Rapid Discrimination for Traditional Complex Herbal Medicines from Different Parts, Collection Time, and Origins Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Near-Infrared Spectral Fingerprints with Aid of Pattern Recognition Methods.[Pubmed: 26345990]

As an effective method, the fingerprint technique, which emphasized the whole compositions of samples, has already been used in various fields, especially in identifying and assessing the quality of herbal medicines. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and near-infrared (NIR), with their unique characteristics of reliability, versatility, precision, and simple measurement, played an important role among all the fingerprint techniques. In this paper, a supervised pattern recognition method based on PLSDA algorithm by HPLC and NIR has been established to identify the information of Hibiscus mutabilis L. and Berberidis radix, two common kinds of herbal medicines. By comparing component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and particularly partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) with different fingerprint preprocessing of NIR spectra variables, PLSDA model showed perfect functions on the analysis of samples as well as chromatograms. Most important, this pattern recognition method by HPLC and NIR can be used to identify different collection parts, collection time, and different origins or various species belonging to the same genera of herbal medicines which proved to be a promising approach for the identification of complex information of herbal medicines.

Determination of rutin and isoquercetin contents in Hibisci mutabilis Folium in different collection periods by HPLC.[Pubmed: 26089170]

Hibisci mutabilis Folium (HMF), the dried leaf of Hibiscus mutabilis (Malvaceae), is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine. This article aimed to establish a high-performance liquid chromatography method for the determination of rutin and isoquercitrin contents in the HMF, and to compare the content variation in all the samples, including nearly withered yellow leaf, in different collection periods, so as to provide research basis for the quality evaluation and determination of the optimal collection period. A reversed-phase HPLC separation method was employed, with a BDS Hypersil C18 column (4.6 m × 250 mm, 5 μm), under the following conditions: acetonitrile-0.3% phosphoric acid (15:85, v/v) solution as the mobile phase, flow rate 1.0 mL/min at 30°C and detection wavelength 254 nm. The calibration curves for rutin and isoquercitrin were linear over the range of 1.5-48 and 0.25-8 μg/mL, and the average recoveries were 99.92 and 100.45% (RSD: 2.39% and 2.11%, respectively)]. Based on the analysis results, it was found that contents of rutin and isoquercitrin in HMF (mature green leaf) harvested in different periods had significant difference, and reached the highest in mid-December. It was also found that the contents of the two components in the mature green leaf were much higher than those in the nearly withered leaf from the same collection period. In conclusion, the results indicated that the HPLC method was easy-to-operate and precise, and could be applied for the determination of rutin and isoquercitrin contents in the HMF. The experimental data also showed that early winter should be the most suitable collection period for HMF.

A polyphenol rescues lipid induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle cells and adipocytes.[Pubmed: 25157809]

Skeletal muscle and adipose tissues are known to be two important insulin target sites. Therefore, lipid induced insulin resistance in these tissues greatly contributes in the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Ferulic acid (FRL) purified from the leaves of Hibiscus mutabilis, showed impressive effects in preventing saturated fatty acid (SFA) induced defects in skeletal muscle cells. Impairment of insulin signaling molecules by SFA was significantly waived by FRL. SFA markedly reduced insulin receptor β (IRβ) in skeletal muscle cells, this was affected due to the defects in high mobility group A1 (HMGA1) protein obtruded by phospho-PKCε and that adversely affects IRβ mRNA expression. FRL blocked PKCε activation and thereby permitted HMGA1 to activate IRβ promoter which improved IR expression deficiency. In high fat diet (HFD) fed diabetic rats, FRL reduced blood glucose level and enhanced lipid uptake activity of adipocytes isolated from adipose tissue. Importantly, FRL suppressed fetuin-A (FetA) gene expression, that reduced circulatory FetA level and since FetA is involved in adipose tissue inflammation, a significant attenuation of proinflammatory cytokines occurred. Collectively, FRL exhibited certain unique features for preventing lipid induced insulin resistance and therefore promises a better therapeutic choice for T2D.

Fingerprint analysis of Hibiscus mutabilis L. leaves based on ultra performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector combined with similarity analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis methods.[Pubmed: 23930008]

A method for chemical fingerprint analysis of Hibiscus mutabilis L. leaves was developed based on ultra performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector (UPLC-PAD) combined with similarity analysis (SA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA).

Effect of ferulic acid from Hibiscus mutabilis on filarial parasite Setaria cervi: molecular and biochemical approaches.[Pubmed: 22562003]

In the reported work the in vitro activity of a methanolic extract of leaves of Hibiscus mutabilis (Malvaceae) against bovine Setaria cervi worms has been investigated. Bioassay-guided fractionation led to isolation of ferulic acid from ethyl acetate fraction. The crude extract and ferulic acid, the active molecule, showed significant microfilaricidal as well as macrofilaricidal activities against the microfilaria (L(1)) and adult of S. cervi by both a worm motility and MTT reduction assay. The findings thus provide a new lead for development of a filaricidal drug from natural products. To examine the possible mechanism of action of ferulic acid, the involvement of apoptosis in adult worms of S. cervi was investigated. We found extreme cellular disturbances in ferulic acid-treated adult worms characterized by chromatin condensation, in situ DNA fragmentation and nucleosomal DNA laddering. In this work we are reporting for the first time that ferulic acid exerts its antifilarial effect through induction of apoptosis and by downregulating and altering the level of some key antioxidants (GSH, GST and SOD) of the filarial nematode S. cervi. Our results have provided experimental evidence supporting that ferulic acid causes an increased proapoptotic gene expression and decreased expression of anti-apoptotic genes simultaneously with an elevated level of ROS and gradual dose dependent decline of parasitic GSH level. We also observed a gradual dose dependent elevation of GST and SOD activity in the ferulic acid treated worms.

Bio-assay guided isolation of α-glucosidase inhibitory constituents from Hibiscus mutabilis leaves.[Pubmed: 22161959]

The increasing demand for natural-product-based medicines and health-care products for the management of diabetes encouraged investigation of this commonly available Indian plant.

Novel galactonic acid-binding hexameric lectin from Hibiscus mutabilis seeds with antiproliferative and potent HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitory activities.[Pubmed: 19956805]

A hexameric 150-kDa lectin was isolated from dried Hibiscus mutabilis seeds using a chromatographic protocol that involved ion exchange chromatography on SP-Sepharose, and gel filtration on Superdex 75 and Superdex 200. The lectin was not adsorbed on SP-Sepharose and was eluted from the Superdex 75 column in the void volume. It was eluted in the first peak from Superdex 200. It was strongly adsorbed on DEAE-cellulose and Q-Sepharose and could not be easily desorbed. The hemagglutinating activity of the lectin, which was stable at pH 4-7 and up to 50 degrees C, could be inhibited by 25 mM galactonic acid. This is the first report of a galactonic acid-binding lectin. It potently inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase with an IC(50) of 0.2 microM. It exhibited weak antiproliferative activity towards both hepatoma HepG2 cells (40% inhibition) and breast cancer MCF-7 cells (50% inhibition) at 100 microM concentration of the lectin. It did not inhibit mycelial growth of a number of fungi tested.

Allergy-preventive effects of Hibiscus mutabilis 'versicolor' and a novel allergy-preventive flavonoid glycoside.[Pubmed: 19252306]

Allergy-preventive activity was demonstrated for the MeOH extract (HM) of the petals of Hibiscus mutabilis L. 'versicolor' MAKINO in a continuing search for allergy-preventive substances from natural sources, using the in vivo assay method. This assay system uses monitoring of a decrease in the blood flow at the tail vein of mice subjected to hen egg-white lysozyme (HEL) sensitization. By bioassay-directed fractionation, a new flavonol triglycoside, quercetin 3-O-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl(1-->2)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl(1-->6)]-beta-D-galactopyranoside (1: mutabiloside), was isolated, together with four known flavonols identified as quercetin 3-O-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl(1-->2)]-beta-D-galactopyranoside (2) and kaempferol 3-O-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl(1-->2)]-beta-D-galactopyranoside (3), quercetin (4) and hyperoside (5). The structure of the new flavonol 1 was elucidated by spectroscopic methods. Among these flavonol derivatives, compounds 1 and 2 showed significant allergy-preventive effects.