Qu Xuejie, Hu Shanqun, Li Tong, Zhang Jiaqi, Wang Baoshun, Liu Changli
School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2022 Jul 13;13:933849. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.933849. eCollection 2022.
DC. and Willd. are two varieties of Bupleuri Radix in Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020. The clinical efficacy of the two bupleurum species is different. The difference in clinical efficacy is closely related to the composition of plant metabolites. In order to analyze the difference in metabolites, we used liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) for untargeted metabolome and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for widely targeted metabolome to detect the roots (R), stems (S), leaves (L), and flowers (F) of two varieties, and detected 1,818 metabolites in 25 classes. We performed a statistical analysis of metabolites. Differential metabolites were screened by fold-change and variable importance in the projection values of the OPLS-DA model, and significant differences were found among different groups. The content of active components (triterpenoid saponins) was found to be high in the BcR group than in the BsR group. Other pharmacological metabolites were significantly different. By Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes annotation and enrichment analysis, we found that differential metabolites of the aboveground parts mainly concentrated in monoterpenoid biosynthesis, while the differential metabolites of the root mainly concentrated in sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis. Differences in metabolic networks may indirectly affect the metabolic profile of Bc and Bs, leading to differences in clinical efficacy. Our study provides a scientific basis for subsequent biosynthesis pathway and related bioactivity research, and provides a reference for developing non-medicinal parts and guiding the clinical application of Bupleuri Radix.
DC.和Willd.是《中国药典》2020年版中柴胡的两个变种。两种柴胡的临床疗效不同。临床疗效的差异与植物代谢产物的组成密切相关。为了分析代谢产物的差异，我们采用液相色谱-质谱联用（LC-MS）进行非靶向代谢组学分析，气相色谱-质谱联用（GC-MS）进行广泛靶向代谢组学分析，对两个变种的根（R）、茎（S）、叶（L）和花（F）进行检测，共检测到25类1818种代谢产物。我们对代谢产物进行了统计分析。通过OPLS-DA模型的变化倍数和投影值中的变量重要性筛选差异代谢产物，发现不同组之间存在显著差异。发现BcR组中活性成分（三萜皂苷）的含量高于BsR组。其他药理代谢产物也有显著差异。通过京都基因与基因组百科全书注释和富集分析，我们发现地上部分的差异代谢产物主要集中在单萜生物合成，而根的差异代谢产物主要集中在倍半萜和三萜生物合成。代谢网络的差异可能间接影响Bc和Bs的代谢谱，导致临床疗效的差异。我们的研究为后续的生物合成途径和相关生物活性研究提供了科学依据，并为开发柴胡非药用部位和指导柴胡临床应用提供了参考。
