Bioactivity, Compounds Isolated, Chemical Qualitative, and Quantitative Analysis of Cymbaria daurica Extracts

Xue Gong; Jie Wang; Meiying Zhang; Peng Wang; Congcong Wang; Ruyu Shi; Erhuan Zang; Mingxu Zhang; Chunhong Zhang; Minhui Li

doi:10.3389/fphar.2020.00048

Bioactivity, Compounds Isolated, Chemical Qualitative, and Quantitative Analysis of Cymbaria daurica Extracts

Front Pharmacol. 2020 Feb 7:11:48. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.00048. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Xue Gong¹, Jie Wang¹, Meiying Zhang¹, Peng Wang², Congcong Wang¹, Ruyu Shi¹, Erhuan Zang¹, Mingxu Zhang¹, Chunhong Zhang¹, Minhui Li^{1

3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China.
² Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Baotou Medical College of Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China.
³ Pharmaceutical Laboratory, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Academy of Chinese Medicine, Hohhot, China.
⁴ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Medicinal Resources Protection and Genetic Improvement, Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants, Nanning, China.
⁵ Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Characteristic Geoherbs Resources Protection and Utilization, Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China.

Abstract

Cymbaria daurica L. is widely used in traditional Mongolian medicine for the treatment of impetigo, psoriasis, pruritus, fetotoxicity, and diabetes. Therefore, the anti-inflammatory and α-glucosidase-inhibitory activities of four polar C. daurica extracts (water, n-butanol, ethyl acetate, and petroleum ether extract) were preliminarily evaluated to identify the active extracts. We also investigated the chemical composition of the active extracts by phytochemical analysis. The n-butanol and ethyl acetate extracts exhibited significant (p < 0.05) anti-inflammatory activities by inhibiting lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in RAW 264.7 cells. None of the tested extracts exhibited cytotoxic effects at the effective concentrations. The ethyl acetate extract significantly inhibited α-glucosidase activity, and the inhibition potency was equivalent to that of acarbose (p > 0.05). The n-Butanol extract presented the second highest inhibitory activity. As the n-butanol and ethyl acetate extracts were found to have potent anti-inflammatory and α-glucosidase-inhibitory activities, we separated and identified 10 compounds from the extracts. Among them, vanillic acid, cistanoside F, echinacoside, arenarioside, verbascoside, isoacteoside, and tricin were isolated from C. daurica for the first time. Further, 30 compounds from the n-butanol and ethyl acetate extracts of C. daurica were identified using UHPLC-Q-Exactive. The present study demonstrates for the first time that C. daurica contains phenylethanoid glycosides. In addition, this novel HPLC method was subsequently used for simultaneous identification of five compounds in the n-butanol and ethyl acetate extracts of C. daurica. This study provides a chemical basis for further characterization and utilization of C. daurica, which could be a potential source of novel anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory agents.

Keywords: Cymbaria daurica L.; Scrophulariaceae; UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap HRMS; anti-inflammatory activity; inhibition of α-glucosidase activity; phenylethanoid glycoside; verbascoside.