title: Metabonomic analysis of water extracts from different angelica roots by ¹H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
abstract: Angelica Radix, the roots of the genus Angelica, has been used for more than 2,000 years as a traditional medicine in Eastern Asia. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia records more than 100 herbal formulae containing Angelica roots. There are two common sources of Angelica roots, Angelica sinensis from China and A. gigas from Korea. The two species of Angelica roots differ in their chemical compositions, pharmacological properties and clinical efficacy. ¹H-NMR metabolic profiling has recently emerged as a promising quality control method for food and herbal chemistry. We explored the use of ¹H-NMR metabolic profiling for the quality control of Angelica Radix. Unlike previous work, we performed the metabolic profiling on hot water extracts, so as to mimic the clinically relevant preparation method. Unsupervised principle component analyses of both the full spectral profile and a selection of targeted molecules revealed a clear differentiation of three types of Angelica roots. In addition, the levels of 13 common metabolites were measured. Statistically significant differences in the levels of glucose, fructose and threonine were found between different sources of Angelica. Ferulic acid, a marker commonly used to evaluate Angelica root, was detected in our samples, but the difference in ferulic acid levels between the samples was not statistically significant. Overall, we successfully applied ¹H-NMR metabolic profiling with water extraction to discriminate all three sources of Angelica roots, and obtained quantitative information of many common metabolites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China. nichhan@ust.hk.
authors.forename: Pui Hei
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Divison of Life Science and Centre for Chinese Medicine, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China. lizhang@ust.hk.
authors.forename: Wendy L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK. esmond.lau06@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Chung-Ho
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China. cycheungad@stu.ust.hk.
authors.forename: Chi Yuen
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK. h.keun@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Hector C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Keun
authors.affiliation: Divison of Life Science and Centre for Chinese Medicine, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China. botsim@ust.hk.
authors.forename: Karl W K
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Tsim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China. kehlam@ust.hk.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lam
mesh_terms: D029969:Angelica / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D002681:China; D055442:Metabolome; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts