Chemometric discrimination of three Pistacia species via their metabolic profiling and their possible in vitro effects on memory functions

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most widespread neurodegenerative disease; there are around ten million new cases of Alzheimer yearly worldwide especially in middle or low-income countries. Pistacia is a genus of flowering plants including the well-known, economically important P. chinensis Bunge, P. lentiscus L. and P. khinjuk. In this study, the metabolic profiling of Pistacia leaves extracts was achieved via UHPLC-ESI-MS analysis and GC-MS analysis employing chemometric analysis for their discrimination. In addition, the methanolic extracts of different Pistacia species were assessed for their anti-cholinesterase and anti-inflammatory activities by various in vitro assays. 37 and 30 metabolites belonging to different classes were identified by UHPLC-ESI-MS and GC-MS analyses respectively. Chemometric analysis revealed that P. lentiscus and P. khinjuk were more closely related chemically to each other. All studied Pistacia leaves extracts showed apparent anti-cholinesterase and anti-inflammatory activities, which promotes their use in the prevention and management of AD.

Keywords: Anti-choline esterase; Anti-inflammatory activities; GC–MS; Pistacia; UHPLC-ESI-MS.