Comparative Study On Achyranthese Bidentata B1 And Cyathula Officinalis Kuan

Achyranthese bidentata B1 (AB) and Cyathula officinalis Kuan (CK) are two important traditional Chinese medicines. However, it is common to find that Chinese medical practitioners are habitually to confuse or mix these two medicinal herbs. Since the comparative study on AB and CK is very limited or sketchy to date, the purpose of the present work is to establish a comprehensive method to differentiate the two medicines on a molecular level.It has been proved that saponins and phytosterones are the two main components responsible for physiological and pharmacological activities of AB and CK. Saponins have some positive effects on cancer, reproductive system, cardiovascular system, bone and joint. Phytosterones are often involved in growth development, metabolism and memory. Therefore, the investigation on the saponins and phytosterones in AB and CK will be of great importance in both research and applications. To date, researches on the extraction process of saponins in CK are limited. To extract more saponins from CK, orthogonal experimental design was used to optimize the extraction conditions based on the determination of the content of saponins. The optimized extraction conditions were as follows:90% ethanol was used as the extraction solvent; theratio of solid to liquid is 1:3; the operation lasted for 12 h with three repeats.It is often difficult to comprehensively distinguish between AB and CK. In this work, the fingerprints of AB and CK by using the traditional appearance characters or some simple quantitative methods. In this work, the fingerprints of AB and CK have been developed using HPLC-MS/MS. Firstly, the fingerprints of the crude extracts of the two plant materials were established and compared, and 28 components in CK and 31 in AB have been detected, in which 20 out of 28 compounds are saponins in AB, and 21 out of 31 compounds are saponins in CK. To better analyze saponins and phytosterones, the fingerprints of saponins and phytosterones were established based on the enrichment of saponins and phytosterones by macroporous resin and RP-C18, respectively. According to the information shown on their fingerprints, we found that saponins and phytosterones between AB and CK are quite different. The content of saponins in AB is 66.5%, while only 52.5% in CK. However, the structures of saponins’ aglycones in CK is more diversified than those of AB, there are seven types of aglycones in CK and four types in AB, respectively. Moreover, the side chains of phytosterone in the two plant materials are found to be different, which are polyhydric alcohols for AB and lactonic ring for CK, respectively. To reveal the differences of bioactivity of AB and CK comprehensively, the anti-cancer and hypoglycemic bioactivities of the two plant materials were investigated. The results showed that the bioactivity of AB and CK are quite different. Phytosterones in AB showed better results in the inhibition of the growth of cancer cell than those of CK. However, hypoglycemic activity was found on both saponins and phytosterone in AB and phytosterone in CK, other than saponins in CK. Although the two medicinal plants have similar compositions of saponins and phytosterone, the differences in chemical structure could lead to the differences in their bioactivities.Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish them in clinical applications.In this work, fingerprints and the corresponding bioactivities of the saponins and phytosterones in AB and CK have been investigated, which will provide comprehensive information for the specification uses and future development of the two medicinal plants.