Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand.
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand.
Phytochem Anal. 2024 Aug;35(6):1383-1398. doi: 10.1002/pca.3371. Epub 2024 May 15.
Centella is an important genus in the Apiaceae family. It includes Centella asiatica, which has significant edible and medicinal values. However, this species is easily confused due to its similar morphological traits to Hydrocotyle umbellata, hindering its utilization in the consumer and pharmacological industries.
The study aims to differentiate these two closely related plant species using reliable methods of confirming the authenticity of natural herbal medicines.
Our work mainly focuses on the basic morphological characteristics, chemical markers, genetic fingerprints, and their biological responses.
The plants can be clearly differentiated using their leaf shapes, stipules, petioles, inflorescences, and fruit structures. Although the phytochemical compositions of the C. asiatica extract were similar to that of H. umbellata which included flavonoids, tannins, and saponins important to the plant's ability to reduce inflammation and promote healing of wounds, the H. umbellata extract showed significantly higher toxicity than that of C. asiatica. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis was used to identify chemical fingerprints. The result revealed that C. asiatica had major triterpene glycoside constituents including asiaticoside, asiatic acid, madecassoside, and madecassic acid, which have a wide range of medicinal values. In contrast, triterpenoid saponins were not identified in H. umbellata. Furthermore, using SCoT1-6 primers was possible to effectively and sufficiently created a dendrogram which successfully identified the closeness of the plants and confirmed the differences between the two plant species.
Therefore, differentiation can be achieved through the combination of morphometrics, molecular bioactivity, and chemical analysis.
积雪草是伞形科中的一个重要属，包括具有重要食用和药用价值的积雪草。然而，由于其与天胡荽相似的形态特征，这种物种很容易混淆，阻碍了其在消费者和药理学行业的利用。
本研究旨在使用确认天然草药真实性的可靠方法来区分这两个密切相关的植物物种。
我们的工作主要集中在基本形态特征、化学标志物、遗传指纹及其生物反应上。
可以通过叶片形状、托叶、叶柄、花序和果实结构清楚地区分这些植物。尽管积雪草提取物的植物化学成分与天胡荽相似，包括黄酮类、单宁类和皂甙类，这些成分对植物减轻炎症和促进伤口愈合的能力很重要，但天胡荽提取物的毒性明显高于积雪草提取物。采用高效液相色谱法分析鉴定化学指纹图谱。结果表明，积雪草主要含有三萜糖苷类成分，包括积雪草酸、积雪草苷、羟基积雪草苷和羟基积雪草酸，具有广泛的药用价值。相比之下，天胡荽中未鉴定出三萜皂苷。此外，使用 SCoT1-6 引物可以有效地充分创建一个聚类图，成功识别植物的亲缘关系，并证实两种植物物种之间的差异。
因此，可以通过形态计量学、分子生物活性和化学分析相结合来进行区分。
