Quantitative and Molecular Similarity Analyses of the Metabolites of Cold- and Hot-Natured Chinese Herbs

Abstract

Background. Based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese herbs possess four different medicinal properties: hot, warm, cold, and cool. These serve as a reference guide for these herbal medicines. However, the molecular mechanisms supporting their relevance remain unclear. Methods. We performed metabolomics based on capillary electrophoresis-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CE-TOF/MS) and multivariate data analysis for the structural identification of compounds of cold- and hot-natured Chinese herbs. Results. To this end, 30 selected herbs were analyzed and a total of 416 metabolites were identified via CE-TOF/MS, of which 193 compounds were detected in most herbs. The observed profiles offered the potential to understand the mechanism of association between the compounds and nature of the Chinese herbs. Comparison of the similarity in terms of chemical and molecular structures and content revealed that hot-natured herbs contained more nucleotides. In contrast, principal component analysis revealed the presence of more amino acid compounds in cold-natured herbs. Conclusion. Comparing the structural similarities between the samples using the Tanimoto coefficient revealed that a general non-specific structure was observed between cold- and hot-natured herbs; however, the distribution of the molecular groups seemed to contribute more toward the energy properties.

Capillary electromigration methods for food analysis and Foodomics: Advances and applications in the period March 2021 to March 2023

“…In this manner, this study allowed to differentiate traditional from modern Doenjang according to their metabolomic profile [133]. CE-TOF-MS also allowed to study the metabolite profiles of hot versus cold Chinese herbs [134].…”

Application progress of immobilized biomembrane in the discovery of active compounds of natural products

“…Therefore, this method might be a good option in drug discovery (Guo et al, 2021;Moreira et al, 2014). Wu et al (2018) established a method called immobilized cell capillary electrophoresis (ICCE) for screening anti-tumor metastasis drugs targeting integrin macrophage antigen-1 (MAC-1).…”

“…In recent years, capillary electrophoresis (CE) has also been widely used to screen active substances from NPs due to its use of small sample amount, low reagent costs, and high sensitivity (Phillips, 2018). Therefore, this method might be a good option in drug discovery (Guo et al, 2021; Moreira et al, 2014). Wu et al (2018) established a method called immobilized cell capillary electrophoresis (ICCE) for screening anti‐tumor metastasis drugs targeting integrin macrophage antigen‐1 (MAC‐1).…”

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“…On the contrary, the greater the distance is, the greater the difference in metabolic information. Therefore, the cold and hot properties of herb can be verified according to the distance to the typical cold or hot herbs sample points (Guo et al, 2021; Jia et al, 2017). Meanwhile, the level of endogenous markers will change after the intervention of TCM and these changes can be detected by LC–MS (Wang et al, 2019).…”