title: Comprehensive metabolic fingerprinting of Withania somnifera leaf and root extracts.
abstract: Profiling of metabolites is a rapidly expanding area of research for resolving metabolic pathways. Metabolic fingerprinting in medicinally important plants is critical to establishing the quality of herbal medicines. In the present study, metabolic profiling of crude extracts of leaf and root of Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), an important medicinal plant of Indian system of medicine (ISM) was carried out using NMR and chromatographic (HPLC and GC-MS) techniques. A total of 62 major and minor primary and secondary metabolites from leaves and 48 from roots were unambiguously identified. Twenty-nine of these were common to the two tissues. These included fatty acids, organic acids, amino acids, sugars and sterol based compounds. Eleven bioactive sterol-lactone molecules were also identified. Twenty-seven of the identified metabolites were quantified. Highly significant qualitative and quantitative differences were noticed between the leaf and root tissues, particularly with respect to the secondary metabolites.
authors.affiliation: National Botanical Research Institute (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Lucknow 226001, UP, India.
authors.forename: Sandipan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.forename: Shatakshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Srivastava
authors.forename: Asna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khalid
authors.forename: Niharika
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Rajender Singh
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Sangwan
authors.forename: Om Prakash
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Sidhu
authors.forename: Raja
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Khetrapal
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tuli
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000378:metabolism*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000378:metabolism*; D032341:Withania / Q000378:metabolism*