Discovery, isolation and structural identification of alkaloid glycosides in six traditional Chinese medicine such as Coptis chinensis / 中国中药杂志

Alkaloids are important active ingredients occurring in many traditional Chinese medicines, and alkaloid glycosides are one of their existence forms. The introduction of saccharide units improves the water solubility of alkaloid glycosides thus presenting better biological activity.Because of the low content in plants, alkaloid glycosides have been not comprehensively studied. In this study, ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight-tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) was employed to identify and analyze the alkaloid glycosides in Coptis chinensis, Phellodendron chinense, Menispermum dauricum, Sinomenium acutum, Tinospora sagittata and Stephania tetrandra. The results showed that except Tinospora sagittata, the other five herbal medicines contained alkaloid glycosides. Furthermore, the alkaloid glycosides in each herbal medicine were identified based on UV absorption spectra, quasimolecular ion peaks in MS, fragment ions information in the MS/MS, and previous literature reports. A total of 42 alkaloid glycosides were identified. More alkaloid glycosides were identified in C. chinensis and Menispermum dauricum, and eleven in C. chinensis were potential new compounds. Furthermore, the alkaloid glycosides in the water extract of C. chinensis were coarsely se-parated by macroporous adsorption resin, purified by column chromatography with D151 cation exchange resin, ODS and MCI, combined with semi-preparative high performance liquid chromatography. Two new alkaloid glycosides were obtained, and their structures were identified by mass spectrometry and NMR data as(S)-7-hydroxy-1-(p-hydroxybenzyl)-2,2-N,N-dimethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline-6-O-β-D-glucopyranoside and(S)-N-methyltetrahydropalmatubine-9-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, respectively. This study is of great significance for enriching the information about the chemical composition and the in-depth development of C. chinensis. Meanwhile, it can provide a reference for rapid identification and isolation of alkaloid glycosides from other Chinese herbal medicines.

Study on alkaloid constituents of Stephania tetrandra S. Moore / 药学学报

Fifteen alkaloid compounds were isolated from the 70% aqueous alcohol extract of Stephania tetrandra S. Moore by silica gel, reversed phase silica gel, Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography and semi-preparative high performance liquid chromatography. They were identified as tetrandraside A (1), (Z)-N-formyl-nornuciferin (2), (E)-N-formyl-nornuciferin (3), salutaridine (4), salutaridine N-oxide (5), (E)-3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-N-[2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)ethyl]-2 propenamide (6), dauriporphine (7), sinomenine (8), liriodenine (9), α-magnoflorine (10), (1S)-4'-β-glucosylcoclaurine (11), tetrandrine (12), fangchinoline (13), tetrandrine 2'-β-oxide (14), and tetrandrine 2'-α-oxide (15), respectively, by MS, NMR and single crystal diffraction. Among them, compound 1 is a new alkaloid glycoside. Compounds 2-11 were obtained from this plant for the first time. These compounds showed obvious cytotoxic activity against drug-resistant lung cancer cell line H1299, and compound 9 had the best activity, with an IC50 of 5.38 μmol·L-1.

UPLC fingerprint-based analysis of differences in chemical components from different parts of Stephania tetrandra / 中草药

Objective: To analyze and compare UPLC fingerprints of root, rhizome, stem, and leaf of Stephania tetrandra, learn the differences in chemical component types and contents of main active components, and provide basis for rational development and utilization of S. tetrandra. Methods: UPLC was used to obtain characteristic chromatograms of different parts; The Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprints of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Version 2012) was run to capture the common peaks of different parts and calculate their similarity and analyze the characteristic peaks of different parts. SPSS 23.0 was run to compare the difference in component contents of the roots and rhizomes using the paired sample t-test. Results: The similarity in chemical composition between root and rhizome was 0.928, indicating they have similar chemical composition, and both of them contained tetrandrine and fangchinoline, the index components. The similarity between rhizome and leaf was 0.947; The similarity was low between stem, leaf and root and rhizome, and there were no tetrandrine and fangchinoline in the first two parts. The results of paired samples t-test show that the total content of chemical components in rhizome was higher than that in roots, and the mainly difference came from other non-index components, but there was no significant difference between tetrandrine and fangchinoline. Conclusion: Significant differences are present in chemical composition types and contents of different medicinal parts of S. tetrandra; The type of chemical components in rhizome is similar to that in root, and the content of some components in rhizome is significantly higher than that in root, which means that rhizomes can be used as an equivalent of roots. Stems and leaves cannot be a substitute for roots because they do not contain tetrandrine and fangchinoline, but they contain many other chemical components which can be utilized as a new resource.

High-throughput screening of single Chinese plant extracts on specific anti-hepatoma drugs / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of single traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) herb extracts on hepatoma and normal fibroblast cells using high-throughput screening in order to obtain extracts with specific anti-hepatoma effect. METHODS 242 commonly used TCM herbs were extracted by petroleum ether,ethanol and water,respectively. The total number of TCM extracts was 554. The cyto?toxicity of samples was evaluated by MTT in human hepatoma cells Bel7402 and mice normal fibroblasts NIH3T3. RESULTS 7.4%of the total extracts had an inhibitory effect greater than 50%for Bel7402,but 14.8% for fibroblasts NIH3T3 cells. Extracts with an inhibitory effect above 50% on both Bel7402 and NIH3T3 cells accounted for 4.4%of the total extracts. Our results showed that the sample DF173 had preferable cytotoxicity effect on hepatoma carcinoma cells in a good dose-effect relationship. DF173 is an ethanol extract from Stephania tetrandra,which is a commonly used herb in TCM. The cytotoxic IC50 of DF173 against Bel7402 was 8.27 mg·L-1,and 19.48 mg·L-1 on NIH3T3. CONCLUSION The components of TCM herbs are highly complicated. The combination of tumor cells with normal fibroblast cells to evaluate the cytotoxicity effect during anti-tumor drug screening will contribute much to the discovery of TCM drugs with high anti-tumor efficiency and lower toxicity.

Resource investigation of wild Stephania tetrandra in Anhui and Jiangxi Province / 中华中医药杂志

Objective:Stephania tetrandra is widely used in traditional Chinese medication.In present study,we studied the resource status of it in Anhui and Jiangxi Province.Methods:We inspected relevant documents to confirm which counties we would investigate;and then,we interviewed many relative local people and carried out sample-plot survey.Results:The resource of wild Stephania tetrandra in the two provinces were both seriously damaged.Conclusion:Large-scale promotion of artificial cultivation was required to ensure the supply and to realize the reasonable and sustainable utility of this medicinal material.

Quality Investigation of Prepared Pieces of Root of Stephania Tetrandra S / 中成药

To investigate the quality of prepared pieces of Stephania tetrandra S.the content of total alkaloids and tetrandrine of the products prepared by 10 different prepared pieces of Chinese medicine factories has been determined. In conclusion, it is practicable to prescribe the content of total alkaloids and tetrandrine for 3% and 1%, respectively.