Isolation of a new disaccharide nucleoside from Helleborus caucasicus: structure elucidation and total synthesis of hellecaucaside A and its ß-anomer.

Hellecaucaside A, a new disaccharide nucleoside featuring a 2'-O-α-D-ribofuranosyluridine skeleton and a 4-hydroxybenzoyl group at the 5' position, was isolated from the underground part of Helleborus caucasicus. The structure of the compound was elucidated by means of chemical degradation and spectroscopic analyses, such as 1D/2D NMR, chiral-GC, and HRMS. The total synthesis of hellecaucaside A and its ß-anomer was accomplished, unequivocally confirming the structure of the natural product.

Advances in the biotechnological glycosylation of valuable flavonoids.

The natural flavonoids, especially their glycosides, are the most abundant polyphenols in foods and have diverse bioactivities. The biotransformation of flavonoid aglycones into their glycosides is vital in flavonoid biosynthesis. The main biological strategies that have been used to achieve flavonoid glycosylation in the laboratory involve metabolic pathway engineering and microbial biotransformation. In this review, we summarize the existing knowledge on the production and biotransformation of flavonoid glycosides using biotechnology, as well as the impact of glycosylation on flavonoid bioactivity. Uridine diphosphate glycosyltransferases play key roles in decorating flavonoids with sugars. Modern metabolic engineering and proteomic tools have been used in an integrated fashion to generate numerous structurally diverse flavonoid glycosides. In vitro, enzymatic glycosylation tends to preferentially generate flavonoid 3- and 7-O-glucosides; microorganisms typically convert flavonoids into their 7-O-glycosides and will produce 3-O-glycosides if supplied with flavonoid substrates having a hydroxyl group at the C-3 position. In general, O-glycosylation reduces flavonoid bioactivity. However, C-glycosylation can enhance some of the benefits of flavonoids on human health, including their antioxidant and anti-diabetic potential.

Ultraperformance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry determination of cyanogenic glucosides in Trifolium species.

Cyanogenic glucosides were analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry in 88 Trifolium species grown at the same site. On the basis of the occurrence of cyanogenic glucosides and the linamarin/lotaustralin ratio species could be grouped into five clusters. Cluster C1 included 37 species, which did not contain cyanogens. Cluster C2 (22 species) included plants containing only lotaustralin. In clusters C3 (14 species), C4 (13 species), and C5 (2 species) both linamarin and lotaustralin were present but at different ratios. In C3 and C4 the linamarin/lotaustralin ratio was below 1, whereas in cluster C5 the ratio was much higher. Generally, the total content of cyanogens was below 500 µg/g dry matter. Only in Trifolium repens var. biasoletti and Trifolium montanum extremely high cyanogen concentrations were observed. There was no general rule of occurrence of cyanogens. Samples of the same species from different countries accumulated cyanogens or could be free of these compounds.

Caucasicosides E-M, furostanol glycosides from Helleborus caucasicus.

Nine furostanol glycosides, namely caucasicosides E-M, were isolated from the MeOH extract of the leaves of Helleborus caucasicus, along with 11 known compounds including nine furostanol glycosides, a bufadienolide and an ecdysteroid. Their structures were established by the extensive use of 1D and 2D NMR experiments along with ESIMS(n) analyses. The steroidal composition of leaves of H. caucasicus shows as particular feature the occurrence of steroidal compounds belonging to the 5ß series, unusual for Helleborus species, and in particular, caucasicosides F-H are based on a 5ß-polyhydroxylated steroidal aglycon never reported before.

Steroidal glycosides from Ruscus ponticus.

A comparative metabolite profiling of the underground parts and leaves of Ruscus ponticus was obtained by an HPLC-ESIMS(n) method, based on high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray positive ionization multistage ion trap mass spectrometry. The careful study of HPLC-ESIMS(n) fragmentation pattern of each chromatographic peak, in particular the identification of diagnostic product ions, allowed us to get a rapid screening of saponins belonging to different classes, such as dehydrated/or not furostanol, spirostanol and pregnane glycosides, and to promptly highlight similarities and differences between the two plant parts. This approach, followed by isolation and structure elucidation by 1D- and 2D-NMR experiments, led to the identification of eleven saponins from the underground parts, of which two dehydrated furostanol glycosides and one new vespertilin derivative, and nine saponins from R. ponticus leaves, never reported previously. The achieved results highlighted a clean prevalence of furostanol glycoside derivatives in R. ponticus leaves rather in the underground parts of the plant, which showed a wider structure variety. In particular, the occurrence of dehydrated furostanol derivatives, for the first time isolated from a Ruscus species, is an unusual finding which makes unique the saponins profile of R. ponticus.