A novel alcohol steamed preparation from Gastrodia elata Blume: Pharmacological assessment of a functional food

Lijun Cheng; Hui Wang; Kejian Ma; Yang Deng; Maoru Li; Ji Ma

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1092693

A novel alcohol steamed preparation from Gastrodia elata Blume: Pharmacological assessment of a functional food

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Mar 22:14:1092693. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1092693. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Lijun Cheng^{1

2}, Hui Wang³, Kejian Ma⁴, Yang Deng⁵, Maoru Li⁵, Ji Ma⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Agronomy and Life Sciences, Zhao Tong University, Zhaotong, Yunnan, China.
² Yunnan Gastrodia elata Green Planting and Processing Engineering Research Center, Zhaotong, Yunnan, China.
³ Department of Pharmacy, Huzhou Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital, Huzhou, Zhejiang, China.
⁴ Central Laboratory, Yunnan Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Materia Medica, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
⁵ School of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.

Abstract

Rhizoma Gastrodia (Orchidaceae; Gastrodia elata Blume), the rhizome of Gastrodia elata Blume (GE), is traditionally used as both a medicinal and functional food, with proven efficacy in treating mental disorders. In traditional processing, GE is washed, steamed with water, dried, and sliced. In this study, a novel processing technology-alcohol steamed GE (AGE) was proposed as an alternative. Totally, 17 compounds were identified in fresh GE and AGE. Compared with fresh GE, the relative content of parishin A and parishin E decreased after alcohol steaming, whereas gastrodin (GAS), p-hydroxylbenzyl alcohol (HBA), Parishin B, and Parishin C were increased. Additionally, the pentobarbital-induced sleep mice model and Chronic Restraint Stress (CRS) model were applied to evaluate the pharmacological effects of fresh GE and steamed GE, and both fresh and steamed GE showed an intensive hypnotic and anti-anxiety effect. Furthermore, the anti-anxiety mechanism based on serum metabolic was investigated and the tryptophan metabolic pathway was considered the response to the anti-anxiety effect of GE. Although the optimization of the processing technology of AGE still needs to be further explored, the current results have provided new thoughts for the processing technology and clinical application of GE.

Keywords: Gastrodia elata Blume; alcohol steamed; anxiety; metabolomics; tryptophan metabolism.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Regional Science Foundation of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81560652) and the Special Basic Cooperative Research Programs of Yunnan Provincial Undergraduate Universities’ (Grant No. 202101BA070001-122). We sincerely thanked Prof. Shang (China Pharmaceutical University) provided all the kind support in this study.