Chemical Profiling and Standardization of Lepidium meyenii (Maca) by Reversed Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography.

Abstract

Maca, Lepidium meyenii WALP. (Cruciferae), a plant only found on the high plateaus (3800-4800 m) of the Puna region in Peru is one of the oldest crops of the Andeans. 2) Evidences of an early cultivation of this plant have been found dating back as far as 1600 B.C., and today the pear-shaped tuberous hypocotyl of the plant ("root") is still cultivated because of its high nutritional value. Maca is the only known cruciferous crop of the Americas; it is rich in carbohydrates, lipids and proteins, and used in a similar fashion as potatoes. 3,4) Comparative botanical studies suggest that today's cultivars may actually be a distinct species (L. peruvianum), but L. meyenii is still the commonly used name for Maca. 5,6) The native Indians used Maca to treat a number of conditions such as anemia, tuberculosis, sterility and fatigue. 7) Currently, dietary supplements containing L. meyenii (often referred as "Ginseng of the Andes") are available throughout the United States and South America, with claims of anabolic effects as well as increased stamina and fertility; data from several pharmacological studies confirmed the latter indication. 7-9) Earlier chemical investigations of Maca led to the isolation of characteristic macaenes and macamides (polyunsaturated fatty acids and their amides), along with other fatty acids (such as linolenic acid (3) and linoleic acid (4)), sterols and benzyl isothiocyanate. 9,10) We recently reported the isolation of two new macamides (2, 5) and a novel macaene (1), together with the N-hydroxypyridine derivative macaridine. 11) Even though the biologically active principles of Maca are not fully known, extracts rich in macamides and macaenes showed promising pharmacological activity. 9) These compounds are therefore used as quality markers (some products are standardized for their content), but surprisingly no analytical method for their determination in Maca (plant material or extract) has been reported. This paper thus describes the first HPLC method suitable for the qualitative and quantitative determination of the main macamides and macaenes in L. meyenii, and combined with results of a market study, the status of Maca preparations in the U.S.A. is discussed. ResultsIn the nonpolar region of L. meyenii methanolic extracts 5 dominating signals were observed (Fig. 2). Compounds 3-5 are detectable at 210 nm, whereas a wavelength of 280 nm is more suitable for a sensitive monitoring of 1 and 2. Peaks 1, 2 and 5 were isolated and identified as macamides and macaenes, compounds recently reported by our group. 11) Peaks 3 and 4 were identified as linolenic acid and linoleic acid, respectively (for structures see Fig. 1).The compounds of interest show a wide polarity range, an unspecific UV spectrum (3-5) and usually tend to co-elute with compounds of similar polarity (especially 1, 2). Initial screening experiments showed that an acidic mobile phase enhances peak shape and separation, whereas raised tempera- * To whom correspondence should be addressed. Lepidium meyenii (Maca) is one of the f...

Quality control of maca-containing (Lepidium meyenii Walp.) dietary supplements

“…The recovery was 97% (RSD% 0.80) for the fi rst concentration, 99.6% (RSD% 2.90) and 98.8% (RSD%) for the second and third concentrations, respectively. These results are in accordance with recovery values of previously published methods (GANZERA et al, 2002;MCCOLLOM et al, 2005) and confi rm the good accuracy of our method. According to the stability measurements, the N-benzyl-(9Z,12Z)-octadecadienamide content of n-hexane extracts stored for 3 and 4 days at room temperature were 96.53% and 103.40%, respectively, of the original samples.…”

“…Although there are data published on the maca content of several dietary supplements (GANZERA et al, 2002), there is a lack of studies aiming both the analysis of macamide content and the potential synthetic adulterants of the products. The aim of our work was to develop an analytical protocol for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of maca content of food supplements and to screen selected products for the presence of synthetic phosphodiesterase inhibitors.…”

Effects of macamides on endurance capacity and anti-fatigue property in prolonged swimming mice

“…Maca has recently been studied profusely because of the diverse pharmacological properties, such as fertility enhancer, sexual performance effects, and endurance capacity enhancer (Cicero et al 2001;BustosObregón et al 2005;Ruiz-Luna et al 2005). The maca root contains high nutritional value component (Dini et al, 1994) and several unique secondary metabolites, such as macamides, macaene, alkaloids, glucosinolates, and sterols (Ganzera et al 2002;Muhammad et al 2002;Piacente et al 2002;Cui et al 2003).…”

Effects of a water extract of Lepidium meyenii root in different models of persistent pain in rats

“…Several analytical methods were proposed to investigate macamides [11] and glucosinolates [7] recognized as the main bioactive phytochemicals of maca. According to these findings, the aim of this work was to check the presence of these two groups of molecules in the commercial extract selected for this in vivo study.…”

“…To this aim, lipophilic extracts of roots, such as those by petroleum ether [9] or by n-hexane [10], were selected. Nevertheless, Ganzera et al [11] highlighted, using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the presence of some macamides also in root powder methanol extract. Because the macamides have not been found in other Lepidium species, they have been proposed as phytochemical markers of maca [10].…”