Triterpenoids in Jujube: A Review of Composition, Content Diversity, Pharmacological Effects, Synthetic Pathway, and Variation during Domestication

Abstract

Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) and its wild ancestor, sour jujube (Z. acidojujuba C.Y. Cheng & M.J. Liu), is a Ziziphus genus in the Rhamnaceae family. ZJ and ZA are rich in a variety of active ingredients, with triterpenoids being a unique active ingredient, which are present in the fruit, leaves, branches, and roots. More than 120 triterpenoids have been identified in ZJ and ZA, and have various biological activities, such as betulinic and ursolic acids with anticancer, antioxidant, antibacterial, and antiviral activities, and ceanothic, alphitolic, and zizyberanalic acids with anti-inflammatory activities. The MVP pathway is a synthetic pathway for triterpenoids in ZJ and ZA, and 23 genes of the MVP pathway are known to regulate triterpene synthesis in ZJ and ZA. In order to better understand the basic situation of triterpenoids in ZJ and ZA, this paper reviews the types, content dynamic changes, activities, pharmacokinetics, triterpenoid synthesis pathways, and the effects of domestication on triterpenoids in ZJ and ZA, and provides some ideas for the future research of triterpenoids in ZJ and ZA. In addition, there are many types of ZJ and ZA triterpenoids, and most of the studies on their activities are on lupane- and ursane-type triterpenes, while the activities of the ceanothane-type and saponin are less studied and need additional research.

The Transcriptional Regulatory Mechanisms Exploration of Jujube Biological Traits through Multi-Omics Analysis

“…Jujube fruits, leaves, roots, and seeds boast a rich content of tetracyclic and pentacyclic triterpenes, including ocyanic acid, floric acid, betulinic acid, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, oleanolic acid, and 3-ketoacid [54,55]. Many of these compounds exhibit sedative and anticancer effects [56].…”

Metabolomics and transcriptomics analyses for characterizing the alkaloid metabolism of Chinese jujube and sour jujube fruits

“…Chinese jujube is an important economic forest tree originating from China, with rich germplasm resources and a history of more than 7000 years ( Liu and Wang, 2009 ). Chinese jujube fruit is a traditional “medicine and food homology” nourishing product ( Guo et al., 2012 ), which is often considered the initiator of Chinese medicine, as it is rich in various nutritional active ingredients such as sugars ( Fu et al., 2021 ), organic acids ( Wang L. N. et al., 2018 ), flavonoids ( Xue et al., 2022 ), triterpenoids ( Wen et al., 2022 ; Pan et al., 2023 ), cyclic nucleotides ( Jiang et al., 2019 ), vitamins ( Wojdyło et al., 2016 ), and alkaloids ( Rashwan et al., 2020 ). Studies have shown that Chinese jujube fruit possesses antioxidant ( Ren et al., 2022 ), anti-inflammatory ( Goyal et al., 2011 ), liver protection ( Liu et al., 2015 ), blood pressure and lipid reduction ( Dou et al., 2023 ), and anticancer ( Shi et al., 2022 ) properties.…”

Jujube Fruit Metabolomic Profiles Reveal Cultivar Differences and Function as Cultivar Fingerprints

“…A cationic peptide called Snakin-Z has also been reported to possess antimicrobial properties in the species [ 23 ]. Furthermore, jujube is the source of diverse triterpene chemical compounds, such as pomolic acid and jujubogenin-derived saponins [ 24 ]. Consequently, jujube consumption is increasing because of the fruit’s excellent nutritional and potential medicinal contents.…”