As a folk medicine of the Jingpo minority in Yunnan province, the venom of Vespa magnifica has been commonly used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Quality standardization of the wasp venom is a necessary step for its pharmaceutical research and development. To control the quality of the wasp venom, a method based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for chemical fingerprint analysis. In the chromatographic fingerprinting, chemometrics procedures, including similarity analysis (SA), hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), and principal component analysis (PCA), were applied to classify 134 batches (S1–S134) of wasp venom from different origins. The HPLC fingerprint method displayed good precision (Relative standard deviation, RSD < 0.27%), stability (in 16 h, RSD < 0.34%), and repeatability (RSD < 1.00%). Simultaneously, four compounds (VMS1, VMS2, VMS3, and VMS4) in the wasp venom were purified and identified. VMS1 was 5-hydroxytryptamine, and the other compounds were three peptides that were sequenced as follows: Gly–Arg–Pro–Hyp–Gly–Phe–Ser–Pro–Phe–Arg–Ile–Asp–NH2 (VMS2), Ile–Asn–Leu–Lys–Ala–Ile–Ala–Ala–Leu–Ala–Lys–Lys–Leu–Leu–NH2 (VMS3), and Phe–Leu–Pro–Ile–Ile–Gly–Lys–Leu–Leu–Ser–Gly–Leu–Leu–NH2 (VMS4). The quantifications for these components were 110.2 mg/g, 26.9 mg/g, 216.3 mg/g, and 58.0 mg/g, respectively. The results of this work indicated that the combination of the chemical fingerprint and quantitative analysis offers a reasonable way to evaluate the quality of wasp venom.

Vespa velutina auraria Smith is an edible and medicinal insect in China. This study demonstrated the in vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory bioactivities and the volatile composition identification determined by Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The antioxidant activity screening results showed that the ethanol extracts of both the fresh and dried samples exhibited an efficient antioxidant activity for three models, 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzo-thiazoline-6-sulfonic acid diammonium salt) free radicals scavenging capacity, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl scavenging capacity, and ferric reducing antioxidant power. The anti-inflammatory activity screening in vitro indicated that ethanol extracts had considerable inhibitory effect on Tumor Necrosis Factor-α and Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in macrophages, but had no influence on IL-6 expression. GC-MS analyses of volatile composition of V. auraria identified 46 components, representing 75.76% of the total peak areas from fresh sample, and 34 components, 84.70% of the total peak areas from dried ones. The volatile constituents were very different in the petroleum ether part of fresh and dried ones. The three major components are hentriacontane (7.76%), n-hexadecanoic acid (6.54%), and palmitoleic acid (4.50%) in the fresh sample, while they are benzeneacetaldehyde (13.11%), dodecanoic acid (7.08%), and oleic Acid (6.72%) in the dried sample.