An Approach for Searching Bioactive Compounds from Traditional Chinese Plant Food and Herb Medicines by Investigating Spectrum–Effect Relationships

Title:An Approach for Searching Bioactive Compounds from Traditional Chinese Plant Food and Herb Medicines by Investigating Spectrum–Effect Relationships

Volume: 13 Issue: 5

Author(s): Xu Zhang, Li-Fang Zhang, Chen-Yuan Cai, Fei-Qun Xue*Sui Xiao*

Affiliation:

• Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Drug Safety Evaluation and Residues Research, 518 Ziyue road, Minhang, Shanghai 200241,China

• College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan road, Tianhe, Guangzhou. 510642,China

Keywords: Chinese herb medicines, Acalypha australis Linn., spectrum-effect relationships, bioactive compound, chromatographic fingerprints, antibacterial activity.

Abstract: Background: Acalypha australis Linn. (A. australis) was a kind of traditional Chinese plant food with high nutrition and was usually used to treat diarrhoea and other bacterial diseases clinically in China. The purpose of this paper was to establish a rapid and effective approach for searching bioactive compounds from A. australis species.

Method: The chromatographic fingerprints were established using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/ mass spectrometry (UPLC/MS), and the antibacterial activities were also studied with agardiffusion and broth microdilution methods. Moreover, correlational analysis, stepwise regression and partial least-square regression were performed to explore the relationship between the compositions and bioactivities and to identify the active compounds from A. australis. All the characteristic peaks in the UPLC/MS fingerprint were separated with semi-preparative HPLC and subsequently confirmed with ultra-performance liquid chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS).

Result: Apart from nicotinic acid, gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, australisin, and quercetin, C₁₃H₈O₈, C₂₂H₁₂O₁₃ and C₂₇H₂₂O₁₈ were first found to be the main antibacterial components in A. australis. Among them, seven were identified by the “spectrum–effect relationship” strategy, while two minor active compounds were not conjectured in this study.

Conclusion: This work successfully provides a general model that combined the chromatographic fingerprint and bioactivity assay to study the spectrum–effect relationships, which could be used to discover the primary active ingredients in traditional Chinese plant food and herb medicines.

Cite this article as:

Zhang Xu, Zhang Li-Fang, Cai Chen-Yuan, Xue Fei-Qun*, Xiao Sui*, An Approach for Searching Bioactive Compounds from Traditional Chinese Plant Food and Herb Medicines by Investigating Spectrum–Effect Relationships, Current Pharmaceutical Analysis 2017; 13 (5) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1573412912666160616105314

DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1573412912666160616105314	Print ISSN 1573-4129
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher	Online ISSN 1875-676X