title: Metabolic fingerprinting of Tussilago farfara L. using ¹H-NMR spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The flower bud of Tussilago farfara L. is widely used for the treatment of coughs, bronchitis and asthmatic disorders in traditional Chinese medicine. In Europe, the plant has been used as herbal remedies for virtually the same applications, but the leaves are preferred over flowers.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To systematically evaluate the chemical profiles of Tusssilago farfara leaves and flowers along with the identification of the polar and non-polar metabolites.
  
  
  METHODS
  Metabolic profiling carried out by means of ¹H-NMR spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis was applied to crude extracts from flowers and leaves. Metabolites were identified directly from the crude extracts through one-dimensional and two-dimensional NMR spectra.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A broad range of metabolites were detected without any chromatographic separation. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) of ¹H-NMR data provided a clear separation between the samples. The corresponding loadings plot indicated that higher levels of phenylpropanoids, amino acids, organic acids and fatty acids, as well as lower levels of sugars, terpenoids and sterols were present in the leaves, as compared with flowers. For the flowers, more phenylpropanoids were present in fully open flowers, while more sugars and fatty acids were present in flower buds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NMR spectra (one- and two-dimensional) are useful for identifying metabolites, especially for the overlapped signals. The NMR-based metabolomics approach has great potential for chemical comparison study of the metabolome of herbal drugs.
authors.affiliation: Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Shanxi University, No. 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, Shanxi, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hai-Juan
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Zhi
authors.forename: Xue-Mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Hai-Feng
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Li-Zeng
authors.initials: LZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiao-Qing
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Zhen-Yu
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D035264:Flowers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D055442:Metabolome; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010840:Phytosterols / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012717:Sesquiterpenes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D031207:Tussilago / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D005227:Fatty Acids; D010840:Phytosterols; D012717:Sesquiterpenes; C054337:tussilagone