Dewen Li

Kudzu root (Puerariae lobatae Radix) is the tuberous root of Pueraria lobata, family Leguminosae. Kudzu root contains a variety of beneficial active ingredients such as puerarin, daidzin, daidzein, genistenin, 3′-hydroxy puerarin, β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, arachidic acid, and so on. Modern medical research shows that active ingredients in kudzu root are widely used clinically as raw materials for the treatment of hyperglycemia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, myocardial infarction, alcohol addiction, oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and retinal blockage due to their various pharmacological effects such as improving cardiovascular circulation, lowering blood lipids, lowering blood pressure, lowering blood sugar, being antipyretic, being estrogen-like, and relieving alcohol. China has rich resources of kudzu root, and active ingredients are usually extracted before it is made into a preparation, so whether the extraction and separation process is reasonable will directly affect the ease of preparation and the efficacy of the treatment. This paper reviews the process methods for the extraction and separation of active ingredients in kudzu root and its common pharmacological activities. The aim is to provide some references for readers to compare the advantages and disadvantages of various extraction and separation methods as well as understand the active ingredients and pharmacological activities of kudzu root.

Catharanthus roseus (C. roseus) and Vinca minor (V. minor) are two common important medical plants belonging to the family Apocynaceae. In this study, we used non-targeted GC-MS and targeted LC-MS metabolomics to dissect the metabolic profile of two plants with comparable phenotypic and metabolic differences. A total of 58 significantly different metabolites were present in different quantities according to PCA and PLS-DA score plots of the GC-MS analysis. The 58 identified compounds comprised 16 sugars, eight amino acids, nine alcohols and 18 organic acids. We subjected these metabolites into KEGG pathway enrichment analysis and highlighted 27 metabolic pathways, concentrated on the TCA cycle, glycometabolism, oligosaccharides, and polyol and lipid transporter (RFOS). Among the primary metabolites, trehalose, raffinose, digalacturonic acid and gallic acid were revealed to be the most significant marker compounds between the two plants, presumably contributing to species-specific phenotypic and metabolic discrepancy. The profiling of nine typical alkaloids in both plants using LC-MS method highlighted higher levels of crucial terpenoid indole alkaloid (TIA) intermediates of loganin, serpentine, and tabersonine in V. minor than in C. roseus. The possible underlying process of the metabolic flux from primary metabolism pathways to TIA synthesis was discussed and proposed. Generally speaking, this work provides a full-scale comparison of primary and secondary metabolites between two medical plants and a metabolic explanation of their TIA accumulation and phenotype differences.

To study the impact of elevated tropospheric O3 concentrations on BVOCs emissions by Pinus tabulaeformis and Ginkgo biloba in urban area, the trees were exposed in open-top chambers. Two ozone treatments were established: ambient air (approximately 30 nmol x mol(-1) ) (CK) and elevated O3 concentrations (80 nmol x mol(-1) ) (O3 ). Elevated O3 concentrations significantly induced isoprene to emit for Pinus tabulaeformis and Ginkgo biloba (p < 0.05), and delta3-carene for Ginkgo biloba (p < 0.05). The emission rates were increased to 1.96, 9.71 and 0.09 microg/(g x h) (-1), respectively. There were no significant differences between ozone fumigation treatments for the other monoterpenes. At the same time, the relative abundances of the monoterpenes and isoprene were to be different between tree species and effect by O3 exposure. In CK chambers, the dominate BVOCs emitted by Ginkgo biloba was isoprene, and a-pinene for Pinus tabulaeformis. In the elevated O3 chambers, the isoprene accounted for 64.73% of Pinus tabulaeformis BVOCs. To sum up, the BVOCs emitting patterns were influenced by elevated O3 significantly.

The increasing concentrations of CO2 and O3 in the troposphere have become a focus of both the domestic and foreign researchers, and the emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) can be affected by the change of concentrations. The BVOCs with high chemical reactivity may affect the chemical compositions of lower atmosphere, and promote photochemistry air pollution. At one time, the greenhouse effect and global environment changes will be influenced by the BVOCs. The effects of single and joint action of CO2 and 03 on the emitting characteristics of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) were summarized and further researches on this field, especially that of trees in urban areas under the condition of multiple environmental stresses were perspected in this paper.