National Engineering Institute for the Research and Development of Endangered Medicinal Resources in Southwest China, Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants, Nanning, Guangxi Province, China.
Institute of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China.
Food Res Int. 2018 Jun;108:226-236. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2018.03.047. Epub 2018 Mar 17.
Smilax glabra (SG) is commonly used as a traditional edible herb in eastern Asia. Recently, sulfur-fumigation has been frequently used in order to obtain better color and a longer storage lifetime. However, the chemical alterations caused by this process remain unknown. The aim of this research was to explore potential chemical differences between non-fumigated and sulfur-fumigated SG samples. A novel approach was developed by using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) with principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial squared discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). Fifty-eight compounds were unambiguously characterized or tentatively identified in the chemical profiles for the first time. Six newly generated sulfur-containing compounds, namely glucosyringic acid sulfate, 5-O-caffeoylshikimic acid sulfite, 3-O-caffeoylshikimic acid sulfite, 5-O-caffeoylshikimic acid sulfate, 3-O-caffeoylshikimic acid sulfate and astilbin sulfate, were screened out to be the most characteristic markers for distinguishing non-fumigated and sulfur-fumigated SG. This newly proposed approach can not only be applied for exploring chemical markers but can also be used to investigate the chemical transformation mechanism associated with sulfur for other edible herbs.
菝葜（SG）是一种在东亚被广泛用作传统食用草药的植物。为了获得更好的色泽和更长的保质期，近年来，硫磺熏蒸法被频繁应用于中药材的加工过程中。然而，这种加工过程所引起的化学变化仍然未知。本研究旨在探索未经熏硫和经熏硫的 SG 样品之间的潜在化学差异。我们采用超高效液相色谱-四极杆/飞行时间质谱联用技术（UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS）结合主成分分析（PCA）和正交偏最小二乘判别分析（OPLS-DA）建立了一种新的方法。首次在化学成分图谱中鉴定了 58 种化合物，其中包括 6 种新生成的含硫化合物，如葡萄糖基丁香酸硫酸盐、5-O-咖啡酰莽草酸亚硫酸酯、3-O-咖啡酰莽草酸亚硫酸酯、5-O-咖啡酰莽草酸硫酸盐、3-O-咖啡酰莽草酸硫酸盐和淫羊藿素硫酸盐。这些化合物被筛选出来作为区分未经熏硫和经熏硫的 SG 的最具特征性的标记物。本研究提出的方法不仅可用于探索化学标志物，还可用于研究其他食用草药中与硫磺相关的化学转化机制。
