Study On Chemical Constituents Of Qiai In Different Harvest Time

Artemisiae argyi Folium,the dried leaves of Artemisia argyi H.Léveillé & Vaniot),is widely distributed in China and has been commonly used for treatment of hemorrhage,pain,eczema,and menstruation-related symptoms.Qiai is one of the top-geoherb of Artemisiae argyi Folium.Modern researches revealed that Artemisiae argyi Folium possessed various pharmacological effects,such as antioxidant,anti-bacterial,anti-inflammatory,anti-cancer,hemostatic and analgesic activities.Phytochemical studies demonstrated that Artemisiae argyi Folium contains various bioactive compounds,which could be generally categorized into two groups,volatile components and nonvolatile components.Variation of bioactive ingredients in herbal medicine during different developmental stages may constitute a serious obstacle for the quality control of herbal formulation,which could lead to inconsistent medicinal properties.Hence,the quality and efficacy of herbal medicines are significantly influenced by different plant development stages and harvest time.According to the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine,the Qiai samples are practically collected at late June around the Dragon Boat Festival.To date,the dynamic changes of the bioactives in Qiai samples at different growth and development stages remain unknown.The harvest time is largely dependent on the traditional experiences and it seems to be insufficient.To investigate dynamic changes of chemiacl components of Qiai in different harvest periods and explore the optimum harvest time of Qiai,in this study,multiple chromatographic analysis and chemometrics methods was proposed to compare the volatile and nonvolatile components in 36 batches of Qiai samples collected at six different stages.For the volatile components,the contents of volatile oil in Qiai samples were firstly determined.Then,a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS)method was applied for identification of volatile constituents in AL,and principal component analysis(PCA)and orthogonal partial least squares discrimination analysis(OPLS-DA)was utilized to further compare the difference of volatile components of Qiai samples at different stages and find the potential chemical markers.For the nonvolatile components,the total phenolic acids and total flavonoids contents of AL samples were calculated,and a validated high(HPLC)method was established for simultaneous quantification of eight major nonvolatile components.PCA were then performed to compare and discriminate the AL samples at different stages.The results indicated that there were obvious differences in the contents of chemical constituents in Qiai samples from different harvest time.The contents of volatile oils(0.61 ± 0.02 m L/100g),phenolic acids(13.33± 0.01%)and flavonoids(5.00± 0.00%)of Qiai were higher in the third harvest time(around the Dragon Boat Festival),which is basically consistent with the traditional harvest time.The present study could provide the basis for investigating the optimum harvest time of Qiai,and might be useful for the quality control of this herbal medicine.