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Plant secondary metabolites are known to not only play a key role in the adaptation of plants to their environment, but also represent an important source of active pharmaceuticals. Alpinia oxyphylla capsular fruits, made up of seeds and pericarps, are commonly used in traditional East Asian medicines. In clinical utilization of these capsular fruits, inconsistent processing approaches (i.e., hulling pericarps or not) are employed, with the potential of leading to differential pharmacological effects. Therefore, an important question arises whether the content levels of pharmacologically active chemicals between the seeds and pericarps of A. oxyphylla are comparable. Nine secondary metabolites present in A. oxyphylla capsular fruits, including flavonoids (e.g., tectochrysin, izalpinin, chrysin, apigenin-4',7-dimethylether and kaempferide), diarylheptanoids (e.g., yakuchinone A and B and oxyphyllacinol) and sesquiterpenes (e.g., nootkatone), were regarded as representative constituents with putative pharmacological activities. This work aimed to investigate the abundance of the nine constituents in the seeds and pericarps of A. oxyphylla. Thirteen batches of A. oxyphylla capsular fruits were gathered from different production regions. OPEN ACCESSMolecules 2014, 19 4511 Accordingly, an ultra-fast high performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (UFLC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated. We found that: (1) the nine secondary metabolites were differentially concentrated in seeds and fruit capsules; (2) nootkatone is predominantly distributed in the seeds; in contrast, the flavonoids and diarylheptanoids are mainly deposited in the capsules; and (3) the content levels of the nine secondary metabolites occurring in the capsules varied greatly among different production regions, although the nootkatone levels in the seeds were comparable among production regions. These results are helpful to evaluating and elucidating pharmacological activities of A. oxyphylla capsular fruits. Additionally, it may be of interest to elucidate the mechanisms involved in the distinct accumulation profiles of these secondary metabolites between seeds and pericarps.

BackgroundThe SuoQuan formulae containing Fructus Alpiniae Oxyphyllae has been used to combat the urinary incontinence symptoms including frequency, urgency and nocturia for hundreds of years in China. However, the chemical information was not well characterized. The quality control marker constituent only focused on one single compound in the current Chinese Pharmacopeia. Hence it is prudent to identify and quantify the main constituents in this herbal product. This study aimed to analyze the main constituents using ultra-fast performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UFLC-MS/MS).ResultsFourteen phytochemicals originated from five chemical classes constituents were identified by comparing the molecular mass, fragmentation pattern and retention time with those of the reference standards. A newly developed UFLC-MS/MS was validated demonstrating that the new assay was valid, reproducible and reliable. This method was successfully applied to simultaneously quantify the fourteen phytochemicals. Notably, the content of these constituents showed significant differences in three pharmaceutical preparations. The major constituent originated from each of chemical class was isolinderalactone, norisoboldine, nootkatone, yakuchinone A and apigenin-4’,7-dimethylther, respectively. The variation among these compounds was more than 1000 times. Furthermore, the significant content variation between the two different Suoquan pills was also observed.ConclusionThe proposed method is sensitive and reliable; hence it can be used to analyze a variety of SuoQuan formulae products produced by different pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Formic acid (0.1–0.2‰) in the mobile phase overcame the matrix effects and increased the sensitivity of MS detection of euscaphic acid.