariate analysis after pretreatment.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Fifty-four metabolites were identified, including 35 polar metabolites and 19 nonpolar compounds. The score plot for PCA showed clear separation of the different development stages of flower buds of T. farfara, showing a trend of gradual change. Samples of October, November, December were in close proximity on the plot, indicating that the metabolome of these three periods was similar, samples from September (early development) and March (after flowering) were far away, showing big chemical differences. Content comparison results of some representative metabolites reveals that, the content of proline, lysine and linoleic acid increased gradually to the highest in the medium term, but sharply decreased to the lowest after flowering; the content of malic acid and citric acid were the lowest in the medium term; sucrose content decreased gradually, and then reached the lowest level after blooming.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>It is obvious that metabolites of the early development and flowering stage were quite different with those of the traditional harvest time, suggesting that they can not be used as traditional medicine. This study will provide a research basis for harvest time determination and bioactive compounds of T. farfara.</p>