Key Laboratory of Plant Resources/Beijing Botanical Garden, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Key Laboratory of Plant Resources/Beijing Botanical Garden, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2021 Jun 12;273:113985. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2021.113985. Epub 2021 Mar 2.
Paeonia plants have been widely used as traditional Chinese medicinal materials for more than 2,000 years in the treatment of cardiovascular, extravasated blood and female genital diseases; paeoniflorin and paeonol have been implicated as the plants' primary active ingredients.
Previous studies have been singularly focused on the chemical constituents and content variation of the Paeonia roots in the advancement of traditional Chinese medicine, with the plants' stems and leaves considered useless. This study aims to explore the chemical constituents, content variation, and antioxidant capacity in Paeonia stems and leaves for the future utilization of traditional Chinese medicine, given that current practices of digging and trade endanger Paeonia in the wild.
Herein, secondary metabolites from the stems and leaves from six developmental stages of the annual growth cycle of Paeonia ostii T. Hong & J. X. Zhang, P. 'Hexie', and P. lactiflora Pall. were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed via high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) and high-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q-TOF-MS). Antioxidant capacity at each stage was also evaluated by various free radical scavenging assays.
A total of 24 metabolites were detected and identified, including 5 monoterpene glycosides, 4 tannins, 5 phenols, 9 flavonoids, and paeonol. Excepting paeonol and the phenols, the levels of each metabolite category were significantly higher in the leaves than the stems during all developmental stages. The paeoniflorin content in the P. ostii leaves was the highest during the first developmental stage and higher than the standards of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, suggesting it to be the optimal harvesting stage for medicinal uses. Notably, the antioxidant capacity of the leaves was significantly greater than in the stems, particularly for the leaves of P. 'Hexie'.
Our study indicates that the leaves of P. 'Hexie' have the potential to be a worthy medicinal substitute to Paeonia roots due to their high monoterpene glycosides, phenols, and flavonoids as well as their strong antioxidant capacity. Further, this study provides a theoretical basis for the development and utilization of non-root Paeonia plant sections as medicinal plant resources.
芍药植物作为传统中药已有两千多年的历史，用于治疗心血管、瘀血和女性生殖系统疾病；芍药苷和丹皮酚已被认为是植物的主要活性成分。
以前的研究都集中在芍药根的化学成分和含量变化上，以推进中药的发展，而植物的茎和叶则被认为是无用的。本研究旨在探索芍药茎和叶的化学成分、含量变化和抗氧化能力，以促进中药的未来利用，因为目前的挖掘和贸易行为正在威胁野生芍药。
在这里，通过高效液相色谱二极管阵列检测（HPLC-DAD）和高效液相色谱四极杆飞行时间质谱（HPLC-Q-TOF-MS）对 6 个年度生长周期的芍药属植物（包括牡丹 Ostii T. Hong & J. X. Zhang、牡丹 '和谐' 和牡丹 Lactiflora Pall.）茎和叶中的次生代谢产物进行了定性和定量分析。还通过各种自由基清除测定法评估了各阶段的抗氧化能力。
共检测和鉴定了 24 种代谢产物，包括 5 种单萜糖苷、4 种鞣质、5 种酚类、9 种类黄酮和丹皮酚。除丹皮酚和酚类外，各代谢物类别在所有发育阶段的叶片中含量均明显高于茎部。在第一个发育阶段，芍药属 Ostii 叶中的芍药苷含量最高，高于中国药典标准，表明其为药用的最佳收获阶段。值得注意的是，叶片的抗氧化能力明显大于茎部，特别是 '和谐' 牡丹的叶片。
我们的研究表明，'和谐' 牡丹的叶片由于其具有较高的单萜糖苷、酚类和类黄酮以及较强的抗氧化能力，具有作为芍药根替代物的潜力。此外，本研究为开发和利用非根芍药植物部分作为药用植物资源提供了理论依据。
