Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan, ROC.
J Nutr Biochem. 2010 Nov;21(11):1045-59. doi: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2009.08.010. Epub 2009 Dec 11.
Echinacea preparations were the top-selling herbal supplements or medicines in the past decade; however, there is still frequent misidentification or substitution of the Echinacea plant species in the commercial Echinacea products with not well chemically defined compositions in a specific preparation. In this report, a comparative metabolomics study, integrating supercritical fluid extraction, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and data mining, demonstrates that the three most used medicinal Echinacea species, Echinacea purpurea, E. pallida, and E. angustifolia, can be easily classified by the distribution and relative content of metabolites. A mitogen-induced murine skin inflammation study suggested that alkamides were the active anti-inflammatory components present in Echinacea plants. Mixed alkamides and the major component, dodeca-2E,4E,8Z,10Z(E)-tetraenoic acid isobutylamides, were then isolated from E. purpurea root extracts for further bioactivity elucidation. In macrophages, the alkamides significantly inhibited cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) activity and the lipopolysaccharide-induced expression of COX-2, inducible nitric oxide synthase and specific cytokines or chemokines [i.e., TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-6, MCP-1, MIP-1β] but elevated heme oxygenase-1 protein expression. Cichoric acid, however, exhibited little or no effect. The results of high-performance liquid chromatography/electron spray ionization/mass spectrometry metabolite profiling of alkamides and phenolic compounds in E. purpurea roots showed that specific phytocompound (i.e., alkamides, cichoric acid and rutin) contents were subject to change under certain post-harvest or abiotic treatment. This study provides new insight in using the emerging metabolomics approach coupled with bioactivity assays for medicinal/nutritional plant species classification, quality control and the identification of novel botanical agents for inflammatory disorders.
紫锥菊制剂是过去十年最畅销的草药补充剂或药物；然而，在商业紫锥菊产品中，由于化学成分未得到很好的定义，植物物种经常被错误识别或替代。在本报告中，一项整合超临界流体萃取、气相色谱/质谱和数据挖掘的比较代谢组学研究表明，三种最常用的药用紫锥菊物种，即紫锥菊、苍白紫锥菊和狭叶紫锥菊，可以通过代谢物的分布和相对含量轻松分类。一项有丝分裂原诱导的小鼠皮肤炎症研究表明，酰胺类化合物是紫锥菊植物中具有抗炎活性的成分。然后从紫锥菊根提取物中分离出混合酰胺类化合物和主要成分，即十二碳-2E,4E,8Z,10Z(E)-四烯酸异丁酰胺，用于进一步的生物活性阐明。在巨噬细胞中，酰胺类化合物显著抑制环氧化酶 2（COX-2）活性和脂多糖诱导的 COX-2、诱导型一氧化氮合酶和特定细胞因子或趋化因子（即 TNF-α、白细胞介素（IL）-1α、IL-6、MCP-1、MIP-1β）的表达，但增加血红素加氧酶-1 蛋白的表达。然而，菊苣酸几乎没有作用。通过高效液相色谱/电喷雾电离/质谱对紫锥菊根中的酰胺类化合物和酚类化合物进行代谢物图谱分析的结果表明，特定植物化合物（即酰胺类化合物、菊苣酸和芦丁）的含量会在某些收获后或非生物处理下发生变化。这项研究为使用新兴的代谢组学方法结合生物活性测定提供了新的见解，用于药用/营养植物物种分类、质量控制和鉴定新型植物制剂治疗炎症性疾病。
